For the record, I love Kristen Wiig and I still can't believe that despite her making an appearance in nearly every Judd Apatow comedy, she hasn't taken her clothes off in any of them. But here on the IMDb, people have been complaining about her one note characters being over used on SNL ever since Amy Poehler left the show. I like to remind these people that Poehler herself was pretty much in every sketch during the final years of her reign, but to no avail.
Still, it is quite baffling to me why Lorne Michaels and co would pick 'Gilly' out of all of Kristen's recurring characters to headline this 2009 Christmas special. Not only does nobody (and I do mean nobody) seem to like this sketch, but the Christmas connection is also hard to find. The one (former) recurring character people would actually like to see Wiig reprise in accordance with Jason Sudeikis, 'The Two A-Holes', does appear in this compilation. And even though Jason does most of the talking in those skits, the female A-hole still has more lines in that one sketch than Gilly does during the whole of the TV special.
This being the third SNL Christmas special, it is still mandatory for SNL fanatics to seek it out on account of the new material added to the usual collection of Christmas skits. Firstly, there is a Christmas themed Gilly framework story that next to Wiig also features Will Forte, Bobby Moynihan, Kenan Thompson & Abby Elliot. Then, Steve Martin introduces the best SNL sketch of all time (according to him at least) 'A Christmas Wish'. And of course this means his arch rival Alec Baldwin also has to make an appearance to introduce 'Schweddy Balls'.
Naturally some of these sketches have already appeared in every SNL Xmas show to date (Consumer Probe, Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood and Adam Sandler's Hannukah song). But there are new inclusions such as a recent monologue by John Malkovich and two appearances by SNL's current cameo king, Justin Timberlake. It never dawned on my that Dick in a Box was a Christmas Sketch, but there is a Christmas Tree in it I guess. The alternate ending to "It's a Wonderful Life:" is in there as usual, but this time without the introduction by King of Television Bill Shatner (and by the way they just did another alternate Wonderful life skit in 2010 to possibly replace this one in the next compilation).
In the end there are enough laughs and old holiday classics to go around, and if you buy this one on DVD, you can always skip through the Gilly bits to get to the good parts. One of those is being reminded how hot Kristen looked when she was still a brunette (see the 'Santa's my Boyfriend' song she performed with Amy and Maya Rudolph in 2006).
7 out of 10
Still, it is quite baffling to me why Lorne Michaels and co would pick 'Gilly' out of all of Kristen's recurring characters to headline this 2009 Christmas special. Not only does nobody (and I do mean nobody) seem to like this sketch, but the Christmas connection is also hard to find. The one (former) recurring character people would actually like to see Wiig reprise in accordance with Jason Sudeikis, 'The Two A-Holes', does appear in this compilation. And even though Jason does most of the talking in those skits, the female A-hole still has more lines in that one sketch than Gilly does during the whole of the TV special.
This being the third SNL Christmas special, it is still mandatory for SNL fanatics to seek it out on account of the new material added to the usual collection of Christmas skits. Firstly, there is a Christmas themed Gilly framework story that next to Wiig also features Will Forte, Bobby Moynihan, Kenan Thompson & Abby Elliot. Then, Steve Martin introduces the best SNL sketch of all time (according to him at least) 'A Christmas Wish'. And of course this means his arch rival Alec Baldwin also has to make an appearance to introduce 'Schweddy Balls'.
Naturally some of these sketches have already appeared in every SNL Xmas show to date (Consumer Probe, Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood and Adam Sandler's Hannukah song). But there are new inclusions such as a recent monologue by John Malkovich and two appearances by SNL's current cameo king, Justin Timberlake. It never dawned on my that Dick in a Box was a Christmas Sketch, but there is a Christmas Tree in it I guess. The alternate ending to "It's a Wonderful Life:" is in there as usual, but this time without the introduction by King of Television Bill Shatner (and by the way they just did another alternate Wonderful life skit in 2010 to possibly replace this one in the next compilation).
In the end there are enough laughs and old holiday classics to go around, and if you buy this one on DVD, you can always skip through the Gilly bits to get to the good parts. One of those is being reminded how hot Kristen looked when she was still a brunette (see the 'Santa's my Boyfriend' song she performed with Amy and Maya Rudolph in 2006).
7 out of 10
