Saturday Night Live brought its lackluster 46th season to an end on NBC with an outing filled with missed opportunities on how to best take advantage of the talents of guest host Anya Taylor-Joy. The potential future Emmy-nominee did the best with what she was given, but the reality was the show wasn't quite sure how best to use her.
The long-running relationship between Lorne Michaels, the show's producer, and the network appears to be coming to an end. In its heyday in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, watching Saturday Night Live was a must-see event. Performers like the original Not Ready For Prime-Time Players became household names creating memorable characters and biting satirical sketches were often Monday morning water-cooler topics. Episodes in recent years have lost that biting edge that made Saturday Night Live such a hit.
The 46th season finale opened with a telling bit from the entire cast looking back on a year that had been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with a surprise appearance from Chris Rock. From then on, the episode struggled to find its footing with just the briefest of moments of its former self. The Queen's Gambit star and host Taylor-Joy seemed game and engaged, but aside from one or two moments, was given nothing memorable with which she could work. There was so much that could have been done with her had the writers delved a little deeper into Anya Taylor-Joy's professional resume.
Taylor-Joy was committed to her hosting duties opening her monologue with the show's brief and only nod to her time on The Queen's Gambit. She struck vogue-like poses, much like her character Beth Harmon would before a match, as a lesson on how to play chess. From then on, she appeared to whole-heartedly buy into each character the show gave her to play in less than stellar sketches. Even in the bumper footage, Taylor-Joy was infinitely more engaged with the cast than other hosts have been this season. Despite all that, there was still so much more the show could have done with such a talent.
Just imagine if the show had spoofed Anya Taylor-Joy's role in the long-delayed and poorly received superhero film, The New Mutants. Several possibilities come to mind such as a Queen's Gambit and Mutant mash-up of having her Russian sorcery-powered mutant, Illyana Rasputin, engaged in a chess match with Professor X. A cast member in a costume as her dragon companion, Lockheed, could have spouted her next chess moves in fireballs. Imagine the comedy gold that could have been mined, if there had been sorceress Illyana begging for a part in the next movie with WandaVision breakout star Agnes, with Cecily Strong killing it playing the Kathryn Hahn part.
Although it is being reported there was a chess match skit with Taylor-Joy as The Queen's Gambit character Beth cut for time, Saturday Night Live still wasted their opportunity with this talented young actress. Again, it was as though the writers didn't quite know how to use her. It must be wondered what the show's writers in its heyday would have done with all those missed opportunities, and whether or not SNL truly has its finger on the pulse of cultural trends as it once did.