The reviews are in for the launch of Saturday Night Live UK, and even the positive ones served up left-handed compliments.
For a British series, though, such qualified kudos represents “the highest of praise,” Sky has pointed out in a fun Instagram post.
Sky on Monday afternoon blurbed several premiere reviews courtesy of proper UK press as well as a few Redditors, highlighting praise that often was preceded by words such as “shockingly” and “unexpectedly.”
For example, Saturday’s SNL UK premiere was “shockingly competent,” The Telegraph opined in its four-star (out of five) review, while Metro‘s own four-star review called the sketch comedy’s first outing “unexpectedly brilliant.”
Unidentified Reddit commenters cited by Sky echoed same, writing, “I can’t believe this is ACTUALLY working,” “I’m actually surprised how much I’m enjoying it,” and , “Okay fair play [slang for ‘good job’] they didn’t hold back.”
It’s all akin to how The Telegraph once said that CNN’s Stateside adptation of the BBC’s Have I Got News for You was “nowhere near the embarrassment it might have been.”
Though not blurbed by Sky, The Independent‘s three-star review said that SNL UK offers “notes of new ingredients that could offer something fresh,” The Daily Express‘ critic said it wasn’t “as bad as I feared,” and The Guardian felt “it could have been a lot worse.”
LateNighter’s Bill Carter, meanwhile, observed that SNL UK‘s “remarkably polished first effort” featured a “promising young cast” and a host “as strong as anyone could hope for,” in SNL alum and onetime head writer Tina Fey.
SNL UK Episode 2 premieres Saturday, March 28, with Northern Irish actor Jamie Dornan serving as host and Wolf Alice as musical guest. On April 4, British actor Riz Ahmed hosts alongside “titans of rock” Kasabian. Ahead of the series’ premiere, its freshman run was extended from just six to eight episodes.
Now that SNL UK has also streamed Stateside on Peacock (and aired/stream in Canada), what did you think of the SNL offshoot’s premiere?
“Okay fair play [Irish slang for ‘good job’] they didn’t hold back.”
Not just Irish! Fair play is commonly used in this context in British English, too. You’re going to be learning so much about British culture over the next eight weeks! 😉
Thank you for the catch! Multiple etymology sites specified Irish.
No worries! Some of the difference between US/UK/Irish/Australian/Canadian English are fascinating. I just learned from your article the existence of “left-handed compliment” as opposed to “back-handed compliment”, which is the version we use here. 🙂