Dakota Johnson Turns Saturday Night Live Into a Showcase for Her Range

For a second turn hosting Saturday Night Live, Dakota Johnson has been praised for playing to her strengths, something few guests manage to do. The review, titled “Dakota Johnson Plays To Her Strengths On Her Latest Saturday Night Live,” argues that she commits fully to particular, unsettling characters rather than reaching for broader comedy. The article does note, however, that her approach doesn’t always fit well with live sketches, especially when she’s paired with other cast members.

The recent run on the show has split Johnson’s performance into two modes. One is a chilly deadpan beauty, perhaps a girlfriend who is mean and scary. The other is a parody of 21st-century, vaguely entrepreneurial femininity, hiding mania or brokenness beneath her suspicious enthusiasms. The review credits her ability to channel the contempt or boredom that flashes across her face during a mediocre movie into genuine unhinged performances.

The Sketches That Worked

The most effective sequences came from the pre-recorded sketches. “Mean, Scary Girlfriend,” “Guns For Women,” and “Colorado Vicky” were pointed to as sufficient to keep the show ahead of last week’s premiere. Johnson was singled out for selling guns that resemble female anatomy even more specifically than regular guns that can stand in for penises, and for playing a niche content creator preparing for severe, often outdated mental health treatments.

In both, Johnson avoided overacting. The review notes that her endless fiddling with soda cans, which she seemed to refuse to drink from, didn’t break the illusion of her weirder characters. That restraint is described as an ironclad guarantee that she won’t shatter the illusion of her weirder characters with excess mugging.

This episode shared a strange link with a prior one’s sketches and some of her previous appearances. Her gossip-hungry nurse arrived toting a Big, Dumb Cup, while her attempts to sell guns or L’, since Oreal partnerships brought back memories of her faith through a bizarre Shark Tank t-shirt. Though Tall, Plain Boyfriend didn’t appear in a Johnson-hosted episode — it was cut for time and exists only on YouTube shorts — Mean, Scary Girlfriend came across as a matching piece, concentrating on repackaging antisocial habits as a product.

The Sketches That Missed

Not everything landed. The review points to the hospital-gossip sketch as dead-ending into Character Doesn’t Know How a Social Convention Works territory. In the lead-off spot, the Press Your Luck thing kept zapping itself back to life through Ashley Padilla’s outbursts, equal parts funny and troublingly Wiig/M.

Padilla’s insistence that winning Advil would be better than cash did make the reviewer laugh out loud. But the sketch’s rhythm suffered from Johnson’s tendency to slow down to her own pace without particular pathways to laughs in mind. The review notes that this showed up in her monologue as well, even as she made self-deprecating jokes about Madame Web, looking for attention, and dating musicians.

Why Johnson Works As Host

The review makes the case that Johnson operates as a quiet asset who doesn’t overstay her welcome. There’s a steadiness across her episodes, though not all segments land well. She hasn’t found a solid mainstream movie franchise that suits her approach, but Saturday Night Live could end up being it by accident.

It’s worth noting the comparison to Kristen Stewart. Stewart has delivered three very different performances — Spencer, Personal Shopper, and Certain Women — and Johnson’s indie work carries a similar locked-in ennui to films like A Bigger Splash and Cha Cha Real Smooth. The key distinction, according to the review, is that Johnson can come across as more openly hostile toward material she finds subpar.

Stewart, by contrast, seems to have decided to either not do that material or have fun with it. Johnson’s approach means her disdain for weak material shows up in her performances, which the review frames as a strength rather than a flaw. It’s what makes her surprisingly strong as host.

The Live Show Problem

Johnson’s style doesn’t pair well with everyone. The review notes that live sketches can feel centerless when paired with actors who don’t match her energy. Pairing Johnson with Ben Marshall as Game of Thrones-inspired characters created an offbeat-in-a-bad-way rhythm, though the cool dragon puppet in that bit was a highlight.

It’s not just Marshall that’s the issue here. Johnson also found herself feeling off while playing straight woman through a non-impression of Elizabeth Banks hosting Press Your Luck, baffled by a contestant who was so thrilled by the simple nature of the game that he couldn’t bear to leave with his ridiculous winnings. The review calls these her worst moments, during which she appears indifferent and lets sketches drag to her own pace without any clear route toward humor in mind.

The Monologue Moment

Johnson’s monologue drew attention to her reputation for dating rock stars. The review couldn’t stop thinking: Wait, am I supposed to be nodding with recognition at Johnson’s reputation for dating musicians? The material turned into the focus of the segment, with jokes about looking for attention and dating musicians taking over.

Johnson’s dating history with Chris Martin of Coldplay is something the reviewer knows about only slightly. The question then arises: does that amount to notoriety? The review queries whether material about dating rock stars and bothering Taylor Swift might strike audiences unfamiliar with celebrity gossip as strange.

What The Review Recommends

The review points viewers toward Johnson’s episodes for the pre-taped sketches, calling them the two best-formed sketches of the night. The absurdism of “Amazing Tales Of Truth,” where host Andrew Dismukes introduces a comatose father, his songbird daughter Veronika Slowikowska, and a deeply silly punchline following an absurdly long and sincere setup, was praised for feeling like it could have been performed in 1978 or 1991.

The review argues that the closing sketch should not be presented as weighty. Its lack of substance was intentional, and it came across as though it could have been delivered in 1978 or 1991, back when confidence in this sort of thing ran much deeper.

The Bottom Line

Johnson’s SNL hosting gig is a net win. She brings a consistent, unhinged energy that suits the show’s weirder sketches, even when her live chemistry stumbles. The review’s verdict is that she’s the perfect every-few-years host, a stealth asset who doesn’t overstay her welcome.

The comparison to Stewart is telling. Stewart can nail three wildly different roles, but Johnson’s disdain for weak material shows up in her performances. That’s a compliment here. She’s not trying to prove she can do anything, like Emma Stone or her current Verity co-star Anne Hathaway. Instead, she leans into specific character types and commits fully to them.

The review’s closing argument is that Johnson has found a home on SNL. She hasn’t proven herself as terrific an actress as Stewart, but she has a singular approach that fits the show’s brand. The consistency across her episodes makes her a reliable choice, even when individual sketches miss.

It is not yet clear whether Saturday Night Live will become her flagship property, but the review argues strongly that Johnson’s return is worth catching, particularly in the pre-taped segments.

See the video the story is built around at The A.V. Club.

Dakota Johnson · hosting · Saturday Night Live · SNL · TV Review