Taylor Swift's 10-minute "All Too Well" SNL performance was riveting and time-stopping

The Atlantic

"On SNL, Swift turned this improbably riveting song into improbably riveting TV," says Spencer Kornhaber. "She likely didn’t even need to project the track’s music video—a literal dramatization of the lyrics, played by very good-looking people—behind her to make it work. Maybe she didn’t need the autumn leaves falling from the rafters, but they were a nice touch. And though it helped that she graciously performed her celebrity-guest duties elsewhere during the episode (appearing in a musical sketch about 'three sad virgins'), that wasn’t really what made her turn on SNL memorable. The real appeal was Swift standing at a mic. As she moved through different phases of action—still at the start, light headbanging in the middle, dreamy swaying at the end—she created a sense of progression. Meanwhile, she used her eyes as an instrument by flicking her gaze into the camera to deliver the most damning lines, as if directly to her ex. Though her band was far away from her for most of the performance, two backup singers pulled up beside her for the chilling final refrain, cementing the feeling that an exorcism had been completed and Swift was ready to reenter the world."

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• Jonathan Majors' episode was noteworthy for avoiding SNL staples: "A bracing lack of recurring characters? Check," says Dennis Perkins. "Not a famous friend of Lorne’s in sight to suck up oxygen desperately needed by an over-full and attention-starved cast? Check. A continued vacation from game show and talk show sketches? Okay, there was one talk show, but Strange Kid Tales was pretty delightful, and functioned more as a Kenan delivery system, which is always a good thing. Toss in some genuinely impressive work from some unexpected sources and a show-stealing mega-performance by Taylor Swift, complete with accomplished mini-movie backing, and the episode, while not blessed with the most natural live comedy performer as host, was top-to-bottom unpredictable. I’ll take that over waves of recognition applause and the same old crowd-pleasing rehashes any night."
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