After four months, Saturday Night Live (SNL) returned to Studio 8H last week with season 46’s first episode. The premiere, with host SNL alumnus Chris Rock and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, aired on October 3 after the three final episodes of season 45 ended remotely produced. The episode drew in 7.765 million viewers, a sharp increase from previous episodes due to the historical election season spike. In a New York Times interview, the creator and producer of SNL, Lorne Michaels, discusses the precautions the show is taking in order to run the show in studio amid the coronavirus epidemic and the importance of having the show on during election season.  

A few new changes have been made to the cast and writing staff this season. Anna Drezen, former supervising writer, became a head writer, joining other head writers Michael Che, Colin Jost and Kent Sublette. Additionally, Celeste Yim, a new writer, was added to the staff.

Although all cast members from season 45 stayed on the show, three new members were added to the cast – Andrew Dismukes, Lauren Holt, and Punkie Johnson. This increases the cast to an extremely large 20 members, which doesn’t help solve the problem of the lack of screen time the majority of the cast gets.

Last season, combined cameos from non-cast members got more screen time than any one cast member with an already crowded 17 member cast. Melissa Villaseñor only got 3.5% of the screen time last season and didn’t make a single appearance in any sketch last Saturday despite proving her strength in impressions in previous seasons. With all of the main roles in the election season going to cameos, with the exception of Beck Bennett as Mike Pence, the enlarged cast will struggle for sufficient screen time. Although I would be sad to see members of the current cast go, a cast revamp is needed in the upcoming seasons in order to give remaining members a chance to shine.

The episode opened with the First Presidential Debate Cold Open, introducing Jim Carrey’s first appearance as Democratic nominee Joe Biden and featuring Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump, Maya Rudolph as Senator Kamala Harris, and Beck Bennett as Chris Wallace. Carrey’s impression follows a range of other impressions throughout the years – Kevin Nealon briefly in the 90s, Jason Sudeikis preceding and during the Obama Administration, and Woody Harrelson and John Mulaney during the 2020 Democratic Debates. Although Carrey’s impression was by no means unenjoyable, it failed to make any solid critiques on Biden, point out a trait that reflects anything more than Biden’s personality or demeanor and only acted as a foil for Trump. 

I honestly prefer Sudeikis’s previous rendition of Biden because it was more accurate. Baldwin’s Trump impression has long been overdone for the past four years and has revealed nothing substantial about Trump either. This role could be effectively played by one of the current cast members or Darrell Hammond, who played him in the 90s and before the 2016 election. Rudolph’s Harris, which appeared near the end of the debate, definitely improved the sketch as she dubbed herself the ‘Momala’ of the two bickering candidates. 

“America needs a WAP. Woman-As-President… I’ll settle for HVPIC. Hot Vice President in Charge,” Rudolph said.

The sketch dragged on a little too long, a solid 13 minutes, but provided an interesting opening to the sketch show’s first episode of this season.

Chris Rock’s monologue was funny and timely and Megan Thee Stallion’s performances were captivating, with an emphasis on visuals and dancing. In the middle of her ‘Savage’ performance, she used her platform to voice the need for social change. 

“We need to protect our black women,” the rapper said after an audio recording of activist Tamika Mallory criticising Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s handling of the Breonna Taylor case. Her statement was impactful, considering that she broadcast the message to millions of viewers in an attempt to spread awareness on the injustices which are taking place in our government.

On my personal favorite segment of SNL, Weekend Update, anchors Che and Jost had the difficult task of compiling the slew of last week’s events into a short segment. They bantered about the morality of making jokes about Trump’s positive COVID test.

“There’s a lot funny about this – maybe not from a moral standpoint,” Che said. “But mathematically, if you were constructing a joke, this is all the ingredients you need. The problem is, it’s almost too funny. Like, it’s so on the nose. It’d be like if I were making fun of people who wear belts and then my pants just immediately fell down.”

Update also featured two recurring characters, Aidy Bryant as Carrie Krum and Bowen Yang as Chen Biao. Biao, a sassy Chinese trade representative, was one of the most notable bits this episode. References to the almost-banned app TikTok were fresh and hilarious and didn’t feel as though the show was excessively pandering to younger audiences.

“…America steals Chinese stuff every day. Banning parts of the internet, arresting protestors, fireworks? It’s the hypocrisy for me,” Yang said when asked about what he thought of concerns of China stealing American data.

Before Weekend Update ended, the camera focused on Kate McKinnon as late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a short and solemn goodbye.

Although sketches like NBA Bubble and Stunt Performers were mediocre, Bottom of Your Face ft. Megan Thee Stallion, Superspreader Event, The Drew Barrymore Show, and Future Ghost are all solid sketches that strengthened the episode. Two of the new featured players, Holt and Johnson, got a surprisingly high amount of screen time in sketches for their first episode. 

My favorite sketch of the episode, the Drew Barrymore Show sketch, parodied The Drew Barrymore Show as the polar opposite replacement for the Ellen Show after allegations against Ellen and her producers surfaced last August. The sketch predominantly highlighted the talents of featured cast member Chloe Fineman as Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, and Nicole Kidman.

“And don’t worry about her being mean to the crew. They say she maintains eye contact too long and is too emotionally supportive,” the narrator said of Barrymore in the sketch.

Fineman’s strength in impersonations makes her a perfect candidate to fill Kate McKinnon’s shoes after McKinnon eventually leaves. 

The return of Saturday Night Live wasn’t an outstanding episode, especially because of my high expectations for an election year season, but I’m looking forward to seeing what direction the show will go as well as the upcoming debate sketches. During such a chaotic time in politics, we can again rely on our favorite sketch comedy show for a laugh or two with our daily dose of political commentary.