On Oct. 2, Saturday Night Live (SNL) aired its first episode of season 47 with host Owen Wilson and musical guest Kacey Musgraves. With an ever growing cast, I wondered if the new and overshadowed cast members would stay afloat among the sketch comedy show’s shining stars.

Three new cast members were introduced this season – Aristotle Anthari, James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman, replacing Beck Bennett and Lauren Holt who both left before the season started. Although we barely saw the new cast members, besides Johnson, in action, I’m intrigued as to what roles they will inhibit as well as experiencing their integration into the current cast.

Still, as I expressed during the premiere of season 46, I can’t see a bright future for new cast members with the current huge cast. I absolutely adore long-time players like Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, but the show’s continued reliance on them due to their tenure and proven strength can be damaging to the show. I thoroughly enjoy their work, but the stalling of their transitions away from SNL would cause the rest of the cast to be weak in the long run as newer cast members don’t have a chance to develop their skills and their reputation among audiences.

The show opened with Biden Unites Democrats Cold Open, and for the entirety of the sketch, I experienced a small bout of confusion. “Who is playing Joe Biden?” I thought to myself. It wasn’t Jim Carrey or Alex Moffat, both of whom played Biden last season. After the opening montage, I realized it was new cast member Johnson, which is certainly a bold move for the first sketch of the season.

Johnson made a brilliant debut as Biden, and although it’s too soon to tell if this casting will stick, Johnson seems like a great candidate to play the coveted role of the president because of his accurate and entertaining impression. However, the star of the first sketch wasn’t Biden, but rather the rest of the Democrats, another atypical move from the show. The sketch featured Cecily Strong as Sen. Krysten Sinema, Aidy Bryant as Sen. Joe Manchin, Ego Nwodim as Rep. Ilhan Omar and Melissa Villaseñor as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressing the president’s infrastructure bill, which exemplified the contrast between the views of the politicians. This sketch highlighted what SNL does best: ensemble sketches which play up the talents of all the cast members involved.

Owen Wilson’s monologue was decent, but Kacey Musgraves’s performances really stole the show. Musgraves performed a stripped-down version of ‘justified’ – quite literally stripped down, as she wore only a pair of cowboy boots while she strummed her guitar – which showed off her soft voice and enchanting melodies. Musgraves also sang one of my personal favorites, ‘camera roll,’ during the episode. Her performance featured a motif of flashing images of people sitting on a chair opposite of Musgraves, a heartbreaking addition that perfectly complemented the lyrics of the song.

Michael Che and Colin Jost returned as update anchors on my favorite segment of the show, Weekend Update. While the current headlines in the news don’t even come close to the insanity of yesteryear, Che and Jost’s jokes on more mundane topics were still hilarious and reminded me how consistently good the segment is.

“The infrastructure bill has been delayed indefinitely,” Jost said. “I guess we’ll just cross that bridge when it collapses on top of us.”

Weekend Update also featured Pete Davidson on the Met Gala and Ego Nwodim as A Black Woman Who’s Been Missing for Ten Years. Nwodim compared the differing treatment of missing white women and missing black women by the media. Her feature was hysterical and perfectly utilized comedy to highlight an important issue.

A lot of the sketches in this episode were a hit or a miss. While none of the sketches were overly bad, many fell flat and were somewhat boring or simply dragged on too long, such as NFL on Fox and Mail-in Testing Service.

My favorite sketch of the episode was Women’s Talk Show, a parody of The View, which featured Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner as talk show hosts. The over-the-top bickering of the hosts, with Nwodim acting as the exhausted peacemaker, as well as the sudden and unexpected transition between discussion topics made for very funny commentary on the ridiculousness of The View. Plus, I’m always on board with a sketch when Strong is portraying a theatrically unhinged woman.

The season 47 premiere was certainly a weaker episode for the show. I hope stronger episodes emerge during the rest of the season. However, this episode still provided a lot of laughs, and I look forward to seeing what they’ll do next. SNL may have started the season on slightly shaky ground, but I’m looking forward to seeing them get back on their feet. SNL’s upcoming episode is hosted by Kim Kardashian West and features musical guest Halsey. Due to West’s lack of experience in scripted television, I think it’s going to be a pretty even toss up between a successful show or a less than stellar one. Nevertheless, I will definitely be tuning in.