Say what you will about last week's Miley Cyrus Show, but at least you could understand why Cyrus was hosting Saturday Night Live. It was a lot harder to figure out what Bruce Willis—who doesn't have a new film out, hasn't appeared on SNL since 1989, and isn't exactly a warm and fuzzy comedic actor—was doing last night. The writers did their best to play on Willis' action guy persona, and Willis certainly seemed to enjoy himself, but between his rushed delivery and some lackluster returning characters, this was the worst episode so far of the transitionary young season. But hey, at least we got some rocking harmonica playing!
Seriously, we mentioned at the end of last week's SNL recap that Willis would likely break out the Bruno, but we didn't actually expect him to turn his monologue into a goofy harmonica off with Bobby Moynihan. At least it was short—actually, there were several short sketches this week that didn't really go anywhere, including the Gravity cold open and Centauri Vodka. These were sketches with decent starting points that failed to build to anything.
Sketches like Black Ops Command Center, The Ol' Barber Shop and the Armageddon parody all played off of Willis' action hero past—all of them were fine, except for the fact that Willis seemed to rush his delivery, or just mumble lines. Black Ops should have been the best sketch of the night, but instead it had no rhythm; Barber Shop had some hilarious repartee between Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson, but the sketch fell off a cliff every time Willis chimed in (and not in the way the sketch intended); and Armageddon...well, either you love Moynhian's cat-loving Kirby character or you don't. A cat floating in space with a nuke—almost as funny as a cat driving a car.
In terms of recurring characters, we also had the return of Eddie, who first sprang to life last season when Taran Killam yelled "GLICE" repeatedly at Justin Bieber. The character was grating but hilarious back then, and Killam obviously relishes being as over-the-top as possible, but the fact that the character isn't half as likable in his latest appearance doesn't bode well.
While the female cast got to shine a bit more last week (the only female-heavy sketch was The Lady Gaga Show, which isn't available online), this week was heavily dominated by the male cast members—and the two best sketches of the night by far were Boy Dance Party and Beer Pong. Boy Dance Party was the first Digital Shorts-esque video of the new season, and it looked like a really fun, if totally goofy, time for all involved.
Also good: the new guys finally started standing out! Most prominently, in the aforementioned Beer Pong sketch, in which Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney underplayed the surreal qualities of the fraternity perfectly. Another new guy, Brooks Wheelan, got a chance to shine on Weekend Update as a guy who regrets his Red Hot Chili Peppers tattoos.
Click through to check out all those sketches, plus some performances by Katy Perry. Overall, this wasn't a good week for the SNL crew—but it also wasn't as bad as some of the low points last season. It seems like a few of the new cast members are starting to find their place (especially Kyle Mooney), and Cecily Strong is getting better and better at hosting Weekend Update. This is the kind of episode we expected out of this transitionary season, and there'll be some more growing pains before someone really breaks out.
There's no new episode next week, but we're back on October 26th with host Edward Norton and musical guest Janelle Monáe.
