Episode 2. Host: Brendan Gleeson

Episode 2 of “Saturday Night Live” was okay; the sketches were a hit or miss. Brendan Gleeson hosted SNL this past weekend and there’s not much to say about the episode besides that it’s boring, but let’s see why.

The episode started out with a funny cold open titled “So You Think You Won’t Snap,” which was one of the only genuinely enjoyable sketches. In the cold open, Bowen Yang’s character hosts a game show and says increasingly infuriating facts about the world, ranging from national politics to pop culture, until the game show participant snaps. The relatability from Heidi Gardner’s hyperbolic reaction as a participant of the game show, and her performance made the cold open absolute perfection.

Gleeson’s monologue was relatively boring, with poor attempts at self-deprecating humor: “[I]f you don’t recognize the face, I’m that fellow you’ve seen in that thing you can’t remember but you think you kind of liked.” Gleeson proceeded to play the mandolin which was just odd and off putting, and his tone sounded like he was in a PBS documentary on the Irish landscape.

SNL then tried to parody Try Guys drama, though the attempt was just pathetic. The sketch didn’t address the real reasons people were upset and wasn’t funny either. The performances didn’t parallel the actual events and the most entertaining part of the sketch was probably when Mikey Day broke character.

The digital sketch  “New Cast Advice” made “Try Guys” worth sitting through. Molly Kearney’s performance was incredible with their delivery reminiscent of Melissa McCarthy’s performance in “Bridesmaids.” Kearney definitely has incredible potential and I can see them as a replacement for Kate McKinnon.

Lately, Please Don’t Destroy has been carrying SNL, evident in their latest digital sketch “Tommy.” Their signature brainless comedy style proves to be timeless and really carried this episode.

Both Weekend Update features were perfect. Ego Nwodim’s performance brought me straight back to the 2013-2017 era of features on Update and Marcello Hernandez got a strong start in the show. He was not only hilarious, but also entertaining to watch in regards to his burning passion for baseball.

“Blood Oath” was just… ugh. The sketch relied on fake blood flying everywhere in order to generate laughs which seemed like a desperate attempt at providing entertainment. While the concept was really funny in previous years, it has been overused. 

The episode ended with a sketch that depicts how I feel about the recent seasons of the show in general: It’s funny and entertaining but not laugh-out-loud funny. “Eyes” depicted Sarah Sherman in her signature “crazyyy” persona and was fun to watch. The characters played by Michael Longfellow, Nwodim, and Yang were very judgemental and were amusing, but Gleeson didn’t stand out at all. This isn’t new. Throughout the entire episode, Gleeson seemed to simply remain in the background, and the viewer barely notices his involvement in the episode.

This episode really had its ups and downs. If you’re going to sit through to watch the whole thing, I wish you luck. If you already did, I’m sorry you had to sit through some of the sketches you did.