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After Daniel Craig did his best with horrible material last week, this week saw the return of a comedic host in Christina Applegate. Applegate hasn’t hosted since 1993, which saw the first appearance of Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker. Did we get an episode worth the 19 year wait?

Debate Cold Open: We knew SNL would start off the episode with a debate between Biden and Ryan, but we didn’t know whether it would be any better than last week’s horrible Obama/Romney one. Thankfully, it was much better. Taran Killam’s Paul Ryan, which we had only seen a few seconds of in the season premiere, is a fantastic impression that is better than any political one the show has now. The sketch played it simple and mostly just made fun of the candidates mannerisms and slightly tweaked things they actually said. These openings normally die out by the end, but this one stayed strong throughout. Any hey, it’s Usain Bolt! Score: 8 out of 10.

Monologue: This season hasn’t been very strong on the monologue front and despite a bad premise this one at least had some good jokes. Instead of focusing on anything related to Applegate, this monologue was a song about hating the upcoming holidays. Original, right? The song mostly recycled old “drunk relatives” jokes, but it also had a random appearance from a Muppets knockoff which was hilarious. Bill Hader did a fantastic Kermit impression (is there anything he can’t do?) and Jason Sudekis did a fantastic Dane Cook. So even though the song was bad, we at least got some good jokes out of the random asides. Score: 6 out of 10.

Gillette Razor Commercial: We’ve all seen the razor commercial where Adrien Brody, Andre 3000, and Gael Garcia Bernal walk down a street together. But SNL decided to add Jerry Sandusky in there because he is the news. Then the commercial ended. So… there’s that? Score: 4 out of 10.

The Californians: The Californians sketches either work for you or they really don’t. Each one follows the same premise and rarely change anything, but I still laugh every time because people do funny voices. Christina Applegate fit in the sketch nicely and did a funny voice and Bill Hader and Fred Armisen each did their funny voices nicely as well. If they weren’t doing funny voices these sketches would horrible. But there are funny voices so I can’t help but laugh. And hey, it’s Usain Bolt! Score: 6 out 10.

Tech Talk: Three tech-bloggers appear on a tech show and complain about the iPhone 5. Then the host brings out the three laborers who built the phones and the guests realize how horrible they are. This was the best premise the show has had in a while and the writing actually backed it up. Thankfully it ended before the joke died out so we ended up with one of the funniest sketches the show has done this season. Score: 9 out of 10.

Give Us All Our Daughters Back: This fake action trailer gave the cast a chance to do impressions. Jay Pharoah got another chance to do his fantastic Denzel Washington impression and Taran Killam debuted a very good Liam Neeson, but the rest were hit or miss. Still, I can’t help but love any sketch that has Jay Pharoah laughing as Denzel. Score: 6 out of 10.

Weekend Update: As expected, Weekend Update started off with mostly debate jokes, but they were all pretty good. After that though, Weekend Update got bad fast. Things continued to dive when Ariana Huffington came out and didn’t improve when Jean K Jean returned. I like Kenan Thompson more than everyone else seems to, but this is a character that needs to die. Weekend Update has been horrible this season and I’m starting to see why people don’t like Seth Meyers. Score: 4 out of 10.

The Sirens: Odysseus and his men must avoid the temptations of the sirens. But here’s the catch: they sing popular songs that are for girls. I liked the concept but the sketch ended up far too repetitive. It ended up turning into not much more than karaoke. Score: 5 out of 10.

Halloween School Dance: This sketch has just gotten worse every time it’s been attempted. Yes, the Mufasa joke was funny (it even made Jay Pharoah break for his first time on the show) but the rest was one of the worst sketches the show has done in a long time. Score: 2 out of 10.

Dance Studio: I’m convinced this was written for Kristen Wiig and the writers just now remembered it existed. Applegate is even doing Wiig’s “Broadway Star” voice. This sketch continued the bad last half of Saturday Night Live and ended the episode on a down note. Everyone does silly dances, happy? Score: 4 out of 10.

Final Thoughts: After a strong start this episode quickly died out. Applegate was a great host and gave every sketch her all, but the writing was not there to back her up in the last half.

Sketch of the Night: Tech Talk

MVP: Taran Killam, because his Paul Ryan is that good.

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