A complaint often made about “Saturday Night Live” over the last year or so is that, in its signature political sketches, the show essentially treats its cast as bench warmers while giving the key roles to an expanding roster of celebrity guests. It’s a roster that started, more or less, with Alec Baldwin as President Trump, and it has grown to include Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump, Ben Stiller as Michael Cohen and Robert De Niro as Robert Mueller, among many others.

So as “S.N.L.” began its 44th season this weekend, was there any evidence that the show had taken any of this criticism to heart? In a word: Nope.

For its first opening sketch, “S.N.L.” brought in Matt Damon to play Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh in a recreation of Thursday’s contentious testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Damon portrayed Kavanaugh as defiant, opening his remarks by saying: “I’m going to start at an 11. I’m going to take it to about a 15 real quick.” He was maudlin, breaking into tears whenever mentioning his former classmates and his notorious calendar, and constantly swigging from glasses of water.