Saturday Night Live: Dane Cook and The Killers (season premiere)

(S32E01) "And we're baaaaaaack!" Anyone? Anyone? No? OK, well it's SNL season premiere time (that came fast) and Dane Cook is already hosting again. I can't remember the last time someone hosted two episodes so close together. He was just there last December. Well, it's understandable I suppose. I can't think of anyone else that's bigger on the comedy circuit right now and his name automatically attracts attention. He's all over the place, from touring to HBO specials. Anyway, the show was pretty decent I thought, but not because Cook was the host. He was barely in it.

First off I wanted to talk about the cast. Without Fey, Dratch, Mitchell, Parnell, Sanz, or any featured players, the cast is much smaller and I'm excited about that. Everyone will get more air-time and I think it'll make for a better show. Faces will become more recognizable and I think the cast as a whole will work better together. So yeah, I'm one of the few who has high hopes for this season.

Moving on, we had Dane's monologue which was just some of his stand-up. It was all new material (I think...) and for the most part it was very funny. The bit about everything being on YouTube was dead-on. But as I said, he wasn't in the show that much following the monologue.

As one would expect, Seth Myers and the rest of the writing team were all over current events and really had fun with them. The sketches about the TSA and Hugo Chavez were the two best in the episode I think. They were timely and made some really good points, especially the TSA sketch when the debate about liquids on airplanes came up ("What if I could produce a liquid on the plane... or a gel?"). As much as I liked the Hugo Chavez political round-up sketch, my only gripe was that Fred Armisen is the same character whenever he plays someone who's Latin or Spanish. Bug eyes, flailing arms. It's always the same guy. Cook's portrayal as Saddam was flat and didn't really contribute to the sketch either.

The digital short "Cubicle Fight" was priceless. Much better than most of the digital shorts from last season. "Two men enter, one man leaves." I loved the part when Dane blew the paper-punch holes into Jason's face. Funny stuff.

Most of the impersonations fell flat for me. I feel like the last time we saw Bill Hader do Al Pacino (that Anderson Cooper 360° sketch from last season), it was so much better. I wasn't amazed by Clinton and Condoleeza during Weekend Update either. I love Darrell Hammond but I was surprised he returned this season.

Speaking of Weekend Update, it went on too long. But for the most part it was very good. I think Seth and Amy play off each other very well (they used to do that British news show sketch... right?), and the intro with Brian Williams being rejected from the anchor job was hilarious.

The Poland Spring delivery guys? It was odd but I liked the end and the way they poked fun at SNL, Studio 60, and 30 Rock. When done right, self-reflexive humor can be subtle (and funny). They pulled it off here. After this sketch, the show kind of dragged along. The Farrah Fawcett thing was lost on me and the sketch with the bouncers was predictable. I did like the Geico commercial though. Maya, as Whitney Houston, singing about doing coke off a hot waffle iron? It's funny because it's probably true.

The Killers didn't really impress me. They changed their visual style right? Didn't they used to wear suits and look all flashy? For their first song off their new album Sam's Town, they were dressed all scrubby in jeans and flannel shirts. Of the two songs they performed, neither sounded as catchy as anything off their first album. But who knows. This was live and the album versions most likely sound far better.

Overall, as I said, a decent episode. Lot of high points and plenty of lows. But I am excited about this season. I really believe that it's going to get better every week.