Recent alumni returning to host "Saturday Night Live" have lately served as an excuse to fill the episode with cameos from former cast members and friends of the show, with last season's finale hosted by Andy Samberg a particularly egregious example. That tendency is not a good fit for a show with a large repertory cast including several rookies and sophomores fighting to make themselves known. Luckily, this episode only featured two cameos, only one of whom was a former cast member, and neither of whom overwhelmed the show. Hader did resurrect a few of his most memorable characters, but he didn't get in the way of what the current cast is doing. The bottom line is, it is pretty much impossible to have a bad episode hosted by Bill Hader. He was in a lot of sketches while a cast member, because he could take on the lead and the utility roles just as easily. Thus, putting him in the entire episode, as is the norm with the hosts, served to guarantee at least one good performance per sketch. Let's take a closer look at each segment of the show:
Kim Jong-Un - The running time of this sketch was about 3 minutes, a speed that is practically unheard of for "SNL" cold openings in 2014. It harked back to a time when the first sketch could get in there with a familiar routine, make it point, and get right to the "Live from New York!" But the weird thing about this sketch was that Bobby Moynihan's Kim Jong-Un impression is not particularly popular, nor has North Korea really been dominating headlines. This sketch did not really focus on being timely anyway, instead making bizarre observational points about the Korean leader, such as how he fancies himself the world's greatest athlete and that his haircut resembles Brad Pitt in his current movie. Ultimately, this was admirable for being stranger than most openings, but disappointing for being too slight to do something with that strangeness. B-
Bill Hader's Monologue - It has gotten to the point at which a musical "SNL" monologue must be about making fun of the fact that it is a musical monologue. That does not, however, excuse the tiredness of this premise. The surprising, but appropriate, appearance of Harvey Fierstein did excuse it somewhat, though. Although, perhaps this could have been more successful with an even more left-field choice. Bill kind of sounded like Keith Morrison while recounting his childhood. As with Fierstein, he has an impression of the "Dateline" reporter in his repertoire. B
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