42x04 Tom Hanks with Lady Gaga

9.6/10. Guys, could SNL be on a roll? Despite a bit of a lull with the Emily Blunt-hosted episode last week, this has been the best start to a season of Saturday Night Live in years. Much of this episode’s success can be attributed to a committed performance from 9-time host Tom Hanks, but the writing and performing was sharp all around.

And maybe it’s because the show trotted out a lot of old favorites with a twist and the added sparkle that comes from the addition of a pro like Hanks. The “Black Jeopardy” sketch was all the more hilarious with Hanks playing a committed Red Stater, but the real comedy came from the subtext of the sketch that these communities, which are so separated and frequently at odds with one another, have lots in common. It’s sharp writing and great performances all around.

But it wasn’t the only sketch that felt recapitulated. The “David Pumpkins” sketch, with a cadre of weird dancing and bizarre neon-suited guy at the center of it, was probably my favorite bit of the night, if only for the hilarious weirdness of it, but it’s basically just Larry David’s “Kevin Roberts Shooting Gallery” sketch with a Halloween tint. And the “America’s Funniest Pets” bit is pretty much the same as it was in the Adam Driver episode, with the only difference being the clips and Hank doing an impersonation of his collaborator Tom Hanks. But the rub of this is that both of these sketches were still very funny, even if they’re a little familiar.

That familiarity extended to the Update desk, where we saw the returns of Leslie Jones doing her desk-side stand up material, and The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party. Jones, who isn’t really my favorite performer on the show, may be winning me over through attrition. Maybe it’s just that she was owning and standing up to the horrible invasion of her privacy and coming out strong and funny from it, but her piece about hacking and trolling at the desk really worked for me, and even charmed me, in a way some of her other bits haven’t. And on the other end of the desk, Cecily Strong’s character is pretty well-worn territory now, without a lot of new twists to it here, but the writers keep finding ways to keep the material feeling fresh and amusing, even if it can’t have the impact it once did.

As for the anchors, it’s getting boring talking about how Jost and Che have hit their stride and know how to find the humor in both the week’s news and their dynamic, but it’s the truth. There were plenty of good jabs at Trump, who makes their job easy, but also some funny stand up-esque bits directed at Hillary too. Speaking of which, this debate sketch was probably the best of the three. Baldwin’s Trump is such a caricature now (though the man himself is something of a caricature which makes it somewhat necessary) and McKinnon’s Hillary is such a dancing, mugging fool at this point that it’s hard not to just laugh at the outsized irreverence of it all.

Otherwise, there weren’t really any duds in this one. The closest thing was the Halloween version of “Don’t Stop Believin’” sketch, but even it was mercifully short enough to still feel punchy and chuckle-worthy at worst. The pre-taped bit about CBS feeling bummed about its lack of awards and deciding to imitate “Comedies” like Transparent by going dark was toothless, but again, solid at worst. And even the laziest sketch of the night, the one where Tom Hanks reprises his role of Sully as a media hero who feels the need to puff himself up when having to retrain as a copilot after all the hoopla has worn off can coast of the combined talents of Hanks and Alec Baldwin to make the bit fun.

(As an aside, I fast-forwarded through Lady Gaga’s performance, but from what little I saw she was doing the usual “dance-y uptempo number followed by semi-serious ballad” routine that pop princesses have done on SNL since time immemorial.)

That just leaves the other pre-taped sketch, a very funny character humor piece that juxtaposed three girls relaxing and getting ready and making grand declarations about how their Halloween night will go with the shitshow of the 3 A.M. reality of those declarations. It’s a good premise, and it creates room for lots of great work from Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Vanessa Bayer. And then there’s Tom Hanks’s monologue, where he portrays “America’s Dad” giving the country a pep-talk in an extremely well-written piece with some clever satire in the midst of the conceit.

Again, maybe it’s just the benefit of starting out with some stellar performers like the inimitable Tom Hanks and the IT-guy Lin-Manuel Miranda, but it may be that Year Three is where this SNL cast and writer’s room really gells and delivers a consistency that’s been lacking over the last couple of years.