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This Week's SNL Manages to Turn Bryan Cranston Into January Jones

The much anticipated hosting duties of Bryan Cranston on SNL came to pass this weekend, and it... didn't go very well. Cranston was barely used at all, and when he was it was for stupid crap like dancing in his underwear or asking if we got a bottle of sparkling apple juice 900 times. It was a very sad missed opportunity. It was also as bad as January Jones' episode, but at least that week they had an excuse in how inherently unfunny and unwilling to try to be funny she so clearly is. So what is this week's excuse? Bryan Cranston is a very funny and versatile actor! They could have done so many great things with him! Anyway. Here are the few highs and many lows of the episode.

Best: The cold open about Rahm Emanuel's cat-loving replacement. Bill Hader may be the best thing SNL's got right now, but if there's a second best thing SNL's got right now, Bobby Moynihan's face has to be it.

Best(ish): The new girl's Miley Cyrus impression was indeed pretty dead-on and scathing, if not at all topical. You have to question the logic of going with this instead of a Lindsay Lohan, Shia and Frankie Muniz, JLo, or Mel Gibson sketch for this week, considering SNL is supposed to be a pop culture and current events-skewering show.

Best(ish): "What Up With That?" was back. This bit's run its course, but I laughed pretty hard at the Mary Kay Letourneau part. "She old, you young, it's nasty, I love it!" is a hilarious lyric no matter where you put it.

Best(ish): The kids game show sketch that revolved around how outrageous it was for Bryan Cranston to kiss Andy Samberg-as-a-child wasn't terribly funny. Unless you know that it's based on a very real '70s Canadian show hosted by an apparent pedophile, that is.

Worst: Andy Samberg's Cathy "impression." Answering every question with "AAK!" just like in the comic strip is apparently a good enough joke to base an entire segment around. Really makes you wonder what was bad enough to be cut from the show.

Worst: Bobby Moynihan is great, but this half-assed kind-of-Emily-Litella thing is not great at all.

Worst: I don't even get what the joke is here. Nerds are bad at fighting? Sometimes kids talk like a combination of therapists and gracious pro fighters? Shit lacks focus.

Worst: Shanna and her farts. Oh, how I hate this character. Always awful enough to make me rethink my position on the Kristen Wiig haters as idiots.

Worst: And the truly terrible sparkling apple juice thing. This show is always at its weakest when it tries so transparently to spark a meme, especially with something so weak. No one's going to buy an "I Sent a Bottle of Sparkling Apple Juice" t-shirt with a "Did You Get It?" on the back from the NBC Experience store, sorry.

Your thoughts on the episode? Leave them in the comments!

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