The state of the Saturday Night Live season 43 cast
By and large, we’d commend most of the actors on the show for finding some ways to elevate the material around them. Kate McKinnon remains as fantastic as always, while Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Kenan Thompson remain the main tentpoles for the show. Beck Bennett has really come into his own as the sort of leading man during many of the sketches, and Mikey Day in just his second year as an onscreen presence remains pretty formidable.
If you were to look elsewhere, we would say that the screen time for some of the rest of the familiar faces has been mixed. Alex Moffat is still someone we have a hard time seeing pop in a sketch, Melissa Villasenor remains as hard to find on the show as she was in her first season, and Kyle Mooney’s main claim to fame at this point is being in love secretly with Leslie Jones. Jones herself remains a captivating presence on season 43, though her best bits, like Pete Davidson, often come during Weekend Update. It’s hard to look at them the same way as the rest of the cast given that they are probably the strongest doing standup work.
Basically, what we’re saying here for the most part is this: There are some issues when it comes to fresh takes from the writers this season, but most of the cast has been very good. We wouldn’t say that any returning cast member is on another level, but by and large they’ve been able to bring a lot of humor into almost any situation.
As for some of the newcomers
To date, Heidi Gardner is easily the biggest presence of the three. She’s been able to come up with some weird characters and, at the same time, also maximize even limited screen time. There have been a few good appearances from Chris Redd across some sketches; we wouldn’t say that he’s stolen many scenes but he’s been solid.
As for Luke Null, he obviously is facing the challenge of looking similar to some of the other guys on the show — it’s still tough to pick him out from the crowd, and he hasn’t been at the front of the crowd very often.
Our take on the Saturday Night Live season 43 cast so far
It’s a good group, and in terms of pure comedy chops one of the best we’ve seen in a few years. The issue right now is that political humor is stale and with that, the writers need to come up with new ways in which some of these people can shine.
What do you think about the Saturday Night Live season 43 cast so far? Be sure to say in the comments!
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