SNL At Home was an ambitious and welcome experiment that made the show more exciting than it has been in years

Vox

Last weekend's special quarantine edition of Saturday Night Live was further evidence that the regular show had become too well-oiled and predictable, says Allegra Frank. "As with any sketch comedy, not every swing yielded a home run," say Frank. "But the cast’s effort to come together and make the parameters of an unprecedented situation work for them was encouraging. It was endearing, even, which is rarely true of SNL these days. Rarely if ever has the show been challenged to this degree. And its cast seemed to be up to that challenge, working together to highlight their collective and individual strengths. With a forced format change — one that removes the set, the costumes, the celebrities, the dress rehearsals, and more — comes a sense of unpredictability. Whether or not Saturday Night Live at Home remains a one-off or becomes a recurring event, it showed that even after four decades, SNL still has some originality left."