SNL Finale Promises Fall Yuks

It’s been a long, sometimes-bumpy road for Saturday Night Live, Tom Shales writes in the Washington Post, but the 33rd season finale showed the cast—and guest John McCain—in fine comic form, and was a ratings success to boot. SNL generally thrives in highly political times, and Shales feels the current cast is well-equipped to make the best of this extraordinary election.

"While the current cast lacks a powerhouse ringleader like Will Ferrell," Shales writes, "the comic talent seems more evenly distributed and the dead weight more scarce than in many a season past. As has been noted here and elsewhere, the cast is especially strong on the female side, which in the past had been the weaker sex."