‘Saturday Night Live’ Review: ‘SNL at Home’ Goes Down Better the Second Time

"Saturday Night Live at Home"

A couple of weeks ago, “Saturday Night Live” returned — sort of — with a special “SNL at Home” episode. For obvious reasons, the episode was uneven and it was clear 

everyone involved was just trying to figure it all out. This week marks the return of that format, and what a difference a couple of weeks has made. Notably, in terms of production quality and adjusting to the lack of a live audience. Sure, this second “SNL at Home” loses some of the disheveled charm of the first. But it feels familiar, and now like anything can happen.

Unlike the first “SNL at Home” episode, no official host or musical guest was announced during Darrell Hammond’s cast introductions. So while Brad Pitt opens things up for the episode — fulfilling the real Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “request” for Pitt to play him on “SNL” — unlike Tom Hanks, he doesn’t do an opening monologue. He does eventually introduce Miley Cyrus as the musical guest — who covers Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” — with the “SNL” set behind him.

Pitt’s cold open is also one of the best “SNL” cold opens in a very long time, as it isn’t beholden to waiting for the “woo”s to go down with every celebrity appearance and it isn’t reacting to or acting against Alec Baldwin’s Trump. Instead, it goes with the much funnier bit of Pitt’s Fauci translating Trump’s misinformation, to reacting with sheer confusion and horror. It’s comparable to Larry David’s Bernie Sanders, only with actual effort on both a production and performance level.