Miley Cyrus on SNL

If I was Miley's publicist, I would be pretty pumped about Saturday's SNL performance. The cold open about the VMAs and her brief but well-played monologue (and promos) struck a good balance between self-effacing and not-apologizing. Her musical performances were solid (for Miley) and earnest (despite her ridiculous-to-the-point-of-distracting wardrobe choices), and I think it was a great choice to do We Can't Stop acoustic, especially given the shutdown spoof of the We Can't Stop video.

I also thought this was a pretty funny SNL episode overall. The cheerleaders/alien sketch was the kind of wacky that gets better the more times you see it. I appreciate the effort behind Vanessa Bayer's poetry teacher, but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around the character -- I hope she gets to do that character again this season. The Morning Miami skit was great, and I couldn't take my eyes off of Bobby Moynihan. Same with Aidy Bryant in the Girlfriends Talk Show sketch -- she killed in that sketch, particularly when she sang. I giggled appropriately at the 50 Shades audition sketch impressions.

The problem with watching SNL on Hulu the next day is that you can' watch Weekend Update, intact, all the way through. They break it up into different scenes, sometimes they don't play in order, and they don't show some of the news-style jokes at all. Update is usually my favorite part of SNL, so I don't understand why it can't be viewed as one full segment, or at least in full as separate clips in order.

Now I have to go back and watch the Tina Fey/Arcade Fire episode!