Saturday Night Live returned this past weekend from its short hiatus with host Zach Galifianakis and appearances from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helmes, Jon Hamm, and NOT Jennifer Aniston or anyone from the cast of Friends. It was good! One thing we can be grateful for is the trust SNL clearly has in the comedy of Zach Galifianakis — his monologue, as it has been in the past, was a bit of his standup, and the rest of the episode seemed, if not specifically catered to, at least comfortable relying on his specific style and energy. Did it work? Ehhhhhh, mostly! It definitely worked most of the time. And letting him alter the tone of the show in that way probably definitely worked more than forcing him into the SNL tone would have. But, there were some problems. As he has in the past, Zach often tripped over his lines, which took a bit of comedic steam away from the mix of vulnerability, instability, and pride of his characters with its real sense of vulnerability and instability. And if you were not already an unconditional fan of Galifianakis, that specific character blend, used in almost every sketch, could have worn on you a bit. Not that I’m saying any of us aren’t unconditional fans of Zach Galifianakis! BUT I AM JUST SAYING! Anyway, let’s watch some of the things.

The Fox and Friends cold open, featuring Fred Amrisen’s Mayor Bloomberg, was very good. I don’t have much else to say about it! It was just good, you should watch it!

I really liked the “Game of Game of Thrones” sketch. I’m not sure the idea that specifically obsessive Game of Throne fans do not know anything about anything else holds a lot of water, and U might be so mad about it, but the general idea of obsessive fans of ANYTHING focusing too much mental energy on that with which they are obsessed is ah-definitely true enough, and “name one living painter” “LIVING?!” is so funny. So is “some old pilgrim?” Hahaha.

The episode featured two commercials, one in which Kate McKinnon did an unrecognizable impression of Martha Stewart, and this other one for New Balance. This one was good!

The “Jennifer Aniston Lookalike Contest” sketch isn’t available online because they sang a song at the end, but it featured cameos from Bradley Cooper and Ed Helmes and DID NOT feature cameos from anyone from the cast of Friends, which it should have. But it was all right. Zach’s “Also, who the hell is Ross?” was very funny. All the Helen Keller jokes were not particularly funny until Ed’s “But on the inside you’re a total Hellen Keller.” That was very funny. Oh well, who cares, YOU’LL NEVER SEE IT! Instead you can see the “M&M Store” sketch, which I did not like.

I also didn’t particularly like the “Michael Jordan’s Wedding” sketch UNTIL Jay Pharoah’s Dikembe Mutombo impression. A+.

Weekend Update was great! Specifically Bill Hader’s James Carville!

The “Darrell’s House” sketches, the second of which features a [SPOILER ALERT] Jon Hamm cameo were perfect and the highlight of the episode.

And, finally, Of Monsters and Men played and sounded like a the-year-2013 parody band.