SNL seems like it's throwing in the towel when it comes to political satire

The A.V. Club

The Family Feud cold open to Adam Sandler's episode, pitting Game of Thrones vs. Avengers, felt like a surrender, says Dennis Perkins. "If the response is that SNL’s political courage and sophistication has always been more pose than practice, I can’t argue that much," says Perkins. "But SNL has a platform, and one that it’s courted, developed, and climbed to intermittent heights of ratings (and even critical) success. Basically, throwing in the towel when you’re in the position to most directly affect a sitting president (who you arguably helped elect) is cowardly. Or lazy. Or cynical. Anything but ambitious. So starting off the episode with a head-fake toward another political sketch before jerking back to safely mediocre ground is your way of saying that all this heat is either too much, or too hard? Fair enough. But trundling out one of your most reliably unimpressive bits of quick-hit, uninspired celebrity impressions in its place is an act of contempt for anyone who thinks having a 90-minute stage of live TV satire involves some f*cking effort. And courage. The sketch was what it was. Cute. Disposable. Filled with lackluster impersonations and easy, crowd-targeted references... Nobody’s forcing SNL to do political satire. But if the mission going forward is to safely backpedal on politics, then you’d better be a whole lot funnier and more original as a sketch comedy show, because right now, you’re courting irrelevance on both fronts."