Best and Worst 'Saturday Night Live' Sketches: Anne Hathaway

In a week that held the much-anticipated presidential election, you'd think "Saturday Night Live" would have something funny to say about the end of Mitt Romney's campaign.

But from the plodding cold open featuring a post-loss Romney to a bland Weekend Update, the show disappointed in capping off this long, fraught political season. Maybe all the writers had election hangover?

Still, while the show overall felt muted, Anne Hathaway sparkled where she could during her third time at hosting.

Best Sketch: "Homeland"

Maybe it's because we're huge "Homeland" fans, but this parody killed us. Sure, Hathaway's impression of Carrie Mathison was really broad, but Bill Hader was particularly good as unruffled Saul, who keeps trusting Carrie no matter how cray-cray she gets.

And they got so many other little details right -- Brody's tiny mouth, Carrie's love of corkboarding, the jazz music, Claire Danes' chin crying.

Worst: Cold Open

With the election taking place this week, we couldn't wait to see how "SNL" tackled the results. Guess we got our hopes up too high, because the cold open with Jason Sudeikis playing a dejected Romney (perhaps for the last time) just plain bombed.

The jokes, like Romney swigging milk instead of beer and saying "darnit" instead of cursing, were yawn-worthy. Even the bit with Romney throwing a delusional Karl Rove over the balcony didn't induce a chuckle.

Disappointing: Weekend Update

After the cold open, it was up to Seth Meyers and Weekend Update to bring the election snark.

But while Jay Pharaoh's Barack Obama was spot-on as usual, the jokes were all tired and well-worn ("Republicans, what happened? I even gave you a one-debate head start.")

The only bright spot was the return of Drunk Uncle, played by Bobby Moynihan. "Red state, blue state, red state, blue state. You know what state I'm in? Denial."


Surprisingly Funny: Flaritin

Usually, we start to tune out towards the end of the show, but this ad for Flaritin ("the fake Claritin for fake allergies") was one of the few sketches that made us laugh out loud.

"Are you suffering from a made-up allergy you invented to get attention?" intones Bill Hader. He reels off a list including meat, deodorant, and rap.

But we take issue with the idea that an allergy to Los Angeles is fake!

So Weird, It Was Funny: The Legend of Mokiki

The digital shorts this season have been lacking the snappiness that Andy Samberg used to bring. This beautifully-shot one featured Killam as a weirdo who does a strange dance and falls in love with Hathaway. It was so odd, it was almost entrancing.

Rousing: Anne Hathaway's Monologue

Usually, we hate when monologues break into song. It's lazy and overdone. But in this case, since Hathaway is a terrific singer and promoting "Les Miserables," it seemed only natural. And the entire cast joining her on stage was a great moment.