Brendan Gleeson/Willow

Saturday Night Live has lost its way. They need to find a couple of standouts and use them. It's not working. We've watched most episodes since the original series. So far, this year is the worst. But we're only two shows in. I finally turned to a rerun of Star Trek. You gave some very good cast members. Maybe it's them.....probably it's the writing. Weekend update does seem to hold its own. If this is a "rebuilding" year then I suggest sweeping the cast and writers and start over....or let the performers do their own stuff. I'm not sure but the bottom line is something maybe everything has to change. I gave week one 2 stars and episode 2 got 1 star. Please fix. Thanks.

But, it's impossible.

This has to be THE most unwatchable crap in an ocean of it on the networks.

It's embarrassingly bad, moreso because it is compelled to have a fully diversified cast , many of whom got the part because they are , well, diversified.

If I were Brendan Gleeson or Colin Farrell I would be ashamed to show my face in New York after such a pathetic series of sketches, it's a good job that city is so big that they can easily hide away.

As if that wasn't bad enough the sketches featuring the new players were puerile garbage and I couldn't even summon up a chuckle before I gave it the hook.( Mind you, I've never understood New York's nasty style of humour) The mainstream media critics , for some reason, don't want to pan it as badly it should be panned, Lord knows why. Maybe somebody's got some compromising photos or juicy stories that they use for ransom purposes.

If they have, I say "USE THEM"

It's time to put this sick puppy down. Even when I see it scheduled on the cable guide I try unsuccessfully to delete it. There's no way I'm going to put myself through the torture of trying to get through another vacant episode.

Oh, wow, yet another game show sketch -- has there been an episode in the past five years where they didn't do one? And look, it just keeps going, too.

No amount of hamming and mugging with big Pepsodent smiles will change the fact the show is creatively flat.

Poor man's John Wayne, Brendan Gleeson, hosts. Now, he's a funny guy. He looks like the Wish version of The Duke, which means he'd be right at home in a Kentucky holler despite his gurgling Irish brogue. That makes him funny to start, but this is a guy who has been in greats like The Guard. As he ages, he becomes more and more Benny Hill like, and they should have considered a sketch along those lines for this show. They come close when he dressed like a woman, with no effort to hide his beard. He plays it with the right aplomb. He's a guy I'd hang out with.

But, then, it's SNL, which has languished into the sort of "What, we got to do it again?" attitude about trying to stay on the air each week. Take the "Try Guys" sketch. What exactly is the joke here? That a group of nobodies is being elevated to fame . . . On a national TV show? As usual, it just keeps going on and on and on, long after the joke (whatever it was) has been made. Is this Gen-Z humor? That is, to not be funny? I mean, I get if it was aimed at Millennials since they're more about being whiney, self-righteous, and hypocritical. But this had a more 12-year-old's humor vibe.

The new cast members get a sketch where they introduce themselves, and the most telling thing is how utterly forgettable they are. I mean, there's nothing interesting or individual about any of them. If I was walking down the street and passed them by, I wouldn't remember. The only one mildly interesting is the loud, chunky, stringy haired one, but that's only because she seems the type who works a bar near a railroad and keeps a baseball bat next to the cash register. It had moments, and then they had to stick Kenan Thompson in and ruin it.

A sketch about Marilyn Monroe just goes on about her being called names. That's it. Another has a photographer getting far too enthusiastic over a grandfather chaperoning his grandson to a shoot, until Colin Farrell, who looks more and more like Tennessee Tuxedo the older he gets, comes in to ham it up. A bit where Gleeson plays a 67-year-old pretending to be a high school student has promise but just ends. Like I said, 12-year-old humor vibe.

Let's be real. The age of the greats -- Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Gilda Radner, Jan Hooks, Kate McKinnon -- is long over. Pretty much anyone who can read off a cue card and make faces can get on SNL now. That means the writing has to sustain the show. And right now? That ain't happening.

The show continues to go down in quality. Each episode seems to be worse than the last. It's not so much the cast members, although many of the new ones are a bit unimpressive, but the writing is just not funny. Unimpressive hosts and self indulged musical acts really don't help either. I keep checking in. Hoping things will change but not so far. I watch the show via my DVR. I doubt I could watch it live. Generally the only portion of the show that I usually find funny is Weekend Update, but unfortunately even this week set was well below par. This show has set a low bar that I fear will continue to under preform.