Alright, so the first sketch of the season — one of the show’s fairly formulaic C-SPAN cold openers — was kind of a snooze at first. The gist: President Obama called upon everyday Americans to discuss Obamacare. But then! But then! Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul showed up in full Jesse Pinkman regalia to tell the story of his friend who “did what any of us would have done” when he couldn’t afford his cancer treatments: he started cooking meth. Topical! Because Breaking Bad.
The sketch also did give several cast members a few funny moments in the spotlight. Kate McKinnon, for example, was hilarious as a stressed-out, chain-smoking doctor. “Look, I have no idea what the hell this law does, OK,” she sighed. “All I know is, Obamacare or no Obamacare, people need to stop putting stuff up their butts.”
Also, it seems Jay Pharaoh took some time over the summer to continue perfecting his Obama impersonation, because he did a pretty solid job imitating the weary-but-still-maybe-optimistic POTUS.