Alexander Skarsgård and Stellan Skarsgård make ‘SNL’ a family affair

I had a hunch that Alexander Skarsgård would be a good fit for SNL, and I’m pretty sure the Murderbot star proved me right.

While the show leaned heavily on Skarsgård’s filmography — has anyone thought about Tarzan since it flopped a decade ago? — we still got a pretty good mix of sketches. In addition to playing off Tarzan and The Northman, Skarsgård felt natural in most of his sketches, adding a strange mix of aloofness and simmering rage as he played dudes who got caught reading Cards Against Humanity cards to be cool and very large girls throwing their newfound friends through windows.

After a few episodes of SNL straying from the winning formula that Season 51 had been coalescing around, we finally got not only an episode built around Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes, but we got to see the duo once again together during Weekend Update.

It was also a big night for Sarah Sherman, with the SNL vet landing roles across the board, from live sketches to pretapes to another Weekend Update segment with Colin Jost. (Meanwhile the promo for this episode wound up being Kam Patterson’s big moment of the week, with the freshman cast member appearing in a whopping zero sketches during Skarsgård’s episode.)

SNL is off until after the Olympics — but it’s already announced that Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie will host on Feb. 28.

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COLD OPEN

ICE Meeting Cold Open

I know that Lorne Michaels loves Pete Davidson, but I have no idea who thought the former SNL cast member should’ve played Tom Homan during the cold open. There’s not even a “hey, these guys look like each” vibe that SNL so often falls back on with this portrayal. It also didn’t help that Davidson’s Homan showed almost zero connection to the persona and actions of the real person. (Jost and Michael Che would later offer their own takes on Homan.)

• “Don’t start thinking now!” It was nice to have a cold open that featured James Austin Johnson as anyone but Donald Trump.
• “Um, wild n’ out?”: Former Wild N’ Out cast member Mikey Day.

THE MONOLOGUE

Besides the briefest mention of watching SNL as a kid, Skarsgård offered very little of his history with the show. Nothing about watching SNL with his expansive family. Nothing about whatever show or movie he’s promoting right now. No cameos from anyone who might be in any of those shows or movies.

The entire monologue was just a bit about no one talking to the house band. Was anyone else distracted by the fact that despite being a tall dude, Skarsgård was somehow wearing a suit that was too big for him?