Aubrey Plaza’s mischief as an intern began long before she played the sardonic April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation. During college, she briefly served as a page at NBC, where she spent her time sharing fake facts on the tours she led and sneaking off to vomit away her hangovers. Unsurprisingly, Plaza lasted only a few months before being asked to leave, but in her short stint at the network, she got the chance to trail SNL’s design department. “I was stalking, lurking in the shadows,” she told Jimmy Fallon earlier this week.

When Plaza took the stage last night to host SNL for the first time, she wasn’t lurking anymore.  During her opening monologue, she gave a fabricated tour of SNL Studio 8H, then joined three of the set designers she’d interned with all those years ago. “When I was showing up an hour late and barely working, did you ever expect to see me hosting the show?” she asked one of them. “Bow to your queen!” she demanded.

[Read: Parks and Recreation’s Pawnee is the happiest place on television]

And pay homage SNL did. Allison Jones, the casting director for Parks and Recreation, once purportedly called Plaza “the weirdest girl I ever met,” and Plaza’s delightfully offbeat vibe came to define the episode. The show leaned into it from the jump, delivering several sketches about weird characters prone to weirder behaviors that gave Plaza an opportunity to play with her talents. During a premise about morning announcements at a Catholic school, she played a nun who’d been accidentally electrocuted in the bath, died for two minutes, and discovered heaven might not exist. The experience left her questioning everything. “I’m going to have sex tonight!” she shouted, widening her eyes in shaky resolve.  

In a sketch about a game night, Sasha (Plaza) and her partner, Ian (Mikey Day), ended up horrifying their new neighbors by accidentally revealing their dark history while playing Taboo. Racing to get Ian to guess a secret word correctly, Sasha prompted him by reminding him what she was “on” the night they first met. His guesses—on ketamine, on parole—finally led to the right one: on fire. The effect felt like a throwback to SNL’s halcyon days a little more than a decade ago, when Kristen Wiig and Will Forte often pushed the show’s sketches in absurd and grotesque directions.

Still, although the show tiptoed up to Plaza’s vibe, it stopped short of going too far. SNL has, after all, long aimed to reach and please middle America—something Sarah Sherman has had to navigate since joining the cast last year. Known for body-horror comedy under the name Sarah Squirm, Sherman has found ways to tone down the more extreme side of her humor without forgoing the reasons SNL hired her in the first place. In both Sherman’s and Plaza’s cases, the compromise works, but one has to wonder what might be possible if the show didn’t so fervently pursue middle-of-the-road comedy.  

As it nears its 50th anniversary—and as even longtime cast members question its longevity after that milestone—SNL seems to be at an inflection point. Given that so many of the show’s most recognizable cast members have recently departed, newer members have the potential to reinvigorate it. With youth often comes experimentation, and it’s led to big payoffs in the past, namely the viral power of Digital Shorts.

[Read: SNL bids farewell to Cecily Strong]

But this season has played it safe more often than not, tapping big-name hosts and guest stars to add pizzazz instead of giving its newer cast ample room to try novel things. Last night mined nostalgia in a few predictable ways, including by having Plaza appear as her famed Parks and Recreation character during a “Weekend Update” bit. She was eventually joined by her boss, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), for a moment that sweetly connected the two shows. Poehler took the opportunity to sit in her former anchor chair and deliver a joke. It was a delight, of course, but also a reminder of the past rather than a signal of the future.

Each era of SNL has to find its own voice. In a season bursting with change, the show has struggled with relevancy and originality; it hasn’t yet found a way to stand out from earlier eras. But as much as Plaza’s turn on the show nodded to the past (her time as a page, beloved old characters), it also hinted at new possibilities.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Good morning, and welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained.

Today’s special guest is staff writer John Hendrickson, who has just published a new book, Life on Delay: Making Peace With a Stutter, which you can read an excerpt of here. John has written for The Atlantic about, among other topics, President Joe Biden’s stutter and, most recently, I Didn’t See You There, an experimental documentary about living with a disability that he calls “kinetic and compelling.” John will read anything by Richard Price, bought tickets for all five of The Walkmen’s upcoming NYC reunion shows, and has probably watched The Fugitive 50 times.

But first, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:

What the longest study on human happiness found is the key to a good life How Noma made fine dining far worse Stop trying to ask “smart questions.”

The Culture Survey: John Hendrickson

The upcoming event I’m most looking forward to: I spent nearly a decade waiting and praying for The Walkmen to maybe someday reunite, doubting that it would ever happen. To me, they are the unsung heroes of the turn-of-the-millennium New York rock renaissance (think: The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Interpol—all the Meet Me in the Bathroom bands). Recently, when The Walkmen announced a five-night run in Manhattan in April, I impulsively bought tickets for all five shows. I will be screaming every word to every song.

The television show I’m most enjoying right now: After cycling through The Office, The Larry Sanders Show, Parks and Recreation, a slew of Ken Burns documentaries, and several seasons of Alone, my wife and I have started watching NewsRadio at night before we fall asleep. Again: Unsung! Every line Phil Hartman delivers is masterful. Stephen Root, of Barry and Office Space fame, does deadpan humor like no one else. And it’s a bit surreal to watch Joe Rogan in one of his early roles, playing a meathead named Joe.

An actor I would watch in anything: Bill Hader

My favorite blockbuster: The Fugitive is as close as you can get to a perfect—for lack of a better phrase—popcorn movie. Brisk pacing! Snappy dialogue! A few huge action sequences counterbalanced with grisled guys in frumpy suits working the phones! I’ve probably seen it 50 times. [Related: Hollywood doesn’t make movies like The Fugitive anymore.]

Best novel I’ve recently read: I’m currently reading Laura Zigman’s Small World, about two middle-aged sisters who move in together, bringing decades of family baggage into the house. I don’t want to give too much of it away, but I’m in awe of Zigman’s ability to weave biting humor and tenderness so closely together.

An author I will read anything by: Richard Price [Related: Two good old-fashioned young novelists]

A song I’ll always dance to: Le Tigre, “Deceptacon.” Hit play and try to keep your body still. It’s impossible!

“When the Walkmen announced a five-night run in Manhattan in April, I impulsively bought tickets for all five shows,” John says. Above: The band performing in Washington, D.C., in 2013 (Leigh Vogel / Getty for Thread)

My go-to karaoke song: Patti Smith, “Because the Night.” I’m a horrible singer, but singing is salvation for me. I like to belt this one out on a Friday or Saturday night at Montero’s, an old fisherman’s dive bar near the East River in Brooklyn. I usually throw in a kick when the pre-chorus starts. I write about this a little bit in my book, Life on Delay, but singing relies on a different part of the brain than we use for speaking, and I never stutter when I sing. It’s freeing. Scores of current or former stutterers have turned to music at some point in their lives: Elvis Presley, Kendrick Lamar, Carly Simon, Ed Sheeran, Bill Withers, Noel Gallagher—to name just a few.

My favorite sad song: Charles Bradley’s cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” absolutely slays me. It transcends what you think of as recorded music—it’s as if Bradley’s soul is imprinted on the track. The full backstory about Bradley and his mother around the time of the recording makes it all the more poignant.

My favorite angry song: Thee Oh Sees, “I Come From The Mountain.” Whenever I’m stressed or anxious, I crank this as loud as I possibly can and head-bang at my desk. Colson Whitehead told 60 Minutes that they’re on his writing playlist!

A favorite story I’ve read in The Atlantic: Annie Lowrey’s deeply vivid, personal account of her experience with pregnancy was the most memorable piece of journalism I read last year, full stop. It’ll stay with me forever.

A good recommendation I recently received: David Sims recently recommended to me the Apple series For All Mankind, sort of like Mad Men crossed with Apollo 13. [Related: How the space fantasy became banal]

The last thing that made me snort with laughter: Watch this clip from “The PriceMaster.” It’s one minute of your life. Trust me.

Read past editions of the Culture Survey with Gal Beckerman, Kate Lindsay, Xochitl Gonzalez, Spencer Kornhaber, Jenisha Watts, David French, Shirley Li, David Sims, Lenika Cruz, Jordan Calhoun, Hannah Giorgis, and Sophie Gilbert.

The Week Ahead

Maybe I Do, a romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Luke Bracey, William H. Macy, and Emma Roberts (in theaters Friday) Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia, a posthumous book by David Graeber (Tuesday) The docuseries The 1619 Project, an expansion of the book by Nikole Hannah-Jones (first two episodes premiere Thursday on Hulu)

More in Culture

The film that accurately captures teen grief When good pain turns into bad pain This is the band that’s supposedly saving rock and roll? The calamitous lies of adulthood A slick mystery that takes place entirely on screens Skinamarink is a delightful nightmare. The line that Velma crossed

Catch Up on The Atlantic

The Supreme Court justices do not seem to be getting along. Despite everything you think you know, America is on the right track. How Joe Biden wins again

Photo Album

A snow leopard against a backdrop of the mountains of Ladakh in northern India (© Sascha Fonseca / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Check out some entries in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest (and vote for your favorite).

Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.