The daughter of established actress, Blythe Danner, and film producer Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth is no stranger to show business.  She reached a premature peak in the late ’90s in critically-lauded films, such as Sliding Doors and Shakespeare in Love, only to virtually disappear for a few years and starring in a slew of less acclaimed films, like Austin Powers and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  A decade has passed since her last hosting stint, and Paltrow's life has changed; she's now the wife of Coldplay's Chris Martin, a mother of two children named Apple and Moses, and an amateur country singer, as seen in her latest film, Country Strong.  As much as Paltrow's life has changed in the past few years, her return to the SNL stage marked the same obvious enthusiasm and energy she carried ten years ago.

Cold Open – Kristen Wiig's crooked-mouthed Greta van Susteren is joined by fellow Fox News conservative contributors, Sean Hannity (Moynihan), Michelle Malkin (Pedrad) and Glenn Beck (Sudeikis) in hopes of simmering the heated political rhetoric following the Tucson tragedy, involving Cornell alumnus and congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  Enter liberal commentators James Carville (Hader) and Rachel Maddow (Elliott), spewing their liberal views on the aforementioned conservative commentators, shattering any hopes of reconciliation.  This was definitely one of the strongest political openings of the season so far, and showcased this cast's consistently strong impressions.

Monologue – When the online world discovered that Paltrow would host SNL with Cee Lo Green, forums and blogs became abuzz with rumors that Paltrow would do a duet of “Forget You” with Green, after her strong rendition of the song on Glee.  Although the online community was correct in predicting a duet, the monologue took a strange turn as Paltrow joked about her incompetence toward country music (a slight nod to the box-office bomb, Country Strong), which somehow ended up with a strange trio of herself, Green and Kenny Rogers (Sudeikis) singing Kenny Roger and Dolly Parton's (Wiig) famous duet, “Islands in the Stream.”

The Cape Spinoffs – SNL frequently takes a few jabs at its own television network, NBC, and it continued its legacy of NBC-spoofs with spinoffs of The Cape that included a variety of other items of clothing, such as The Leg Warmer, The Bolo Tie, The Smock and the inexcusable, The Spanx.

Secret Word – I didn't think that this sketch would resonate with audiences, but apparently, it does – it recurred for the umpteenth time.  Wiig returned as the incompetent celebrity game-show partner, Mindy Grayson, while Paltrow settled as her counterpart, a babbling socialite, Titsy Dublinson.  It was expected that Wiig would start her spastic dancing again in this sketch (or in any sketch, for that matter), but I particularly enjoyed her Eastern-styled dancing to the background Indian music.

Digital Short – I would argue that this both was the most irrelevant but amazing digital short ever, bringing together two modern-day American icons: Pee Wee Herman and Anderson Cooper.  Samberg and Pee Wee Herman went on a drunken escapade, ending up at an intervention with cast members Wiig, Armisen and Thompson as well as the beloved talking furniture from Peewee’s Playhouse.  It was, literally, the most fun I've ever had watching a digital short, and hearing Anderson Cooper refer to his own eyes as “national treasures” just hit the spot.

Bar Mitzvah Boy – Cue the Jew jokes – this sketch is about a young boy's (Bayer) bar mitzvah!  This sketch became a hotbed of the cast's musical impressions as they delivered their artists' respective hits but with a Jewish twist.  Taylor Swift (Paltrow), Katy Perry (Elliott), Jay-Z (Pharaoh), and Alicia Keys (Pedrad) were present.  And Vanessa Bayer's ability to ace the role of a apathetic and slightly ambiguous pre-teen Jewish boy really impressed.

“Forget You” Intro – I don't think this has ever been previously done on SNL, but it was fun, seeing a sketch introduce a following musical performance (in this case, Cee Lo's performance of “Forget You”).  Essentially, the whole sketch revolved around the FCC regulating Cee Lo's song, resulting in a long string of strange replacements for curse words. Overall, it was a clever but forgettable sketch.

Weekend Update – Nothing too special resulted from this week's Weekend Update, but I was surprised by Meyer's new politically charged segment, the Constitution Corner.  He tackled the issue of gun control in a witty and reasonable manner, but I'm sure my opinion would differ from those who oppose gun control.  Guests included the largely “that was so three months ago” rent-is-too-damn-high guy, Jimmy McMillan (Thompson), and annoyingly unprepared, improv singers Garth and Kat (Armisen, Wiig).  I personally never found Garth and Kat to be funny, but apparently, the folks at SNL think otherwise, as they're brought out time and time again.  Weekend Update's format was shaken up a little bit by the “Golden Globe Red Carpet Correspondent,” Vanessa Bayer, who interviewed Christina Aguilera (Pedrad) and Cher (Hader) from their nominated movie, Burlesque.  Of course, Cher's transgendered son Chaz (Moynihan) made an unnecessary appearance.

Globe Theater Previews – Every once in a full moon, SNL will have a great concept and execute it beautifully – this was one of those sketches.  They applied modern-day movie-going conventions, such as concession stands and movie previews, to the Shakespearean era, resulting in angry medieval audiences who screamed, “hell nay!” They thought the theater previews for Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet exposed the plays’ entire plot.  This was an uncharacteristically well-crafted sketch.

The Fresh Prince 20^th Anniversary – There is no argument that featured cast member, Jay Pharaoh, does great impressions, as seen in this sketch with his impeccable impression of Will Smith in The Fresh Prince.  However, I'd love to see Pharaoh venture into different avenues on SNL, perhaps an avenue that doesn't include soon-to-get-stale male Black celebrity impersonations.

Sportscenter Deportes – It was very nice to see featured cast member, Paul Brittain, finally getting some airtime as he played a Spanish sportscaster across from his female co-host, played by Paltrow.  The sketch was almost entirely in Spanish, with random English phrases peppered every few seconds, almost mocking the blandness of the English language.

Parker/Spitzer Auditions – First of all, nobody is even watching the Parker/Spitzer talk-show on CNN, making this sketch unnecessary.  But more importantly, more impressions? Are you serious?  I appreciate the strong impressions from the cast, but everything about this sketch seemed incredibly unnecessary – especially bringing back New York Governor, David Paterson (Armisen) to face disgraced politician turned news-show host, Elliot Spitzer (Hader).

Musical Guest – The vocal half of Gnarls Barkley, Cee Lo Green, performed his novelty hit “Forget You” along with his new song, “Bright Lights Bigger City.”  Overall, Green produced surprisingly good performances, accompanied by his all-female background band.

Overall Episode – B

Again, like last week's Jim Carrey / The Black Keys' episode, this was not an awful episode, but something kept it from being truly top-notch.  This could very well be attributed to Ms. Paltrow, who missed the first half of rehearsal week because of this past week's snowstorm in New York, but as always, Paltrow sparkled throughout the entirety of the night, regardless of whether her material was actually funny or not.  She proved to be a willing and fun host.

Next week, NBC will air a repeat of the Robert DeNiro / Diddy-Dirty Money episode.  On Jan. 29, star of The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg, will host with with musical guest, Nicki Minaj.