Saturday Night Live
Walton Goggins & Arcade Fire
May 10, 2025
Walton Goggins is having a moment. Thanks to his simultaneous roles in The White Lotus and The Righteous Gemstones, he was all but unavoidable this winter/spring; and let us not overlook his starring role in Fallout, too (which just wrapped filming season two, hooray!).
Of course, Goggins has been serving sexy dirtbag energy for a long while now, delivering memorable performances in Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Vice Principals, and The Shield and going as far back as the original Beverly Hills 90210 where he played “Mike Muchin” in an 1992 episode I’m sure we all remember.
Just look at that collar.
This is a long way to go to say that it took a minute, but Goggins is one of those rare character actors whose talent and charisma has finally been appreciated by the audience at large, and has overcome the odds to become something of a household name. As such, it’s not a surprise he’s hosting Saturday Night Live this week — but it was a surprise at how little the show exploited his particular energy and brand. Of the six characters he played, only two were typical Goggins roles. Otherwise, the episode leaned into surrealist comedy, and relegated Goggins to the straight man, which often felt like a waste of his particular and specific talents.
