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Almost two seasons into her time on Saturday Night Live, cast member Melissa Villasenor finds herself in a conundrum not unlike that faced by former cast member Jay Pharoah during his SNL tenure. Pharoah, who was on the show from 2010-2016, was a fantastic impressionist, always nailing his subjects, but was never able to evolve beyond mimicry or establish original characters that might have broken out him of the “just an impressionist” box.

Like Pharoah, Villasenor was clearly hired for her ability to capture voices. In December 2015, the year before she joined the show, she posted a video to YouTube of herself performing her favorite celebrity voices, and her talent was clear. Bjork, Mickey Mouse, Joan Cusack, and especially Maria Bamford and Whitney Cummings all came off note perfect. (Villasenor has a special talent for capturing other female comedians. Considering the premise of this essay, I consider it almost a crime that we haven’t seen her Bamford and Cummings impressions on the show. They’re exceptional.)

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So far, Villasenor has been unable to establish any regular, repeating characters, be they impressions or original characters. Her impressions are always spot on, but none have stuck and returned the way, for example, Kate McKinnon established the likes of Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Angela Merkel. Neither of these characters are regularly in the news (here in the U.S., at least), but beloved by fans for the original quirks McKinnon give them. Given her place as the show’s best technical impressionist, it’s not only surprising that Villasenor hasn’t become a regular presence at the “Weekend Update” desk, but incredibly, she has never done a character there. This is mystifying and, given her gifts, inexcusable.

But the problem is, while Villasenor can cleanly channel the voices of others, her presence as herself, or as characters she has to establish from scratch, is lacking. She can call up any number of vocal ticks and traits for others at a moment’s notice, but she has little effect on a blank canvas. As an actress, when she’s not pulling from a specific inspiration, the Villasenor we’ve seen so far is never more than herself, never giving characters a personality beyond her own. The mimicry is perfection, but the acting talent beyond that is underdeveloped. This may be why her excellent impressions have yet to evolve beyond the obvious, failing to find a unique niche that might catapult them into original situations.

Here are a few of the sketches that have made her strengths and weaknesses so apparent.

"Zoo-opolis"

Original Airdate: 3/5/17

This is by far the highlight of Villasenor’s time on the show to date. The sketch featured a voice acting session for a rip-off of Zootopia, with Villasenor, Alex Moffat, Kenan Thompson, Beck Bennett, and host Octavia Spencer doing impressions of celebrities as cartoon animals. Not unlike the show’s Audition sketches, this was just an excuse for impressions, and it showed Villasenor in her element as she nailed them all with ease. After giving Jennifer Lopez an appropriately breathy quality, her halting Kristen Wiig was mirror-perfect, and then she laid down equally carbon copy takes on Kathy Griffin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Owen Wilson, and McKinnon. If Villasenor never finds a way to make herself a significant contributor to SNL, this sketch will serve as the eternal marker of what might have been.

"Bedroom"

Original Air Date: 2/28/17

This sketch, while successful overall, showed why Villasenor has been unable to evolve beyond impressions. This has her and host Aziz Ansari playing a couple who try to expand their bedroom repertoire with dirty talk. (It’s not her fault that this sketch, because of Aziz’s recent issues, hasn’t aged exceptionally well.) The problem is that Villasenor’s character doesn’t really get it, coming up with increasingly inappropriate or unsexy scenarios. The star here was the genuinely funny script, and Ansari was appropriately frustrated as Villasenor’s boyfriend. But while Villasenor nailed the laugh lines, she didn’t seem all that present in the scenario. The shift between what was working and what wasn’t in bed, while frustrating Ansari, wasn’t emotionally detectable in Villasenor. Acting is reacting, and her reactions seemed rote and unchanging with each further disappointment. That she managed to wedge two impressions into the sketch (Wilson and Wanda Sykes) felt more like a crutch than an interjection that made sense in context.

Sarah Silverman

Original Air Date: 10/2/16

Villasenor could do a year’s worth of Netflix comedy specials all by herself. Her Sarah Silverman only appeared once, and briefly at that, but it was perfection, capturing Silverman’s coy sense of boundary breaking. Hopefully, this impression will return. For more of her excellent Sarah Silverman off of SNL, though, watch this.

"Fashion Panel" / "Puerto Rican Mayor"

Original Air Dates: 1/13/18 and 1/30/17

These two sketches show how when she’s not performing impressions, Villasenor often gets relegated to more of a straight-person role. Her character in the Fashion Panel sketch (a director of a women’s shelter) and her take on Puerto Rican mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz in the “Chaos President” Cold Open were both there to set up others for laughs, and that’s often where Villasenor finds herself when not doing impressions. She’ll need to find ways to be funny beyond just uncanny recreations of others if she wants to make any kind of lasting impact on SNL.

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.