The first of two episodes of 30 Rock this week began with the second half of last week’s episode in which we saw Tracy offend the gay community, which in turn led to Liz offending Tracy by calling him the idiot that he is. To spite Liz, Tracy decides to start an idiots movement. Jack discovered Liz’s new boyfriend and Kenneth and Jenna were off on their own side adventure. Kelsey Grammer will somehow be the solution to Kenneth and Jenna’s pickle with Pete.
I wasn’t sure what I thought about the first half of this two-part episode. It had its moments but it was not memorable nor was it very funny. Any indifference I felt going into the final episode was immediately erased when I saw Will Arnett on my screen. Yes!
Next best part of the episode – Criss managed to drop a very well placed “that’s what she said” during his conversation with Liz. I miss Michael Gary Scott on The Office and a well-timed, well-played “that’s what she said” will never grow old with me. I already like the first two minutes of this week’s episode of 30 Rock far more than the 20+ minutes I watched last Thursday.
Criss is still a work in progress. I know that he is supposed to be the anti-Dennis Duffy but is he really? Yes he’s sweeter but like Dennis, he is a bit of a dimwit and has an endless number of hair-brained ideas as evidenced by his hot dog van. I’m not writing Criss off just yet but nothing beats Dennis Duffy greeting Liz Lemon with an enthusiastic “hey dummy.”
Tracy’s observation that “there are idiots all around us” seemed apt in light of all the nonsense on this episode. Viewers ultimately saw the characters accepting that the occasional bonehead move doesn’t mean its the end of the world. Although I’m sure that Jenna, Kenneth and Kelsey were acting like idiots, the “Best Friend” gang’s final set up of Pete was great. Jack allowed Devon Banks, also an idiot, to dupe him into using his connections to get the Banks triplets into an elite private school. Naturally Jack feared the consequences of his idiotic decision when the time would come for Lippy Liddy to start school. He ultimately realized and embraced the fact that he was a self-made man who was not afforded the luxuries of elite schools. In realizing that he turned out just fine without fancy prep schools, Jack was reassured that Liddy would be okay too and that she’d be more than ready to take down the Banks triplets 30 years down the road.
This week’s episode of 30 Rock was pretty enjoyable and a much funnier improvement over last week. I loved the apology the idiots prepared for Liz Lemon to read.
Other thoughts and observations:
>Criss to Liz about a hot dog she just took a bite out of: “Yesterday that was the face, feet and colon of a pig.” Woof.
>Discovering that Liz Lemon cheats at board games at 40-years-old warrants a “Good God Lemon.”
>”My ringtone is the chicken dance. If I answer it, I can’t hear the whole song.” – Tracy
>”These microphones look like black ice cream cones.” – Denise Richards
On a totally random note, it grind my gears a bit that NBC would choose to show 2 episodes of 30 Rock in one night while another great show, Community, is on hiatus. I will never understand NBC’s logic in benching Community and randomly putting two episodes of 30 Rock on in one week just makes the decision that much more confusing. That and the choice to keep Whitney on the air. Zing!
What did you think about 30 Rock? Feel free to share any of your favorite contributions made by idiots.
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