The Office takes a week off to leave room for an extra 30 Rock. Since 30 Rock has a full season order even though it didn't premiere until midseason, I imagine there's going to be a number of weeks where The Office, Parks and Recreation, or Up All Night takes a breather for a week.
30 Rock - "Idiots Are People, Three!"
The ripping conclusion to last week's installment! First and foremost I have to give credit to Denise Richards after commenting that her presence was useless last week. The elevator gag was a little too much, but the rest of her work was good, especially the joke about her role in The World is Not Enough. When people make fun of that movie, they always go first to Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist. Kelsey Grammer seems to really revel in playing the fixer role and I would welcome any return of the Best Friends Gang in the future. The real crux of the story, as usual, was Jack and Liz. More specifically, Liz coming to realize that it doesn't matter if Criss is kind of an idiot, as long as he makes her happy, and Jack coming to that same realization.
Parks and Recreation - "Bowling for Votes"
Not the greatest of episodes. Still pretty good, but Leslie was a little too much over the top in her need to be liked. Leslie has her flaws, and wanting people to like her is one of them, but this seemed too far. It was also a little pat that everything turned out fine in the end. At this stage of the game, since she's so far behind, it has to if Leslie is going to make any kind of serious run. The bowling plot did lead to some great Ron and Tom material. Ron's favorite restaurant in town being the snack bar and his embarrassment for Tom and his bowling style ("Son, people can see you!"). The other characters have their plot of raising money, which leads to Jerry's daughter dumping Chris. It's always nice to get an April is not completely evil plot. I was never a big fan of Chris dating Jerry's daughter, but mostly because I didn't think he wouldn't be so oblivious in the way he would speak about it to Jerry. The best moment was Champion hating awkward situations.
30 Rock - "The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell"
Jenna and Kenneth have been my least favorite characters for a while now. Here comes an episode that justifies why they are still around, and I laughed at it throughout. Well done, 30 Rock writers. Liz and Jenna's falling out led to some fun stuff for Liz trying to find a new best friend, and Jenna's new group of friends had Mankind! Man, that took me back. Kenneth's half was mostly funny because of Jack and his mistake bringing him down to everyone else's level, even Lutz. So I guess I didn't find Jenna or Kenneth all that funny, but they were the impetus for the parts I found funny, better than nothing. The Tracey story was the weakest, but I did enjoy his depressing thoughts CD and him making his scheme elaborate because he had a light week. Nice cameos in the fake Martin Luther King Day trailer, too.
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