Community is gone (for now), but 30 Rock is back. After taking some leave time for Tina Fey's pregnancy, 30 Rock returns to the Thursday night block in this new year for its sixth season. While I certainly miss Community, it sure is nice to have 30 Rock back. Due to being away the night the comedy block returned, I'll be, briefly, tackling the first two episodes of 2012 for each of the shows this week.
30 Rock
"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"
I know this was a planned move, but it was nice of the show to enter with them coming back from the holiday hiatus. A lot of shows that get moved to midseason don't have that luxury and you can see a Halloween episode appearing in February. That elevator scene was also a reminder of the best part of the show, the relationship between Liz and Jack. The world of 30 Rock is a heightened, cartoonish world, but that core relationship gives many episodes something to ground itself in, as it did here. Jack not realizing that Liz has a new boyfriend was a good reveal at the end. America's Kidz Got Talent was a great addition to the list of fake NBC shows this show has used for parody, especially with the recent additions of X-Factor and The Voice to the airwaves. It makes perfect sense that Jenna would be the mean judge, but it was genius to have John McEnroe as one of the happy judges (and D'Fwan from Mrs. Jordan's reality show). He's done it a few times now, but I guess I'm just a sucker for Johnny Mac playing nice now. A solid return for the show.
"Idiots Are People Two!"
The first of a two-parter, interesting. I may be wrong, but I can't remember them ever doing that before. I'm not a big fan of "in media res" openings, but I will admit that view of Pete on the floor cracked me up. The problem was I spent the rest of the episode wondering when Kelsey Grammer was going to show up and he didn't until the very end. Once again the Jack-Liz stuff was the best parts of the episode, but this time there was the added wrinkle of Criss Chros. Jack being in her head was a good bit and, as expected, his checks are amazing. I liked James Marsden a lot, too, he's not asked to be funny usually and it turns out he's pretty good at it. Tracey had a nice plot mirroring real life with Morgan's gay slurs. I'm glad the show moved away from it pretty fast and went to Jordan organizing all the idiots to rally. I was confused by Denise Richards showing up, they really gave her nothing to do but stand there, it was strange. The whole Jenna and Kenneth plot was pretty forgettable. Jenna rarely has good plots and Kenneth kind of ran his course with the occasional good moment these days. Putting the two of them together was probably not a good idea, but it brought back Kelsey Grammer, so there is at least that.
Parks and Recreation
"The Comeback Kid"
All I really need to say about this episode is "Get on Your Feet!" That was an amazing bit of slapstick that only got funnier the longer it went and every time the music came back on. After the heartfelt ending of everyone coming together for her, this episode was needed to show that there is still a lot of work to do. These people may have a lot of heart, but zero experience. It was also good they addressed the Ben question. Everyone expected him to be the campaign manager, but I'm glad they made it a process instead of immediately. Seeing Ben and Chris together again was fun and Ben enthusiasm for calzones (The Low Cal Calzone Zone) and claymation was well played. His eventual breakdown at the badness of the claymation was the perfect catalyst. And now Ben is running the campaign and everything will, of course, go smoothly.
"Campaign Ad"
Wait, no it won't, big surprise! Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd, has entered the race and has his Sweetums family fortune to back him up. I laughed at Paul Rudd, but I think it would have been better if his idiocy was not revealed until the meet at the end. The conflict over whether to runa negative ad of not was a good way to differentiate between Leslie and Ben. Of course Leslie's dream would be to never run an attack ad, but Ben has seen defeat and knows the real world. It's a good compromise at the end and it was a funny process making both ads. I've been saying "Bobby Newport" in the Don LaFontaine voice ever since, and someone posted all of the Leslie "pros" online. April and Andy continue their growing up process in the only way they know how, doing it all at once. Andy listing everything wrong with him was great, I especially liked eating Twix with the wrapper and never seeing the wrapper again. Him busting his head on the wall and running into the ambulance were wonderful physical bits.
The Office
"Trivia"
This episode marked a slight improvement to the usual this year. I didn't much care for the Florida subplot, mostly because I can't stand Gabe. It did have Dwight's "extraordinary piece of crap" line, so I'll give it that. The A-plot of the Trivia contest was very good, though. A nice story of the office coming together even if the reason for it was a little contrived. When the groups split up by themselves into the "A" team, "Backup" team, and "Just Have Fun" team was the best part. Of course the "Just Have Fun" team was going to win, but it was fun getting to that point.
"Pool Party"
Now here was a good episode of this show. I still don't care about April and Andy getting back together, but they are nudging me back in that direction and April and Dwight's flirting was hilarious. The relationship I am interested in is Darryl and Val, and we get slight forward movement on that front here. Getting this group of people out of their everyday surrounds once and a while is a good kick to the show, and while they may have just done that last week at trivia, they didn't get to interact in the same fashion as they did this time. There were a lot of fun things at the party, Dwight collapsing in the pool, Darryl doing his cannonball, Jim unable to leave, Robert descriptions of his hypothetical parties, and Toby digging himself deeper into the wine lover facade. The best part, though, was the quick shot of Creed lying by the pool playing a guitar in a speedo. Classic Creed.
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