No Office this week to make room for a double dose of 30 Rock. I'm afraid that lowers the bitching of this post considerably.
Community - "Contemporary Impressionists"
This episode showcased one of the things Community does best, being really silly but have a strong message behind it. The whole of the study group dressed up as famous people and Jeff ended up hulking out, but the core of the story was Troy realizing that being friends with Abed can have its challenges. Troy wants Abed to be the person that brings wonderment to his life, but now he's realized that he has to be the person that brings Abed back to Earth sometimes. Strong work from Donald Glover in that final scene between the two. It was fun trying to figure out who some of the impressions were, and Gillian Jacobs makes a wonderful white Michael Jackson. Jeff's narcissism story was perfect for the character and became especially strong when he realized that things were going to go bad but couldn't help himself. The best part, though, was Dean Pelton writhing on the floor after seeing super swag Jeff, one of the funniest things I've seen all year.
30 Rock - "Grandmentor"
The lesser of the two episodes this week, but still pretty good. I really like Kristen Schaal and her obsession with Liz is well played (she does great voice work on Bob's Burgers, too). Liz's having a mentee only leads to more great mentoring talks with Jack, and I'm all about that. The two of them have been mostly apart for the past few episodes, and it was good to have them back together. I'm not crazy about Kenneth quitting his job, I was really liking him there, and I'm really going to miss the head of standards and his foul mouth. Jenna's way of landing the part of Avery was inspired in a very horrible, Jenna way, and Tracey going off the rails (more so than usual) is pretty entertaining.
30 Rock - "Kidnapped by Danger"
Holy crap, there were a bunch of guest stars in this episode. Mary Steenburgen returns, and we also get Weird Al Yankovic, Jimmy Fallon, Cynthia Nixon, and Billy Baldwin as the guy playing Jack in a TV movie about Avery being kidnapped. Good call backs to how strange Avery and Jack ending up together was, and having a Baldwin brother on was an inspired choice, they all look so similar. It was also good to see Avery's mom again, and I'm glad they still acknowledge that their whole sexual dynamic is weird. Liz as 'The Blocker' fits in perfectly with her character. I'm still on the fence about Kenneth's new job. It was nice to see the different dynamic when he was in a position of power, but now that he's back to a menial job (lower than before), he's back to being just the crazy underling. It was a good moment when he dropped the sunny veneer, but overall I'm still not crazy about this new path. I imagine he'll be back in his page job by the end of the season, if not before.
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