Doubling up this week. As you may have noticed (probably not), there wasn't a post last week due to all extra time being spent on filling out my NCAA Tournament Brackets. Therefore, this post will cover the past two weeks of the NBC Thursday lineup. These two weeks give us our last Parks and Rec for a bit, but feature the return of Community (hence the two images above), so things even out.
Week 19
30 Rock - "Standards and Practices"
Well done, 30 Rock, that's why I remember liking this show. After two weeks of blah, they come back strong with a great episode. Chloe Moretz was great on her first appearance, but even better now because we know how devious she is instead of it being a surprise at the end. Her rapidfire delivery of the story about the Vicky's was spot on. You'd think Jack trying to destroy a teenager would seem wrong, but this show makes it work. Kenneth has really been rehabilitated as a character now that he's in his new job. Butting heads with Liz over the content of the show led to some great conflict, and his live bleeping of Tracey's stand-up is feet only Kenneth could perform. The Jenna story was not nearly as good, but Jenna stories tend to be that way. As always with 30 Rock, there's little things here and there that really make for a great episode. This one had Tracey getting his colonoscopy mixed up with his meeting with Colin O'Scopy and the head of standards blatantly disregarding all the rules he sets for TV content.
Parks and Recreation - "Lucky"
Not one of their better episodes overall. There are things to like, but nothing really knocked it out of the park like most Parks and Rec episodes. Amy Poehler plays a great drunk and a great drunk person trying to be sober. Sean Hayes was serviceable as the douchey TV host, but didn't really stand out like some past guest stars. While still not good, the Tom and Ann thing at least wasn't distracting this week. April and Andy continue to impress with their growing up story arc this year. Andy passes a college class and April tries to set up his teach with lonely Chris. The fact that she can't resist the manliness of Ron F'ing Swanson ("who's up for after dinner omelettes?") is understandable, but it comes full circle when Andy uses Ron's own advice against him. Donna's amazement at Jerry's envelope stuffing zen state was a lot of fun to watch, but overall didn't amount to much. Not the best episode to go out on, but they'll be back before long.
The Office - "Last Day in Florida"
Maybe one day this show will impress me again, but somehow I doubt it. The only thing I enjoyed about this episode was Jim being unrelenting in trying to help Dwight. They might not particularly like each other, but the two of them have come to an almost begrudging respect. The rest of the episode, though, just not very good. Erin trying to take care of the old lady is blah, and Darryl and Toby trying to vie for Kevin's cookie business was actually kind of bad. And now Andy is going to try and get Erin back, which I'll say again, I could care less about. The show really is trying to make me care, though.
Week 20
Community - "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts"
Community is back! Community is back! Community is back! Okay, got that out of my system. Not in the pantheon of greatest episodes, but a solid outing. Shirley has never been one of the most prominent characters, but after the foosball episode, I'm glad she's getting more stories. Pierce even got to be a human for few minutes with trying to set out on his own now that Hawthorne wipes has canned him. Britta finds something that she's actually good at, but of course being Britta, she's hates herself for being so good at it. That's right, Britta Britta'd being good at something. Her and Jeff drunkenly daring each other to get married because they hate marriage so much was built up to nicely. Troy and Abed being normal was a nice treat, too. It was almost a meta commentary that the weirdest characters on the show would act normal on one of Community's more normal-like episodes (I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "normal" Community episode, which is one of the reasons I like it so much). Andre thinking everything they say in normal speak was them being sarcastic was great, and in the end they decide it's best to just be themselves. All around, I'm just really glad to have this show back.
30 Rock - "St. Patrick's Day"
I love Dennis Duffy. Dean Winters returns to help Liz take another step in her relationship with Criss. I enjoyed Liz's hatred for St. Patrick's Day seeing how I was feeling similarly with the large influx of stupid drunk people in my neighborhood. I liked how most of the holiday's revelers were offscreen or funny background jokes. I got big kick out of the guy asking if it's the time on St. Patrick's Day when we share our feelings. I was also glad to see the return of Hazel, still trying to figure out how to handle Jenna and Tracey. I do hope they don't do too many Kenneth saves the day moments, I like him in his new job and I hope they don't send him back to the page program. Jenna and Tracey were used sparingly enough that their craziness didn't become overbearing. The Jack storyline feels like on we've been through before where he feels like his career is going nowhere. If we get some actual movement on this front it will be nice, but being 30 Rock, things never really change much.
The Office - "Get the Girl"
This show has really lost me. That entire episode was way too silly, and I like silly comedies. Cougar Town is super silly and it's one of my favorite shows on the air right now. The difference between these two shows is that I like and care about the characters on Cougar Town. With the exception of Darryl and his pursuit of Val (which we haven't seen in a while), I can't think of any other character that I really care about on this show anymore. For a long time it was Jim and Pam, and then Michael's slow transformation into a real human being and his pursuit of Holly. Now that Michael's gone and Jim and Pam are nowadays mostly insufferable, there's really nothing left. They're tying to recreate the Jim and Pam dynamic with Andy and Erin, and it worked for a bit. That well ran dry when they broke up for no real apparent reason a few seasons ago. There's still a few good laughs here and there, but the character dynamics just don't grab me anymore. They can still do good cold opens, and these days it's where I get most of my enjoyment. This week's was well done, but had the problem of reminding us of how far these characters haven't come over the years and reminding us of funnier times. I'm going to stick it out for the rest of the season, but that may be it for me.
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