30 Rock premieres for its final season! With Community moving to Fridays (premiering someday) and most likely going to be cancelled and The Office and 30 Rock announcing final seasons, Parks and Recreation may be the only survivor of the two hour comedy block I loved. I enjoy Go On, so there's promise in the NBC comedy lineup, but most of the new stuff is crap. A presidential debate preempted everything except 30 Rock on Week 4, so we've got two reviews for that this post and one of each for the other shows.
30 Rock
"The Beginning of the End"
Unlike The Office, I will miss this show when it ends. There were some rough patches, but it never hit the lows The Office is currently in, and it looks to be going out strong. I love the cartoon world that this show lives in. It's the kind of place where Tracey Jordan can be the most sane one, while still being off his rocker. His dinner party with Kenneth and Hazel was crazy weird in an awesome way. Jack has a grand scheme to tank the network, putting on horrible shows like "God Cop," which aren't too far off the mark of the crazy stuff that is really on the air today. Liz is still trying to make a baby with Criss and still full of hilarious sexual hangups. I hope they keep these stories up thoughout the year, 30 Rock has just dropped things in the past, but being the final year, I'm hoping for a more coherent plan. The Jenna plot was just kind of blah, until she started floating in the air, that really picked up that story. It was a good episode overall, but the thing that made me laugh the most was the tag with NBC's new game show "Homonym." The answer always being "the other one" just really got to me for some reason.
"Governor Dunston"
Guest stars galore! Bryan Cranston and Catherine O'Hare as Kenneth's Mom and "friend," and Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Cooter Burger. I love Bryan Cranston to death, but the Jenna-Kenneth plot was by far the weakest of the entire episode. He still nailed the great line about replacing Ken's father, though. The Liz, Jack, and Tracey stuff was all excellent to make up for it. I like how it hearkened back to Tina Fey's time impersonating a VP candidate. The titular governor was so far over the top that they even managed to avoid any political commentary. Liz being turned on by being organized was the highlight of the episode, leading to the great scene in Staples accompanied by Tracey's singing.
The Office - "Andy's Ancestry"
Great cold open. One of the best Jim pranks Dwight ideas they've had in a long time. Asian Jim, just perfect. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode had to happen after that. Everything dealing with Andy was just bad, really bad. It led to a few better things, though. Darryl being frustrated, Pam and Nellie hanging out, and Jim finally letting Pam know about his new job. The Jim and Darryl scene in the warehouse was the highlight of the episode. It was a real human moment on a show that tends to lack those.
Parks and Recreation - "How a Bill Becomes a Law"
Each week, Leslie is learning more about being a city councilwoman and I'm really digging how it's playing out. This week, it's government corruption and the backroom deals that need to be made to get anything done in local government. The half perm that Leslie has that keeps getting more and more messed up was a wonderful sight gag. I'm just going to say this up front, Lucy Lawless is the perfect person to play a Ron Swanson love interest. Andy and Ron pairings are always great because the complete opposite temperaments they have. Andy playing princess while Ron glowers and fixes things was a lot of fun to watch. Andy being the final push to get Diane and Ron out on a date was a nice capper to that story. The Ben and April story was much improved from last time with just the two of them hanging out in a car. I would love to read some of Ben's TNG fan fiction.
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