December can be a strange month. I started working on my 2012 top ten list when it struck me that I had completely forgot to do a write up for the last NBC comedy block. Between many family Christmas activities, the end of the fantasy football season, throwing a New Year's Eve party, and spending as much time as possible with a friend of mine who was home from Hawaii for a few weeks, it never even entered my mind. These episodes aired way back on December 6th, so nearly a month ago. If you can still remember them, here are some quick thoughts.
30 Rock - "My Whole Life is Thunder"
Two weddings in two weeks! You can tell this show is nearing the end of its run. Also, there was a character death. Jack's mom has made for some great comedy over the years, but it was her time to go and it was handled perfectly. It wouldn't make any sense for this type of show to try and be maudlin about someone dying, but they managed to be respectful about Jack losing his mother, while still being funny. There was also some wonderful editing for Jack's greatest eulogy of all time, just enough snippets for us to fill in the rest. I did think it was kind of strange that Jenna wasn't at Liz's wedding, so I'm glad they addressed that. Liz and Jenna fighting is nothing new, and I feel like a lot of the humor from the woman awards show was derived from New York insides jokes, but it was still a solid plot. The Kenneth and Tracey story was extra silly, but I don't care because Florence Henderson was amazing. Her chugging the cleaning product while Kenneth curses Jacob (yay Lost!) was the thing that made me laugh the hardest this episode.
The Office - "Dwight Christmas"
This is getting really weird, another good Office episode. The loss of Andy has been a real plus for this show, and now I'm kind of dreading when he returns. The Dwight and Jim stuff was by far the strongest portion of the episode. All those years of being at each other's throats seems to have led to a strange friendship, at least enough of a friendship that Dwight is sad to see Jim leaving. On the other hand, Jim seemed to be truly enjoying himself at Dwight's dutch Christmas, not just in a "Dwight is so weird" way. While the loss of Andy has been a plus, I fear losing Jim to Philadelphia for a few episodes may be a big minus. Meanwhile, Darryl thinking that he had been abandoned by Jim and getting really drunk led to some great work by Craig Robinson. The other major subplot from the episode was Erin and Pete getting closer. They were calling him new Jim in the beginning of the year, and it's fitting more and more. This story could have been lifted wholesale from Jim and Pam back in the day. Guy with a crush on a girl. Girl kind of likes him back, but is already dating a guy. I should be annoyed about the recycled plot element, but it's been nine years, some things are going to be repeated. Also, the Jim and Pam stories were some of the strongest back in the first few seasons, so it gets a pass.
Parks and Recreation - "Ron and Diane"
First things first. Ron at a woodworking conference, amazing. Ron is so stoic all the time that it's great to see him actually excited about something every so often. Throw Tammy II into the mix, and we have a great episode. I love the way Megan Mullally throws herself into the horrible craziness that is Ron's ex-wife. The Ron and Leslie relationship is one that's been built over years of this show and we understand fully why the two of them are so close, but it makes complete sense that an outsider may see her as a threat. That particular point was handled in the most perfect way possible, by giving us more Duke Silver! In the other half of the episode we have Jerry's wonderful Christmas party. I love the fact that Jerry has an amazing life outside of work, and of course Gale would be Christie Brinkley. She was horrible at acting, but that wasn't the point. The point was Ben's flabbergasted reaction to meeting her. Chris seems to be progressing well in his therapy and I'm glad the writers paired him back up and Ben for an episode. And because it's Christmas (and they really wanted to get into the party), Tom, April, Andy, and Donna actually do something nice for Jerry.
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