Anyone still watching this? It gets funnier every week!
Alec Baldwin’s acting of Tracy’s “family” was utterly hilarious.
And Carrie Fisher - “Liz come here, I need you!” Totally nerdy, I almost wet myself
The whole page thing was kind of weak, but I like the way they all ran around like hobbits or something when anything page-related happened. But, it was a weird story line.
There’s so little of the writers and Liz’s co-head-writer guy anymore. It’s all very Tracy-centric lately…but Baldwin is the best part of that show.
I was a little worried about the Carrie Fisher storyline once we got past the introduction. It started off promising–those “laugh-in” style sketches were the perfect send-up of how dated that comedy seems today, right down to everyone nodding about the Haldeman reference. But for me the veer into “she isn’t radical, she’s just insane” threatened to derail the whole thing. Fortunately the scene in the apartment was a pretty good payoff, right down to her final line “Help me Liz Lemon, you’re my only hope!” (I was really wondering if they could wedge a ‘Star Wars’ reference in).
Baldwin is one of the best things about the show; his impressions of Tracy’s family dug up every movie cliche imaginable, and i laughed outlous when he said “Too bad you didn’t know Howard Cosell, because I had that one in my pocket.”
The page thing was just dumb, but they salvaged it with a pull-the-rug-out ending that made perfect sense. Overall a good episode, though “30 Rock” has done better episodes…
I’m starting to really like the show in general, and I liked last night’s episode for the low-key throwaway hilarious lines. I love no laugh track and no pausing for emphasis on a funny line. Baldwin immediately getting the mailbox/Haldemann reference–loved it.
So did Jack really fire his assistant? I know Tina Fey is being self-mocking when doing the bits with the comedy writers, but I don’t find their brand of stupid to be funny, so the less of them, the better. Adored the Star Wars reference.
Baldwin is the show. He picks up all the other characters and carries them on his back. Without him, the show would not be watchable. Who knew his timing and delivery could be so good?
The page stuff was stupid, but you know. . .the show takes risks. Stuff doesn’t always pan out, but sometimes the absurd things turn out to be sublime.
I almost wasn’t sure that was Baldwin doing the voices. I bet it took them forever to get through those takes. The shrink’s reactions really help deliver it too. Great scene.
Baldwin’s whole role-playing routine, with every black melodrama cliche imaginable, was a tour de force. That bit alone was funnier than anything Robin Williams has done in 10 years. It was made even funnier by the fact that Tracy was resonating with all of it so much.
So where in New York is “Little Chechnya”? Looks like a fun place…
This show makes me laugh just about as much as Arrested Development did and what’s great about it is that it is actually getting ratings and won’t be cancellation/hiatus bait. Yay. I do agree that the cast of characters seems to have contracted this year. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the writers as the season progresses.
I think the show just keeps getting better. I actually watched it twice. It made me notice that they had a copy of “The Japanese Pornstar Diet” at the bookstore although that kind of seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
“Adverlingus” made me laugh.
Alec Baldwin is just too awesome. I’m always thinking about his schwetty balls.
I thought the episode was overall pretty funny, with the therapy scene being one of the funniest scenes ever so far on 30 Rock. Alec Baldwin is amazing.
I might be missing something as well, but I thought that 30 Rock was making fun of Laugh In (or whatever Laugh-In type show that was supposed to be in the clip; I don’t remember if they actually said what show the mailbox sketch was from). Carrie Fisher’s character thought that they were sticking it to the man with their subversive political sketches and jokes on their show, when everyone else just saw it as silly and dumb gags like a talking mailbox falling over.
No, I think you got it. IMO a lot of political comedy suffers over time because it is horribly dated. Later ages see it as either a painfully obvious bit (like the Nixon “pardon” sketch; you don’t need to know much about Nixon to get this one, but it isn’t really that funny either) or an enigmatic curio (like the Haldeman bit, where any explanation would be so lengthy that your eyes would glaze over). It is a rare bit of political comedy that remains funny to future generations…“Laugh-In” in particular looks like an artifact from an ancient civilization, and that was on only 35-40 years ago.
Two weeks ago I was thinking of giving up Thursday night TV. This week both Earl and 30 Rock made laugh. As everyone has pointed out, Baldwin’s sketch was the best.
