Another tour de force. Bringing beeper salesman and Liz’s ex-boyfriend Dennis Duffy back was a masterstroke: “we’re llike Ross and Rachel, but just not gay.”
When Jack asks Kenneth who he would vote for, Kenneth says choosing is a sin and he just “always writes in the good Lord’s name,” I laughed out loud at Jack’s rejoinder “That’s Republican, we count those.” Even Tracy’s horrible commercial urging black people not to vote got me to laugh (“In the time it takes to vote, you could shoot three games of pool!”). Some may find these a bit edgy or even offensive, but it’s nice to see a comedy that deals with real-world conflicts for a change.
And Tim Conway…aimlessly wandering the halls of NBC and bumping into a “gigantic lesbian…Who is Conan O’Brien and why is she so sad?” The TV legend still has perfect comic timing and delivery.
It was going to be hard to top last week’s “MILF island”, but they did it. Best comedy on television.
My husband’s comment about Tim Conway was, “I wonder how many of his lines were actually written?” We both wondered how many takes it took to get through all of that with nobody cracking up.
I liked whatshisname - Dotcom? The smartest guy in the room. Heh.
I loved this episode. It was so good to have Jenna back. This show needs the crazy trifecta (Tracy, Jenna, and Jack) to be absolutely tops. Even if one of them is missing, it’s still good, but when all three are present, it’s amazing.
My favorite line was Dennis describing his politics as “social conservative, fiscal liberal.” Huh-what? How does that even work? And Tim Conway’s character describing Liz as a “sandwich girl.” Because she’d be so thrilled by that.
And Dennis’s proposal! To Elizabeth Sarah Lemon (that’s not her middle name).
Oh my god, this show is so good. Every line is hilarious, but it’s not forced. It’s not a punchline; it’s just funny.
I can’t believe this show is so great, but these discussion threads always come so late, and are so sparse with comments. There has to be more than 10 of us watching it, right?
I don’t ususally add much to these type threads; I just always look foward to reading what others have to say about the shows I really like, and the 30 Rock threads (or lack thereof) always amaze me at their lack of actual participation.
I love how Kenneth tells Tim Conway that he is ruining old television for him because of his crazy stories. He tell him he now has to leave to go to China town to pick up steroids for some tigers so they don’t realize their owner is gaining more weight…
Kenneth: “Ah…”
Conway: “Yep, there’s your crazy.”
I’ve thought about this, because I (obviously) think that every person who can should be watching this show, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason very few people participate in the threads is that a thread composed entirely of, “It was wonderful! Did you see the crazy thing that Blah did? So funny!” is really boring. There’s not much to argue over, because it’s all pretty good, and the characters are so unpredictable (while still staying in character), you can’t really discuss what’s going to happen next.
There also aren’t that many overarching plotlines. Like there’s Jack’s desire to be CEO when Rip Torn retires, but the things that would decide that happen offstage. And there’s Liz’s love life (or lack thereof). The show is very character-driven, not plot-driven, and that makes it more difficult to has over than something like, say, ER, which is a dram-uh filled soap opera.
Of course, if everyone wanted to talk about how Jack and Liz are totally destined for each other, even if they both would deny it, then I could blather for pages and pages.
I have similar sentiments to the lack of participation in 30 Rock/My Name Is Earl’s same-times competition Ugly Betty, but have come to the same conclusion.
I can understand this and agree to a certain extent. Obviously “The Office” has more to talk about because of the “Will they or won’t they” questions surrounding the Pam/Jim and Michael/Jan relationships (not to mention the plans at corporate). All of these involve a level of mystery that is completely absent from “30 Rock”, where each episode is fairly self-contained.
But on another level, the program is a rather wry satire of the TV industry and the idiots (me included) who watch it so intensely. “MILF Island”, for example, certainly hit on the things that make much of reality TV so schlocky, but it didn’t spare the audience who tunes in for the schlock weeek after week (e.g. the TGS crew were glued to the season finale and started descending into “Survivor”-style behavior when pushed; they’re as TV-addled as the rest of us it seems).
“Subway Hero” also hit both sides. It criticized both a media that would ignore instant-celebrity Dennis’ egregious faults in search of quick ratings and Liz for falling under the spell just like every other TV viewer. Conway’s turn as the ancient TV personality with secrets to tell is funny in and of itself, but the ending–when Kenneth realizes his present craziness isn’t really much different from what went on in the ‘golden age of NBC’–sealed it for me. It was a brilliant skewer of a ratehr popular tendency to lionize ‘classic’ TV as somehow more pure/wholesome than its modern counterpart.
