“30 Rock” — The Collection
A good cameo.
Between reading endless banner ads telling me everything from NBC.com having full-length episodes to the synergenic news that Alec Baldwin was going to be appearing on the next episode of Inside The Actor’s Studio on Bravo there was a pretty great episode of 30 Rock right there on the screen beneath all of the nonsense. While the first episode this season suffered from forcing Jerry Seinfeld into the plot and the second episode just never seemed to gel, this week things played out exactly as we had come to expect from 30 Rock. More on the funny after the jump…
What I enjoy most about this show is that the universe these characters inhabit is not unlike that of the Hudsucker Proxy’s New York but without the elaborate sets. Everything is extremely familiar and yet completely absurd. I find it kind of fascinating that most of us, raised on television, probably know more about how the average episode of Saturday Night Live is put together than we do about how our fathers actually made a living. It’s in that knowledge that the madness surrounding 30 Rock’s “T.G.S.” resonates. Or it could just be that the jokes are really funny. Either one, I suppose.
Notable highlights:
- Tracy deducing that Liz was miming his Cobra being taken to the vet.
- Jack’s cookie-jar obsession, which may have been too quirky had Baldwin not played off the revelation so convincingly.
- Kenneth’s frequent, painful reminders of “his mom’s friend Ron”
- Not the fact that Jenna was in an ad for plus-sized fragrance Enormé but that Tracy’s wife could smell his shirt after he came back from the strip club and immediately say, “You smell like Enormé and brass polish”
- And of course, Steve Buscemi… who should probably do more television
One complaint: It seems like there is a good chunk of the cast we haven’t seem much of this season — specifically the writers. I don’t know if this a factor of simply producing scripts right now that don’t call for many scenes dealing with that aspect of the show or if its a byproduct of trying to get everyone in the episode thus reducing certain character’s screen time to fleeting moments of recognition. Look, this is hardly a dire circumstance. Baldwin and Morgan are what bring home the bacon. I guess what I’m saying is we need more Pete Hornberger — bald people represent!
