30 Rock, “Live Show”: Mexican soap opera.

Is it a gimmick for a traditional sitcom to do a live show? Yes. It’s not when it’s an essential piece of the show’s makeup. No one says that the live aspect of SNL is gimmicky. It’s also a gimmick to book guest stars, but it’s not a complaint I’ve heard leveled at ’30 Rock’s’ pantheon of celebrity guests. Performing live obviously isn’t an essential part of ’30 Rock,’ but it’s definitely within the show’s sometimes-meta, self-referential and over-the-top wheelhouse.

From Snapple to Jay Leno to Maryland accents, ’30 Rock’ has always been able to poke fun at itself, and considering the fact that it does take place behind the scenes at a live sketch comedy show, doing a live episode didn’t really feel like a stretch. I mean, ‘ER’ did it. And if the Cloon-hound can do it, then I would never begrudge Tina Fey and co. their shot.

I think there’s much more room for debate as to whether or not the show was able to pull it off. At its lowest points, the episode felt like an extended SNL skit. There were groans to be sure. Gags like Kenneth’s mindless giggling at Lutz’s shirt and Jon Hamm’s PSA (I love Jon Hamm, but he really could have been used a lot better here) were obviously used as filler while the next scene was setting up. The show’s pacing was also affected by the live audience they were filming in front of. But when the show was hitting, it was really hitting. Jack commenting that everything looked like a Mexican soap-opera. Carol telling Liz that he was in on the surprise party from the very beginning and that it was really expensive. Tracy pulling his Oprah wig off in the middle of a skit. And how the Chilean miners didn’t get stuck down there by being geniuses were all great jokes.

’30 Rock’ has a very unique style, and while a lot of that was lost to the logistics of doing a live episode, it still felt distinctly ’30 Rock.’ They got in a lot of topical jokes. There were a ton of guest stars (Dr. Spaceman!). I especially enjoyed the way the show handled its cutaway scenes. Seriously, can we all take a moment to remember how much we love and miss Julia-Louis Dreyfus? I know she was on ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine’ for five seasons, but nobody really watched that show, did they?

Was the episode a runaway hit? It really wasn’t. Some of that was the writing and some of it was forced on them. But I think by and large the whole cast and crew put a lot of work into the night, and it paid off. Color me happy.

30 Rock, “Let’s Stay Together”: It’s an actor me-mergency.

There was a lot to like about last night’s episode. Unfortunately, a lot of that was balanced with stuff that had all been done in previous seasons.

Jack had to testify in front of a Congressional panel over the NBC/KableTown deal. I thought this was handled a lot better in season 2 in episodes like “Cooter.” I did like the way everything came together in the end to make TGS look like one of the most racist shows on TV. I found Jack’s speech to Congresswoman Bookman to be especially relevant, but in the end it wasn’t enough to push the episode over the top.

Trouble in the writers room. And surprise, Liz doesn’t feel appreciated. I actually liked the fact that Liz had Toofer named co-head writer and wished that more time had been given to developing that. It would have at least brought a new dynamic to something we’ve seen several times before.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to like the Kenneth-coming-back story less than I did, but miraculously the show found a way. Faced with the prospect of losing the job he’s already been fired from, Jenna agrees to help him get a leg up. Kind of like that time in “Rosemary’s Baby,” when Kenneth was faced with losing his job and Jenna agreed to help him get a leg up. And what’s worse is that there was no Paul Scheer for Kenneth to play off of. So he’s back, right? We can move on now? Please?

What worked most about this episode were the jokes peppered throughout. Jack telling Liz that in a post-apocalyptic society she could only be used as a radiation canary. Jenna’s me-mergency. The Appleseed family. Dotcom’s TV show, and subsequent rewrite. Putting a bullet in the head of the American farmer (“No! You win!”). The white and colored restrooms. These kept the episode from feeling completely stale, although just barely.

30 Rock, “When it Rains, it Pours”: I want your feet in my mouth!

Hello again, old friend. I’ve missed you. Thursday’s episode may be the best half hour of ’30 Rock’ we’ve seen in the past year, and definitely reminded us how funny the show can be when it’s at the top of its game.

I was happy to see the show acknowledge the fact that Tina Fey is a stone cold fox and completely deserving of men’s affectations, which it really hadn’t done too much of in the past. Her relationship with Carol has kind of given her her groove back, so she doesn’t mind laying on some extra charm for Paul Giamatti, playing here a beponytailed, hockey-loving, Civil War-reenacting editor. I know there were a few clips of Giamatti floating around out there on the internet, but I hadn’t seen them, so seeing him turn up on the show was a big surprise for me. I thought he did a fantastic job, and had a fantastic ponytail. My favorite part of his was reciting Liz’s dialogue along with her as they’re “breaking up” in front of Donna. ’30 Rock’ has always been a show that’s made good use of its guest stars, and he was no exception.

So Jack and Avery are having a kid. That’s big news that was sort of glossed over in light of how funny Jack’s preparations for it were. His video messages to his unborn son make me wonder if there are rolls of unused film with Alec Baldwin just riffing. My favorite lines were, “I then attended Harvard Business School, where I was voted, Most,” and earlier, when the fire alarm goes off and Liz asks him if he’s coming outside, “And stand outside in a crowd like some Italian? I don’t think so.”

For me, Tracy getting caught on Cash Cab wasn’t the comedy gold mine some people thought it was, but I thought it was a good break from form for him, and the back and forth between him and Ben Bailey as he’s trying to get out of cab was pretty good. And his story did bring back some good guest stars. Dr. Spaceman is always a welcome addition on the show (“I have more experience putting babies in women.”), as is Sherry Shepherd as Angie Jordan.

My one complaint about the episode is what the show’s doing with Kenneth. By the end of the episode, it looks like he’s coming back on…as a page. So, if the entire point of getting rid of him was to bring him back all of two episodes later, WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT? At the end of the episode Kenneth tells Jack that he’s reapplying to the page program, and Jack says, “I really don’t care.” Really kind of summed up my own feelings. In the end it just feels like the show was trying to shake things up for the sake of shaking things up.

A minor complaint in light of the rest of the episode. Easily forgiven if the show can keep turning out episodes like this one. I could even forgive ‘The Office’s’ sh**ty sixth season if ’30 Rock’ could keep things cranked up to 11 like this.

Random thoughts:

• Jenna never closes her mouth.
• Paul Giamatti throwing his Chinese food at Pete.
• The Julia Roberts laugh.
• More Lutz, please. Him getting punched in the face and then made love to was hilarious.
  
• Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell.
  
• “And that is the art of camouflage.”
  

30 Rock, “The Fabian Strategy”: My gynecologist committed suicide!

I don’t think anyone will disagree that ’30 Rock’s’ fourth season wasn’t its most impressive. It started with the season premiere and just carried on through the entire year. Occasionally, we’d catch glimpses of the show’s past greatness, but it was always fleeting. Kind of like Rome.[/profound]

While I thought the season finale was definitely a step up, I thought it weird that the writers had concocted this story about Kenneth getting fired almost out of thin air, as if they were scrambling for a cliffhanger for the season to go out on, and Kenneth was the most convenient character to use. In a way it brought the character’s arc over the past year full circle, as we saw him picketing for pages’ rights outside 30 Rock in the premiere. But aside from that one tenuous connection, it didn’t really make any sense, and just seemed to have been thrown in there to stir the pot.

Tonight, ’30 Rock’ played a dirty trick on me. It delivered a hilarious opening, with Jack (seriously, how great was his hair?) calling up Liz to tell her how great things with Avery are going. This was the ’30 Rock’ I knew and loved. Jack as smug as ever. Liz having nightmares about Tom Jones. References I didn’t entirely get but laughed at anyway. And then Liz and Jack hung up, and Liz said, “Okay. Season 5. Here we go.” And it was like, “Ehhhhhhhhhhhh…”

With the season 4 premiere cleverly being titled, “Season 4,” and references to going on hiatus and other show-bizzy things being peppered throughout the series, ’30 Rock’ has always had a sort of meta self-awareness of itself. It’s aware that it lives in a sort of heightened reality in which having sex behind of privacy screen of British butlers is a completely normal thing that happens. And that’s okay. That sense of itself is part of what the show great, but the way the line was delivered just seemed like it was a retread of old material that didn’t deliver in the same way, and suddenly I was worried that we were all going to be in for more of the same this year.

Luckily I was wrong and the show turned out a great episode. And it did it by putting the characters in some genuinely new territory. One of my biggest problems with the show in seasons past was how it beat us over the head with the characters’ problems. Liz can’t keep a man! Tracy and Jenna are CRAZY! And no matter what, none of that is ever going to go away. And that’s alright. Again, one of the things that makes the show great. But tonight we saw the characters move past a lot of that. Liz discovers that Carol (does anyone know how many episodes Matt Damon is going to be in this year?) is almost as emotionally unstable as she is, and while her normal reaction may be to turn in the opposite direction and run, they make things work, after a fashion. Normally I’d say that maybe, just maybe, these two crazy kids have a chance, but I’m pretty sure the show can’t afford Matt Damon’s fee.

With TGS beginning its fifth season, Jenna’s been given a producer credit, and Pete realizes how much more free time he’s got with her doing much of his job. While I loved Pete in knee socks, I liked the cutaway of him screwing his wife even more. But what the hell does that say about me? Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, and of no man is that true than Pete Hornberger, so it’s nice to see him get a little ahead, even if it was back to making the donuts by the end of the episode.

Tracy seeing Kenneth wherever he went gave me a few chuckles, but it’s obviously a story that may take a few episodes to resolve itself. I’m interested to see where it goes.

My wife and I have shortlists of actors we’d go gay for, and after seeing Jack trying to woo James (not Jim or Jimmy, just Jamesssss), I may have to add Alec Baldwin to it. He took being outmanuvered by both Liz and Avery like a man, and his telling Liz that she’s really grown I thought provided a little commentary not only on her character, but on the show as a whole, and maybe even the upcoming season. That’s an awful lot to read into one line of dialogue, but I’m an optimist who’s very happy to have the show back.

But really, does liking the bit with Pete and his wife make me a bad person?

30 Rock, “Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaur Land”: I once saw a baby give another baby a tatoo!

I haven’t been incredibly happy with the way 30 Rock has handled the three men in Liz’s life this season. Jon Hamm, Dean Winters and Jason Sudeikis are all good actors and have been used very well on the show in the past, but with the exception of Floyd a few episodes back, I feel like their appearances have been largely wasted with the quick, throw-away scenes we’ve seen this year. In a way, their appearances in last night’s episode reminded me of the season overall. Peaks of greatness that too quickly descended into mediocrity, although “Emanuelle Goes to Dinosaurland” was probably one of the season’s stronger outings.

If the episode suffered from anything, it was that it was trying to do too much with too little time. Really, the entire night could have been spent with Liz visiting her former flames before going to Floyd’s wedding. But we still had Jack’s relationship with Nancy and Avery to contend with, as well as Tracy’s attempt to reconnect with his youth for an upcoming movie role.

Slightly overloading an episode can sometimes work in its favor, depending on how the various plot threads come together and their thematic relevance to one another. Now, there’s no unwritten rule that an episode’s A, B and C stories all need to relate to each other, although I think it can sometimes help things flow a little better. Although Tracy’s visit to his old neighborhood offered up a lot of laughs – even though the bulk of it boiled down to different riffs on the same joke – I thought it really took the focus off of what the episode was all about: love and relationships.

I was glad to see Wesley, back from England, and a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t take the show more seriously when he told Liz a few months back, “I’ll see you in May, for Sweeps. It’s what we call Spring Cleaning in England.” I also thought that his character was much funnier this time around. And for someone who spent all of last week coming to the realization that the expectations had been set too high and that she just needed to settle for someone, I was surprised at how quickly Liz threw that lesson out the window. Although Wesley asking her how he lined up with the other men in her life seemed to put things into perspective somewhat.

It seems like Jack’s relationship problems may be coming to an end. I always saw him as someone who would never be able to let go of the fast-paced corporate lifestyle, so a woman like Avery always seemed like a natural fit for him. But still, there’s a piece of Jack that just wants to settle down and take things slow. We’ve seen that far-away look in his eye while he contemplated moving to Pennsylvania with Edie Falco in “Episode 210,” and taking over Larry Braverman’s identity in “Reunion.” Normally, I’d expect him to choose Avery (although there’s always a chance…), but realistically, unless they pull an Angie, making references to her while only bringing her out once or twice a season, expect Jack to screw things up with both women.

Tracy reconnecting with his past definitely had some funny beats, although it seemed like the episode’s commercial break, periodically taking us away from Liz and Jack’s relationship problems. Him naming off all the horrible things he had seen growing up in the ghetto reminded me of all the cut footage from movies like Best in Show and Anchorman. And maybe the whole experience will help him to finally win that Oscar.

“Dinosaurland” was part 1 of 2, and from the teaser it looks like what overall has been a fairly mediocre season will at least be able to finish strongly. I mean, it’s got Matt Damon, so things are already looking up.

Things I liked:

• Garfield 3: Feline Groovy
• “You sound like me at the Olympic Village.”
• If Chums were an actual show, I’d watch it.
• Hard to Watch, based on the book, “Stone Cold Bummer” by Manipulate
• Jon Hamm’s hook hands had a very Buster Bluth feel to them. “I’m a monster!”
• You know that somewhere out there, there’s a group of Plushies.
  

30 Rock, “The Moms”: Pajamaralls! Pajamaralways!

I think it was sometime after 30 Rock’s first season when Tina Fey said that next year the show was going to try focusing less on the guest stars and more on its own cast. So how’s that one working out? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing or that it’s hurt the show, it just hasn’t happened. At all.

And if focusing less on guest stars was a goal still had for itself (it’s not), then it failed miserably with this week’s Mothers Day episode, featuring real moms and fake moms alike. I’m sure that the writers want everything in an episode to be funny, but I don’t think they intended this week’s funniest bits to be the high points. I love Liz, but this will-she-or-won’t-she stuff with her and that perfect man, that astronaut Mike Dexter, can really get stale. So I thought it was a good change of pace to have those closest to her tell her that there are worse things in the world than settling. Funnier yet was the revelation that her mom actually settled for her dad, and at one point in her life had dated astronaut Buzz Aldrin. And it took a conversation with him for Liz to finally realize that the idealized man she’s been looking for for so long probably doesn’t exist. Liz and Buzz yelling at the moon together really took me back a couple of years, when the show was probably at its peak. Why don’t we see more of that 30 Rock?

For me, Tracy has steadily devolved into the show’s cheapest character. I feel like if he just acts stupid enough, the writers are confident that almost anything he says will turn out funny, and his jokes have become more lazy than anything else. So whenever he acts responsibly or actually learns a lesson, I feel like he’s really been taken out of the box. So him eventually learning to respect the woman hired to play his mom on TGS, and give her a nice Mothers Day present in the process was a nice touch, although the real highlight was her late night commercial she had made for Pajamaralls. I can’t fish in these pajamas!

I’ve always enjoyed the interplay between Jack and Colleen, even if Stritch doesn’t do much besides make Jack’s like miserable and occasionally remind him that he really does love her. That beat where Jack finally asks her what he should do with the Nancy/Avery situation and her telling him that she really didn’t have a good answer for him felt more real than much of what we’ve seen of their relationship lately and I think it’s something a lot of people could probably relate to.

There were a lot of other nice touches thrown in this week. We saw the return of Bitch Hunters along with other things like the cast’s moms. I’m thinking specifically of Lutz’s mom who looks exactly like him, only with a wig. Only a few more episodes this season. Bring on Matt Damon.

Stuff I liked:

• “Put the mimosas down, bitches!”
• Pajamaralls!
• Remember Danny? Yeah. I barely do, either.
  

Thursday Night Comedy Catch-Up: 30 Rock

Right behind Parks and Recreation, I think 30 Rock continues to be NBC’s Thursday night shining star. While it’s also taken a bit of a dip in its fourth season, it remains consistently funny even when it’s not hitting on all cylinders. And when I find that I’m not looking for things in the show to write about, I always enjoy it. Last week’s “Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter” had me feeling like I was watching the 30 Rock of years past. Back when almost every episode had jokes that made me laugh out loud and had me quoting them for the next week. While I thought the entire episode was strong, I particularly liked the Toofer storyline, with him quitting after finding out that he was an Affirmative Action hire. Particularly funny was the scene toward the end when Pete tells Liz that NBC never would have picked up The Girlie Show if it weren’t for the flak they took after airing the action drama, Bitch Hunter. Seriously, the entire show could have lasted 30 seconds and consisted of that joke alone and I would have loved it.

The Jack storyline, which had him trying to decide between a relationship with Nancy (Julianne Moore) or a relationship with Avery (Elizabeth Banks) didn’t deliver the yuks I may have been hoping for, but I felt they managed to keep the premise fresh, even though it’s one that’s been used over and over and over again in television. I guess you can chalk that up to the two actresses. Elizabeth Banks can be my slutty Grace Kelly anytime, and Julianne Moore’s likability helps me to forgive her Boston accent, which is A.TROC.IOUS.

The second episode of the night had its highs and lows. Kenneth helping Tracy out with Angie has turned into one of those things we feel like we’ve seen a hundred times before, mainly because we have. And the fact that we see an episode like this in which Angie never shows up only makes things seem stranger, like we’re watching some UIL play in the middle of the real episode.

While all of this is going on, Liz is trying to keep her cool after learning the cast and crew have been going out once a week for years and not inviting her. Of course, Jack thinks it’s a good idea for a manager to keep some professional distance between himself and his staff. Liz isn’t having it. She goes crazy trying to convince the people that she can be as cool as the next guy by throwing a mandatory party. Everyone shows up, but it comes out that they need Liz to actually act like their mother so they can run wild like the irresponsible children they are. Liz relents, fending off Tracy Jr., Tracy’s dog who gets set loose at the party while everyone else runs away.

The other half of the episode had Jack mediating a dispute between two late-night janitors in a (wink, wink) clever allegory paralleling the whole Leno vs. O’Brien dispute. This wasn’t played as subtlety as I think the show is capable of, but still, sometimes the most obvious jokes are the funniest ones. When Khonani tells Jack that Subhas collects classic cars *cough, cough* cardboard, I got a good laugh out of it.

“Argus” was a bit of a letdown and a little too wacky, even for a show like 30 Rock. Jack finds out that Don Geiss has left him his prized pet peacock as part of his will, and Jack becomes convinced that Geiss’s soul is actually possessing the bird. There were a few funny beats here, but I found most of them to be at the actual will reading. Particularly Don’s wife, his mistress, his Canadian family and his secret attic family.

Even aside from Grizz’s wedding announcement, I thought the funniest part of the episode was Pete trying to remake himself into the Indiana Jones-esque Dallas. I’ve always thought that Pete is probably one of the most under-appreciated and underutilized members of the cast, so for him, any screentime is good screentime. We were also introduced to Jenna’s new flame, played by Will Forte, who himself is a Jenna impersonator. Considering how incredibly self-centered Jenna is, I don’t think the show could have put her in a better relationship, even if it came off a little creepy at times. Forte really threw himself into the role.

Overall, it’s been a mostly good couple of episodes, even though it proved to us that the show definitely has an upper limit on craziness. And, come on, Bitch Hunter.

30 Rock, “Floyd”: I had another freaky Ken-mare.

The Office wasn’t the only show that came back strong this week. “Floyd” turned out to be a somewhat lopsided episode — if necessarily so — in terms of the different storylines. But overall I thought it provided a good balance between the seriousness of Liz’s relationship with Floyd and the levity of the Pranksmen vs. Silver Panthers shenanigans.

Jason Sudeikis only occasionally guest stars on 30 Rock, so there was never any real chance that he and Liz would end up together. So I was appreciative of the fact that the show brought some closure that story. But man, they really drove the point home. More than 70 episodes and this is the first one that actually made me feel some sympathy for Liz. And that’s real sympathy, not the kind that’s tamped down because of all the ridiculous things she does. It started when Floyd told her that he and his fiance were hoping to find job opportunities in the city and Liz realized that Floyd was willing to move to New York for Cindy, but not for her.

When Floyd responded to this by telling her that of course he was willing to move for her, because one, she’s blonde, and two, she’s alive, like a deer, was kind of heartbreaking. In the end they both apologized and Liz ended up in their wedding party, but still. There’s a kernel of truth inside every joke, so I doubt Floyd would have said any of what he said if he didn’t believe at least some of it. One thing I will complain about. Tina Fey isn’t a frumpy, disgusting woman. I understand that Liz Lemon and Tina Fey are two different women, but eventually the show is going to have to give us a guy who will be as excited to be with Liz as we would be…or I would be…I love you, Tina Fey.

Fortunately the rest of the episode was balanced out by some stuff that we really don’t see enough on the show these days: Pete and the writers. I thought there was plenty to like here. The writers ripping their clothes off may have seemed a little juvenile, but Jack and Danny walking into the room with the TGS Dancers taking pictures of them made it all worth it. Things lost a little steam after Frank discovered that Jack was a member of the Twig and Plums society. Jack having to walk out of the room over and over again wasn’t particularly funny to start off with and the show seemed set on hitting us over the head with the joke over and over again. It ended on a high note, with Jack sending Frank a tape threatening to have sex with mom if he couldn’t leave well enough alone. Although I’m not sure the thought of Jack and Danny double-teaming Frank’s mom can really be considered revenge. Hmm.

Last night’s team-up between Jenna and Tracy worked much better than it has in recent weeks. After being forced to listen to a full twelve hours of Kenneth’s pointless, Grandpa-Simpsonesque stories, they’re now having disturbingly sexual dreams about him. I thought the dreams themselves were funny, but the best part was watching Jenna and Tracy trying to “Elm-Street” things by killing Kenneth in their dreams, especially when they tried flying away at the very end. A few missteps last night, but overall I think the show reminded us why it keeps winning Emmys.

Stuff I liked:

• Dick Cheney’s website, dickviews.com.
• “Now how did the very first person catch Old Gus? Well, that’s a story for another time. Right now!
• Jack asking Liz to see her weakness files on Frank, Toofer and Lutz.
• “I haven’t even had my first cup of wine today.”
  

30 Rock, “Don Geiss, America and Hope”: This is for you, Dan Goose.

“Don Geiss, America and Hope” can really be considered the second half of an hour-long episode that began with last week’s “Future Husband.” This week, Liz and “future husband” Wesley Snipes (played to much greater effect this time around by Michael Sheen) continue their relationship even though it’s become glaringly obvious that they don’t like each other. Like Liz says at one point, “I want to smash your face!”

Last night’s episode wasn’t the best 30 Rock has ever done, and the show is still suffering from the problems I’ve listed out before. But having said that I think it was still a pretty solid and I found myself laughing a lot more than I had these past few weeks. I think what I liked most about it was that it let the characters’ quirks come across without trying to hit you over the head with them. Sure, we got Tracy’s line explaining that he suffers from Attention Deficit– Hey, Jack, your shoes are shiny. But there were some other things that stood out quite nicely. Jenna pushing the other crew member away when they both walked up to the microphone. Jack turning off the television when the Kabletown execs went off about how great L.A. is. And Liz rolling her eyes when Wesley says that if there is a God, she wants the two of them to end up together.

I think 30 Rock works best when it makes these jokes and doesn’t really pay attention to the fact that it’s making them because this is just the way the characters are. This is why Tracy’s joke about being addicted to prescription glasses worked so much better than the one about having ADD. The show doesn’t need to elbow you in the side and wink every time it says or does something clever.

I was glad to see Michael Sheen do something besides his Rowan Atkinson impression. He’s a great actor and it would had been a shame if the show had wasted him. One of his funniest beats came at the end when he told Liz that he’d see her again in May for Sweeps, because that’s what English people call Spring Cleaning. This called attention to the fact that Wesley (Snipes, which is almost as good a name as Cooter Burger) is awkwardly British and that there’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing his character again, given the show’s track record of bringing back Liz’s old flames (next week’s episode is called “Floyd”).

The episode’s other two storylines were a mixed bag. Both of them seemed like they were ripped right out of the newspapers. Tracy stood in for Tiger Woods with his not-sexual scandal and Jack dealt with the fallout from Kabletown’s purchase of NBC. That story felt like it hit its beats better than Tracy’s. Jack’s business savvy is what makes him who he is and I like watching him operate onscreen. You can make the case that Tracy’s craziness is what makes him who he is, but at this point in the series it’s beginning to feel a little stale.

Overall, a solid episode that made me feel like the show had gotten back a little bit of the fire we’ve seen in previous seasons.

Stuff I liked:

• I like the fact that the show is constantly poking NBC in the eye. “This is an exciting time for NBC. Not ‘Friends,’ ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘ER’ exciting, more like 3-D episodes of ‘Merlin’ exciting.”
• Jenna’s not allowed to sleep with back guys because it violates her contract with NASCAR.
  
• Tracy’s Ben & Jerry’s flavor is “Adulteraisin.”
  

30 Rock, “Future Husband”: Your dentist gets drunk with you, too?

“30 Rock’s” fourth season definitely isn’t as good as its first three were. There’s that barrier between so-so and really funny that several episodes just haven’t been able to cross. A lot of the problems I’m seeing with “The Office” this season are the same ones that are beginning to crop up in “30 Rock.”

The thing is that “30 Rock” has failed where “The Office” has, well, also failed. “The Office” has given itself a chance — several, actually — to rise above itself and become more than the sum of its parts. We’ve seen several game-changers introduced that ultimately have gone no where. Things are changed up for a few episodes, but in the end everyone always ended up right back in their normal places, where they should be. “30 Rock” hasn’t even done that. The characters are who they are who they are who they are. With Liz, I can understand it, and really, I’m okay with it. If she suddenly was imbued with a huge amount of confidence and did something crazy like go after Jack’s job, it wouldn’t be true to the character —

(On a related note, there may be some people out there who say, “So if Liz changed it wouldn’t be true to her character, yet you constantly bitch about characters like Jim Halpert not changing. If Jim changed, wouldn’t that be untrue to his character?” I say, NO! It wouldn’t be untrue to his character because “The Office” doesn’t exist in the same heightened, slapstick reality that “30 Rock” does. We’ve seen this in other shows, a good example being “Seinfeld.” We knew that the world they lived in was just a little off and we accepted the fact that by the end of the show, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were every bit the uncaring, selfish bastards they were at the beginning. So, suck on that, nerds.)

— Anyway, even though Liz is essentially the same person she was at the beginning of the show, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that her character is one-note. Unfortunately, this doesn’t extend to the series’ other characters, the best two examples being Tracy and Jenna. And more and more it seems like we’re seeing the two of them thrown into situations in which all they do is feed off each others’ craziness. It’s just turned into the same thing over and over again. And that’s exactly what we saw when Jenna agreed to coach Tracy before his one-man show.

What’s worse is that Tracy has turned into the representation of the show’s lowest common denominator form of humor. Jenna tells him he can go onstage and read the phone book for all she cares, and surprise surprise, he reads the phone book. In an earlier episode, he tells Liz something like, “Don’t worry, I’ll prove that I finish everything I–” before walking away. Get it? He was going to say that he finishes everything he starts, but he didn’t! Whatever happened to Werewolf Bar Mitzvah? Remember how witty that was and how hard we all laughed at it? More of that, please. Last night’s little “repeat after me” bit between Jenna and Tracy had me thinking the show had sunk to a new low.

Now that Don Geiss is dead, and Avery Jessup’s given Jack the chance to rise up and fill his position, the show may have a chance to seriously change things up. Still, because Alec Baldwin is such an integral part of the show I think this is unlikely. At the most I think we’ll see Jack as the same crazy, corporate man, just maybe with a bigger office. And that’s okay. “30 Rock” doesn’t need to completely change its characters for the show to get its groove back, it just needs to give them all some different to do.

In tonight’s episode, I enjoyed Michael Sheen as Liz’s future husband, although his performance was so low key that by the end of the episode I was wishing we had seen him do more. Hopefully he’ll have a little more to do in next week’s episode. And I’m still liking Elizabeth Banks’ stint as Avery Jessup. I don’t know. There’s something different about her as compared to the other women we’ve seen Jack with, so I hope she’ll stick around, at least for a little while. I know it looks like I have many many more bad things to say about “30 Rock” than good, but I’m still loving the show. Behind “Modern Family” and “Parks and Recreation,” it’s my favorite comedy on TV this season. It’s just disappointing to see it in this slump when it’s hit its beats so well in previous seasons.

Stuff I liked:

• “If I wanted to see a black guy make a fool of himself, I’d have sex with K-Fed again.”
• “It’s a 24-hour news cycle, Jack. We don’t have time to do it right anymore.” Holy hell, it’s the truth.
• Early morning jogging.