A new 30 Rock thread because I can't find the old one

For what it's worth, the last couple of episodes have felt more on-track to me. So I may have been a little hasty in my judgments a couple weeks back (although I do maintain that much of the back half of last season was the weakest stretch the show has had). I want my formerly-favorite sitcom to be and to stay good! So I'm happy when it is and does!

I think that even the hardest <i>30 Rock</i> stans wouldn't necessarily argue against the assertion that the quality of the show dipped by the end of the last season; what some of us were disputing was whether or not any of the "few" good episodes were due to Donald Glover sneaking out of <i>Community</i> to write under the name Tracey Wigfield or something.

In any event, I happen to agree that notwithstanding "Queen of Jordan," last season was clearly weak as <i>30 Rock</i> goes, and while it's rallied the past two/three episodes, a few new things bug: this season alone, they've used the "lol wimmin" joke (e.g. "If you're a woman or a short man..."), which is funny once but when they've used it three times in the past three episodes (give or take) == lazy and problematic.

That said, the resolution of this last episode was unexpectedly sweet!

the "few" good episodes were due to Donald Glover sneaking out of <i>Community</i> to write under the name Tracey Wigfield

I knew it.

ok, late to the party but "jack donaghy playing with himself ... it's a jack-off" was gold.

my dvr didn't record this either! conspiracy!

― ban opinions (reddening), Friday, 3 February 2012 06:26 (3 days ago) Permalink

My (canadian) tv station was advertsing last week's episode for this week, and the description in the guide was for last week's as well, with last week's original air date. I saw folks on this thread discussing a new episode, though, so I knew to watch :)

I loved Tina denouncing Bratz dolls

Aside from the season premiere I haven't personally felt any of the episodes this season have been specifically worse than previous seasons... A show can only stay fresh for so long and I think whats happening is that seriously everything that can be done with the formula of the show has been handled so either they make radical changes or sometimes things feel same-old-same-old.

The Jack-Off bit was great BTW, up there with some of the best moments of the show.

this would be a pretty empty thread if we didn't have a million posts declaring how the show was better in earlier seasons

that said, the "dialogue" where he rattles off names of various maneuvers he's made up was one of baldwin's best moments too

it makes me laugh just thinking about that part

Adagio, then double adagio... or wait?!

"jack donaghy playing with himself ... it's a jack-off" was gold.

otm, this was killing me. he played it beautifully

aargh I forgot to watch this hour-long episode. >_<

What race am I supposed to check Liz? We all came from Africa!

Frank and Tracy teaching Lutz was beautiful.

dr spaceman slayed

unfortunately theres no field of medicine that deal w/the brain, but... i can give a pamphlet for a cult

"the only but we speak of tonight is the butt... of the human ass"

Heppy Valentimes!

Kristen Schaal gotta GO. Not making this show better.

^^^

She is playing a poorly-written character in what will be a terrible plot arc, yes.

the ikea dude lives above me

i love KS, y'all crazy.

I love her too, but I thought she was really out of place here.

holy jesus, mary steenburgen

yeah, this double episode had about half an episode's worth of laughs. BURN! they'll probably rock it next week though, I have faith.

Schaal is amazing on Bob's Burgers but her character on 30 Rock seems out of place.

Isn't that the point of the character? She is confused by Kenneth taking Tracey's craziness etc.

yeah, i dig how she in kinda inherently crazy as an actress/person, but put up against the 30 rock ppl she seems relatively sane (well, until the last bit)

lol kickenfun

and jack's outrage at the 24-hr clock
in fact, all euro/UN-office scenes

I laughed at kickenfun

This show's still pretty awesome. I think i got into it in the 3rd & 4th seasons, skipped it for a while, but just caught up with the latest eps. Great show!

And yeah, Spacemen rules.

the pre-credit sequence was a++

Hey so Joan of Arcadia grew up to be Avery Jessup?

VAMPIRE PUSH.

She is playing a poorly-written character in what will be a terrible plot arc, yes.

― Cold Chisel dude Cold Chisel (King Boy Pato)

Ugh totally. I really love Schaal but this character is not funny. Also, its weird that for like two episodes she plays a normal person surrounded by crazy people and then suddenly in third act of this episode - boom - she is actually just a crazy person herself. Very poor character development.

Did anyone notice who wrote this week's episode? Because that was a total return to form. I renounce my Doubting Thomas-hood.

It made me a little bit sad because Alec Baldwin would have been a fantastic Batman back in the day.

I actually thought it was a sub-par. I laughed a few times, as ever, so it wasn't bad.

i laughed hardest at the singing prostitute

and kenneth's "I knew they were condoms."

awesome ep

Did anyone notice who wrote this week's episode? Because that was a total return to form. I renounce my Doubting Thomas-hood.

― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, February 16, 2012 8:30 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you notice upthread all the people explaining that who happens to have the writing credit on a given episode of a sitcom is essentially meaningless as far as the overall quality or funniness?

"shook hands with the baby"

Mr. Met cameo.

"What's a commercial?" otm

/watching via t0rrents

some dude, I'm very familiar with the generally collaborative nature of television writing. I think it's a fair assumption, though, that the credited writer of a given episode provides at least the bare bones structure of that episode. And that the extent of the collaboration varies from episode to episode. I'm pretty sure, for example, that some episodes of Community had relatively untouched single-author scripts. I don't feel like it's too far out of the realm of possibility that something like that has happened on 30 Rock once or twice. This episode was very well-constructed, and i think that went a long way towards informing the success of the episode. So I (and the credited writer, most likely) would take exception to your assertion.

That was Donald Glover in the Mr. Met costume.

Are Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan important to point out in any way? They wrote the episode but neither have wikipedia pages.

lol tarfumes