30 Rock – “Respawn”

It’s all going to work out in the end, right? In tonight’s finale, our characters seemed to realize that, as complicated as they can often make their lives and regardless of the chaos that befalls them, things really aren’t so bad.

The Summer of Liz — which Liz plans on including learning Spanish, gardening and wearing shapeless clothes — is put on hold when Tracy moves into the house next to the one she’s rented in the Hamptons. Unable to live with three months of parties, firing guns into the air and night terrors, Liz instead heads back to the city, to court, where she refuses to pay the fine she was charged for committing a “hate crime” against what turned out to be a Jewish three from last week. From there, she’s sentenced to work on a chain gang all summer, picking up trash in the city. And it’s there that she realizes she’s got everything she wants: the Spanish, the shapeless, baggy clothes, even the gardening. And without Tracy there — for a few hours, anyway — she’s enjoying this much more than work.

Before Liz heads off to the Hamptons, Jenna tells her that she’s been chosen as the official celebrity face of wool. It’s a sweet gig, except for the fact that the National Wool Council is extremely conservative and she’s afraid they won’t approve of her relationship with Paul — a gender-dismorphic bi-genitalia pansexual. So when the head of the Council and his wife come over for dinner the next night, Jenna asks Paul to hide who he is, to dress like a man, to turn away the midget they pay to come over and sit on them, and act a little more normally. It works, for a while, and Jenna and Paul are accepted by the Council. But after seeing how upset their fake lifestyle makes Paul, she decides to take a stand and show the Council what their “normal” looks like. She may not get to keep the wool gig, but she’s happier.

With Avery still in North Korea, having been kidnapped by convenient store owners, Kenneth steps in to cook dinner for Jack and quickly becomes his ersatz wife — thanks in no small part to his high-pitched laugh and similarly-shaped buttocks. Their relationship quickly spirals out of control, with Jack asking Kenneth to wear Avery’s earring, to the two of them spooning on the couch. Eventually, Kenneth, as Avery, has to tell Jack that he’s being pathetic and should be spending more time with their daughter, who’s still there with him.

With the disappointments faced by our characters this season — Tracy’s disappearance, Liz breaking up with Carol — “Respawn” brought things to a fairly satisfying conclusion in what turned out to be the season 30 Rock got it’s groove back. I don’t know if I could point to a specific reason the show got better, it just did.

Speaking of not knowing, as much as I love 30 Rock, I do find it difficult to write about from week to week. With a show like this, I find myself wanting to focus more on the jokes than theme or tone. Sometimes it’s much easier to put together a greatest hits list, highlighting my favorite moments from that episode. So it’s in that spirit that I present to you… well, nothing, actually. Although I did want to mention tonight’s Lost shout out, in which, watching them through a telescope, Kenneth begs Jacob for more time with Liz, Jack and Tracy. It’s exactly that sort of out-thereness that’s made this show into what I think is probably the best comedy on TV. “Respawn” ended with, “TO BE CONTINUED…” And although I think that ending is too weird to actually be followed-up on in the beginning of season six, part of me wonders if the show isn’t setting something up. After all, Alec Baldwin has said he’d like to leave the show when his contract runs out at the end of next season. Maybe we’re seeing the beginning of a meta, Lost-themed goodbye to character that’ll play out over the next year. Steve Carell is replaceable in a way that Alec Baldwin isn’t. So if we are seeing the start of something big, I’ll be sad because it would surely mark the end of the show. But sad or not, I’ll be watching, because the show’s just too effing funny.

30 Rock – “Everything Sunny All the Time Always”

Tonight’s episode of 30 Rock was all about coming to terms with one’s inability to control their own destiny. Liz dealt with this in a metaphoric sense, driving herself crazy trying to get a plastic bag out of the tree in front of her apartment, while Jack dealt with it in a more literal sense, finding himself powerless to get Avery out of North Korea after she was kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.

For Liz, most of this was well-tread ground, although confronting her own mortality was something new thrown into the mix. And who better to tell you you’re going to die than an anthropomorphized plastic bag, who lets Liz know that he’ll be there to watch the EMTs drag her out of her apartment stuffed inside his cousin — a body bag. Liz is determined not to let the bag get the best of her, and when an appeal to that bastion of red tape and bureaucracy — city hall — goes unheeded, Liz resorts to getting the bag out of the tree herself. She succeeds, but the victory is short-lived, when at the end of the episode a delivery man drops an armful of plastic bags which all float up and get stuck in the tree.

It isn’t any sort of stretch to take this as an illustration of Liz’s own one-step-forward, two-steps-back lifestyle. In the end, things always have a way of going sideways for her. This is sometimes a result of something Liz has done, sometimes it’s a result of something being done to her. Take her relationship with Carol as an example. In many ways, he was everything Liz wanted in a man. But, in “Double-Edged Sword,” she sees how cranky and stubborn he can be when he keeps her and a planeload of passengers stuck for hours on a runway. Because of Liz’s own desire to strike out against the man, she fights back, and they break up. To find a situation in which Liz is having something done to her, look no further than the show’s countless C-stories involving Tracy or Jenna.

What exactly are we supposed to take away from all of this? In a discussion on Steve Carell’s departure from The Office, Alan Sepinwall and Dan Feinberg discuss how Michael Scott was never allowed to have too much of an arc on the show, because the writers would always need him to be the bumbling boss, offensive and crude. But after seven seasons, we did see some growth with the character. It could be that in that comedy power-couple, Liz Lemon is the character who’s had less of an arc, and in many ways shows an almost Tony Soprano-like unwillingness to change. Unfortunately for her, that may mean that when the EMTs drag her out of her apartment, the plastic will still be there, stuck in the tree. If not the original, then another one, perhaps stuck because of something Liz herself has done.

In these regards, Jack is Liz’s polar opposite. He sees something that needs doing and he sets out to do it. Rarely does he find himself taking backseat to anyone. Such was not the case tonight, when he had to go ask his ex-girlfriend, Condoleezza Rice, for help in getting Avery out of North Korea. And even then, he was too late to stop Avery’s communist reeducation. I have to admit I was a little surprised to see his reaction to Avery’s marriage to Kim Jong-il’s son the way he did. Upset, but accepting. Liz, on the other hand, ended as she so often does, shaking her fists at the Heaven’s. Maybe Jack knows when he’s beat — although I’m interested to see how the show deals with this plot twist going forward. Not so with Liz. She’ll find herself in the same situation a thousand times, but she’ll keep fighting that inevitable outcome.

You have to hand it to the show. It’s one thing to get guest stars like Michael Keaton or Jon Hamm, but I always thought getting people like Al Gore or Condoleezza Rice was a cut above, even though they’re not great actors and watching them can be a little awkward sometimes. Still, good on them. And while one of 30 Rock’s strengths is how well it can craft a joke, just amping up the silly is good, too. Props to Margaret Cho on her portrayal of the North Korean dictator. I know, I know. I was surprised to hear Margaret Cho was still alive, too.

30 Rock – “100”

30 Rock premiered in 2006, up against Studio 60, NBC’s other show set behind the scenes at a faux SNL. Expectations were high for the show, which marked Aaron Sorkin’s return to network television (NBC, even!) after leaving The West Wing in 2003. Well, it turns out that Studio 60 really kind of sucked and was hemorrhaging viewers week after week. It quickly became obvious that it wouldn’t be coming back for a second season, and for some reason people began to believe the same about 30 Rock.

Luckily for us, 30 Rock did get picked up for a second season (and a third, fourth, fifth and sixth), but I sometimes think about all the hilarious sh*t we would have missed out on had the show been absent from the airwaves these past four years. Devon Banks, Jenna as werewolf lawyer Corky Monroe, Kidney Now! With the exception of a few rough patches, the show’s had a great run. I look at other comedies like Parks and Recreation, Louie and Archer and feel that for some reason I should hold these shows in higher esteem, maybe because they come across as more edgy, poignant, or artsy. But no other show on TV has me laughing as long and loud as 30 Rock. And tonight’s 100th episode, appropriately titled, “100,” was a nice way to bring  the show full circle.

When Hank Hooper tells Jack that he’s decided to cancel TGS, Jack goes out on a limb for Liz and asks him to give the show one more chance. Liz, who’s finally brought Tracy back into the fold, has to scramble to put together their 100th episode, all while a busted pipe is leaking deadly gas into the studio. All of this was handled by Michael Keaton as studio handyman Tom, in one of the most nonchalant and hilarious guest spots the show has done in a while. All I’m gonna say about that is, “I’m too old for this shh-sound that comes from this gas pipe.” And this is something I just remembered, but Michael Keaton and Alec Baldwin both starred in Beetlejuice. That makes it funnier for some reason.

As the gas begins screwing with people’s heads, Liz thinks maybe she should give it another go with Dennis, Jenna decides getting pregnant would really help her career, Tracy becomes more paranoid that people are taking him too seriously, and Jack is visited by the ghosts of Jack past, future and sideways. While everything was broken up by the usual Tracy/Jenna craziness, tonight’s episode was really a study of Jack and Liz’s relationship, and explained why the two of them need each other. In short, they each save each other from themselves. Without Jack as a mentor, Liz would barely be able to function as a contributing member of society. And without Liz, Jack’s ambition would send him flying off the rails as some sort of über alpha-male. In the beginning, the two of them hurling these facts at each other after TGS is granted one last reprieve sends them both back to their respective corners, stewing in the knowledge that the other is right, at least to some degree.

Oddly enough, in a situation where both have valid points, it’s Jack who once again saves Liz from going back to Dennis and convinces Tracy that going back to network television will keep anyone from taking him seriously, no matter what movies he’s done or awards he’s won in the past. I found it a little ironic that this was coming from Alec Baldwin, and I think there’s also something to be said about, if you’re on a popular network TV show, people will be much more forgiving of the mistakes you make in public. After all, Baldwin came under some heavy fire after leaving a pretty harsh message on his daughter’s phone a couple of years back — he even offered to leave 30 Rock as some sort of penance for the whole thing — which lasted all of ten minutes. And I think a large part of that had to do with the fact that Alec Baldwin is Jack Donaghy, and people like Jack Donaghy.

By the end of the episode Liz realizes that because the writers have been huffing gas all day, they still don’t have a show to put on. So she goes back up to the utility room, busts open the pipe, and pumps more gas into the studio so that the audience — Hank Hooper included — thinks that what they’re seeing is the best episode TGS has ever aired. And boom, Hank renews the show for a million episodes. Still a little high off of gas fumes, Jack and Liz tell each other what we’ve known all along: they need each other. And the show doing it this way is a nice reminder that these two will never end up romantically involved, which is as it should be. As Jack says, 100 episodes down, and here’s to 100 more. The Office may be able to live on without Michael Scott, but take away Liz or Jack, and there’s no more 30 Rock.

30 Rock – “I Heart Connecticut”

One of 30 Rock’s strengths has always been parodying people and situations you wouldn’t normally expect to see parodied. It’s the only show out there that could have taken the NBC/Comcast merger and turned it into a season-long arc. In tonight’s episode, we saw Liz and Kenneth out searching for Tracy after realizing that instead of running away to Africa, he was hiding somewhere in the city. Once they find him, Tracy says he did what he did because after the resurrection of his movie career, after the awards he was winning, the public was beginning to take him too seriously. It was something he just couldn’t deal with.

It wasn’t until his conversation with Liz and the end of the episode that I realized how much this storyline echoed Dave Chappelle’s escape to Africa in 2005. And just  like Chappelle had to save himself from himself by quitting his show and moving back to standup, Liz tells Tracy that the only way to save himself is to go back to the crazy Tracy everybody knows. The Tracy who runs through traffic in his underwear and steals people’s dogs. The one nobody expects anything from. The irony here is that Tracy is smarter than people generally consider. After all, it was his idea the hide out at Liz’s place the entire time. The one place Liz would never check because she only went there to sleep.

We also saw Jenna in another movie role not suited to her (are any, really?). This time as the unfortunate victim in a torture-porn slasher pic. The movie landscape has become so completely oversaturated by this genre that I’m surprised we haven’t seen it turn up more on TV, especially in a show like Community. But rather than simply poke fun at movies like Saw and Hostel, 30 Rock almost completely ignored the gore and over-the-top violence these movies are known for and instead focused on the fact that they’re just another vehicle for the Almighty Dollar.

When it looks like the film is going to lose out on state tax breaks because it isn’t portraying Connecticut in a positive light, Jack is determined to do whatever he needs to — and transform the film into whatever it needs to be — so that the production doesn’t lose any more money. When the final product is rolled out, it’s become a commercial for Connecticut’s tourist hot-spots, iTunes, Wal-Mart, celibacy and Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal as a rapping state trooper. It’s funny, right? Until you see some of those Ford music videos they play on American Idol, and then it just makes you want to cry.

Pete’s storyline largely echoed what we’ve seen with Liz over the past five years: You lose and you lose and lose, but in the end, it turns out you lose some more. I’d like to think that eventually, Liz will learn to love herself and settle down with a nice guy, maybe have some kids. But in reality that’s probably never going to happen. We’ll find her alone on a Friday night, eating pizza and watching DVR’ed episodes of Top Chef. Pete’s the same way. Unappreciated at home and at work, and openly so in tonight’s episode. When he begins challenging the writing staff to arm-wrestle, and winning, it seems like he’s getting his due, he’s finally getting ahead.

After challenging the man who’s taken to calling him out in front of the cast and crew, he’s sad to discover that the guy has a pretty crappy home life, just like him. In what’s to be Pete’s finest hour, he decides to throw the contest just so the so guy can say he won one. And in that moment, with the crowd cheering, Pete opens his eyes to realize he’s made the entire thing up. There’s Frank in his stupid hat. And there’s Pete, the loser. There’s something to be said about Pete and the crew guy finding some common ground with each other and what little respect they get from the people in their lives, I just felt it largely negated by the fact that half the storyline was made up.

“I Heart Connecticut” wasn’t the show’s funniest episode. But it once again proved the show’s ability to find comedy in the most unlikely places, and to do it smartly. And let’s be honest, you’re not going to get that from Community, RIGHT?

30 Rock – “Plan B”

30 Rock is sooo much better than people give it credit for. I’d guess that Parks and Recreation is generally considered to be NBC’s funniest sitcom, but I’d say that 30 Rock is consistently much more subtle and dare I say… smart?

Last night’s episode was a perfect example of just how joke-dense it’s all become. With Tracy still pretending to be in Africa, Jack tells Liz that TGS is going on a forced hiatus, which the rest of the cast and crew take to mean that it’s being canned. While everyone begins making plans for the future, Liz comes to the realization that she has no backup. It’s writing or it’s nothing.

“Plan B” was a little stripped down in that Liz and Jack were the only two characters the episode really focused on. With Tracy out of the picture and Jenna left out of things, we followed Liz as she prepared for life after TGS and Jack feeling buyer’s remorse after purchasing a gay-friendly network called TWINKS (Television With Individuals Naive Kinky Shaved). We caught a few scenes with Kenneth trying to come up with ways to save the show, which included sending sugar cubes to Kabletown to let them know you were sweet on TGS, something to do with “bird internet” and holding up a sign in The Today Show window which read, “Do you have any ideas?” But for the most part it was a constant build up between Jack and Liz, with jokes dropping about every 15-20 seconds. A surprising number of which hit.

And when the show is running on all cylinders, which it was last night, the small jokes are what to watch out for. Whether it’s Jack telling Devon that he was going to Trading Places him right before a homeless black guy walks in and says, “I was just bailed out of prison and they told me to come up here,” or Liz rolling her eyes at a group of L.A. rioters who correct her when, holding up a map, she asks, “How do I get to 1o?” That the show can take these sorts of jokes to tell a story about Liz’s bad luck finding another writing job speaks to what strong comedy chops it has.

The show also goes for the big laughs. Liz’s walk-and-talk with Aaron Sorkin may have been the best thing about “Plan B” (along with his “shut up” when Liz brought up Studio 60). There was a quote Tina Fey gave in an interview before the show went into its second season where she said that they were going to focus less on big-name guest stars. How wrong she was. 30 Rock’s handling of Jon Hamm, John Slattery and Matt Damon are some of the show’s all-time great moments. Not only in how funny they are, but how often their roles play against your expectations.

It’s hard for me to not turn this review into a Greatest Hits list from last night. And the fact that I remember all the little jokes about as well as I do Jack and Liz’s individual storylines, well, I consider it a win for the show. With only a handful of episodes left, the show is getting ready to wrap up the best season it’s had in a few years. I’m glad that both The Office and Parks and Rec are coming back next season, but it just wouldn’t be the same without 30 Rock.