Television rocks. Thursday NBC shows rock the hardest most of the time. Last night was a good night. Let’s relive it together, shall we?
30 Rock
This was a fucking great episode! Impressive. After a season that’s been a little all over the place, this one is gonna become a classic, not (just) for its clever guest stars but because it went back to the weird stuff that middle America found off-putting and almost got the show canceled, but gave TV nerds like us things to freak out about on the internet.
Riffing off of the sitcom obsession with holiday-based episodes, 30 Rock devoted the night to celebrating Leap Day. There were Leap Day heroes (Leap Dave Williams, who gives you treats in exchange for tears), and Leap Day movies (nice use of guest stars Jim Carrey and the world’s slowest talker, Andie MacDowell). Everybody thinks it’s okay to go nuts because “real life is for March!”
More on this and Parks and Rec beyond this jump LEAP!
Liz, meanwhile, gets Indecent Proposal-ed by a dorky guy from high school who wants to give Liz his v-card and $20 million dollars. Jenna calls for an old-fashioned slut-off, and then reminds Liz that she’d always be competing for rich guys with ballerinas whose boobs got too big.
Kenneth takes Jack on a trip through Leap Days of past, present and future, where Jack learns…something? Kenneth, as usual, got in my favorite line from the episode when he was wearing his Leap Dave Williams costume: “Yes, I will take off my bald cap, not put on my wig.”
Tracy uses Leap Day to spend a $50,000 gift card to Benihana. Not much to write on that bit except it was pretty sweet, especially Tracy trying to arrive at the decision to give it to the folks at the soup kitchen.
Parks and Recreation
Leslie is struggling to keep her Parks Department work and campaign separate. Christ, how long IS a city council campaign?? When is the goddamn election? Not that I don’t like that story, but — come on, it really is taking forever.
Anyways.
Ron suggests that Leslie take a leave of absence because things are falling through the cracks. Leslie, of course, denies it. She can’t even admit that she’s been wearing the same sweater all week when Ron points out there is a lollipop stuck to the back of it. “LOLLIPOPPIN’!” Leslie even misses Jerry’s birthday, which falls on leap year. (And oof — Jerry’s shirt. Not good. My husband recently said he wanted to wear more science-type clothes, and I imagined something like Jerry’s shirt when I said “absolutely not.”) Leslie sends Jerry off to pick up poop without gloves so they can make birthday plans, and asks to use Donna’s family’s lake house. Donna is reluctant – “we’re not big on hospitality” — but agrees.
When they get out there, Tom sees a Ginuwine record, and his picture with Donna, and freaks out to learn he’s Donna’s cousin. When Ann says she doesn’t know who that is, Tom freaks out. “Not loving 90s R&B is #3 in the No No-Nos list!” He is devastated to learn that Ann has t-shirt sheets and doesn’t care about blu-ray. Ann and Tom continue to bug April for advice, because she’s the one who set them up, which she smartly avoids by getting drunk.
Ann gets mad, too, and starts listing a bunch of shit that bugs her about Tom, like insisting on being introduced as “The Brown Gosling.” Tom is all outraged: “EVERYTHING YOU SAID MAKES ME LIKE ME MORE!” Seriously, how are they together?? All I got is that Ann is lonely and Tom thinks she’s hot. That seems to be it.
Leslie realizes that she forgot to invite Jerry to his own party. Ron and Leslie go pull him out of the bathtub, claiming there’s an emergency. On the way, Leslie gets some bad campaign news:
Ron holds on to his suggestion that Leslie needs time off, and drops some New Classic Swansonisms:
When Leslie tries to say she’s managing, Ron smirks back: “You truly are attempting to do it all.”
He approaches Donna holding two cartons of eggs. “Is this all the eggs we have?” “Yes. What are you making?” “Eggs.”
And then, when they chat by the lake and Leslie agrees to take time off: “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” Genius.
Also, Chris Traeger falls in love with April and Andy’s tripod dog, Champion. Poor Chris doesn’t have anybody else. It was cute when he got excited about Champion licking his face. “ANDY! HE’S KISSING ME!!!” Aw. I like that dog and Chris together.
This episode wasn’t a big plot mover but it was super good, right? Well, I’m not too sure about the Ann/Tom stuff. Oh, and nowhere near enough Ben Wyatt. But the rest: A+. What do y’all think?
The Office
That opening bit with Pam and Angela and Oscar bitching about each other was fantastic. This show’s still got a little sparkle! But I hate that new girl trying to get into Jim’s pants so I probably won’t watch this show until that stops happening.
Up All Night
I did not stay up all night (ha) or even up past 9:30 last night. But I hear Will Forte showed up. Was it good?
Was Up All Night any good… well, it was about as entertaining as this column.
Just kidding!
Can we get an internet petition rolling to get April off Parks and Rec? Her schtick is this close [holding index finger and thumb exactly 2mm apart] to making my head explode.
Bored of Tom and Ann. Weren’t they gonna get him back together with his ex? She showed up in that one episode…
It never seemed like Tom and Ann dating would be more than a joke, and its not working the way they’re trying to do it. I would like to see some real interest in each other happen from either one of them. Or just stop it!
Same with April, she needs some kind of ‘development’ instead of more of the same.
Actually now that I say that I realize thats what I want for ALL the characters and the show itself.