It was Christmas night on NBC Thursday! And...it didn't really feel like Christmas in either 30 Rock or Parks & Rec tonight. But there were Christmas trees in the background! And they went to a Christmas party on Parks & Rec! And both episodes were good! So, yay! Jingle good for you, shows.
It would've been very hard to top last week's all-time classic, landmark 30 Rock. But...damn, if this episode didn't come really close. In terms of pure laughs, this episode might've even been better, even if it wasn't quite as "special" as Liz Lemon's WEDDING, YOU GUYS. Yes, Liz Lemon is MARRIED. And Jenna is pissed. The one thing I was very slightly disappointed to see in last week's episode was the lack of Jenna at Liz's wedding, but apparently it was just so that we could witness her beautiful, beautiful rage this week, so I have no qualms. It actually makes sense, because Jenna making the wedding all about herself probably would've threatened some of the subtle sweetness of Liz's big day. And again, it gave us this plotline, which featured Liz and Jenna attending an event celebrating women in comedy "who aren't Betty White". The plot featured a lot of female stereotypes (women can't work the TV! a woman whose husband left her and now she's horribly depressed!) but 30 Rock always manages to get away with making these kinds of generalizations because a) they're funny and b) it's pretty clear the show is doing it in a tongue-in-cheek matter, making fun of the generalizations more than the actual people they're generalizing. The plot actually does a pretty good job of highlighting some of the tension in Liz and Jenna's relationship with Jenna explaining that seeing Liz happy made her insecure because Liz was always a way for Jenna to feel better about herself, and now that Liz is actually doing well, it sort of removes that dynamic in their relationship. Of course, in typical 30 Rock fashion, Jenna is only being this open with Liz because she "took a pill that lets her feel things", but it was still a nice little analysis of their friendship. The show seemed to forget Liz and Jenna were friends for several years there, but in the past two seasons they've done a good job of going back to that relationship, which is good because it's always been an interesting friendship to me with a lot of comic potential. The other main storyline saw the return of Colleen, who seems to be at the end of her rope and is trying to give Jack signs, but Jack takes it as her trying to shame him yet again...which she does, by giving him a slightly condescending speech right before she dies. It was a surprisingly dark twist for an episode for 30 Rock - I spent a lot of the plotline wondering if the show was really going to go there. But I think they pulled it off, and it served as a nice conclusion to the Jack/Colleen saga, with Jack realizing that her pushing him and constantly criticizing him is what made him the person he is today. Also, it gave us a funeral scene that turned into Jenna and Paul's wedding and featured a guest spot from Kermit the Frog. Pretty amazing stuff right there. The C-plot was simple but actually much more entertaining than most C-plots - Kenneth is depressed after being dumped by Hazel and "wishes his life could be more like TV", which leads to Tracy trying to make Kenneth's life exactly like a TV show by getting him stuck in an elevator with Florence Henderson (Carol on The Brady Bunch), but of course, Florence is a mean alcoholic rather than a loving TV mom, and Kenneth discovers that life just isn't like TV. Pretty standard 30 Rock material, but that's not a bad thing - it was entertaining, had some great lines, a solid guest spot, and a typically perfect meta line (there wouldn't be a TV show where a famous guy tried to help a lowly janitor because if there was, no one would watch it!). It was all a lot of fun. I kind of forget that Kenneth isn't a page anymore, though. I'm still rooting for him to take over NBC at the end of the series.
Parks and Recreation also saw the return of an old favorite tonight, but this one didn't die. Tammy II returned to stir the pot with Ron's new girlfriend Diane, and Leslie ain't havin' it. Oh, and the four are all at a woodworking awards show together, which is awesome. I've seem some complaints that the plot saw Tammy II awkwardly shoehorned in, and that the reveal that it was Leslie that Diane was jealous of rather than Tammy was forced. I get those criticisms and sort of agree with them on some level - particularly Diane being jealous of Leslie, which reminded me a lot of the 30 Rock episode where Avery told Jack and Liz they had to stop talking to each other. But 30 Rock pulled it off a lot better than Parks did - I just didn't really get the feeling that Leslie and Ron were really that close enough that it would be an issue, and it sort of seemed like creating plot for the sake of creating plot to me. But honestly, I can't say I really cared that much, because the Leslie/Tammy scenes were just fucking perfect, and I really liked the speech Ron gave to Diane at the end of the episode. I also really liked the B-plot where the Parks department is forced to realize that Jerry's life is kind of awesome and the fact that he's a klutz at the office seems minimal compared to his hot wife and loving family. Some people often feel the Jerry stuff goes too far, and this seemed like a good way to point out that Jerry probably doesn't really give a shit about it. The other plot of the night was a Chris plot, which largely haven't been working lately, and...this was no exception. Nothing even really happened, other than...Chris seeming marginally better and Ben noticing? The show hasn't really had anything for Chris to do since "The Trial of Leslie Knope", and they've kind of been running in circle with the character since then. But all in all, this was a really good Parks & Rec. Not necessarily anything groundbreaking, but very enjoyable to watch. And after a few seasons of brilliance, if that's the show Parks is going to be from here on out, who's to complain?
That's the last of these shows until January. Which...seems really god damn early, right? Since when do shows go on break for Christmas during the first week of December? Also, this means there's only four weeks of 30 Rock left, which...I hate life.
So there will be new episodes of all of the Tuesday comedies next week, but after that, we're completely done until December. What the hell? But it's alright, because during the off weeks I'll be posting my year-end lists, which I'm pretty sure are going to feature my top 20 episodes of 2012, and I think my top 10 or 15 shows of 2012. Or 20. I haven't decided yet. We'll see!
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