Last Night's 30 Rock Frolicked In Uncanny Valley
Last night's 30 Rock, "Succession," was ingenious, and not just because it blended two of my favorite things: itself and the 1984 film Amadeus. Fans of the show no doubt delighted in the return of Will Arnett as Jack's gay rival, seeing Liz Lemon "go corporate," and the pairing of Tracy and Frank as the Mozart and Salieri of porn video games. It's almost like the episode was based on a dare to set a prime time sitcom episode to Mozart's Requiem.
But...what about non-fans? What about people who, after seeing Tina Fey on literally every talk show for the past week promoting Baby Mama, decided to give this 30 Rock show a try for the very first time last night?
Watching the episode for a second time, it becomes clear that no new viewer would have any idea what was going on in an episode based almost entirely on inside jokes, and that's a problem, because 30 Rock needs new viewers to NOT BE CANCELLED (duh.) Everyone loves inside jokes because they make us feel smart, but until it's getting ten million viewers, maybe 30 Rock should try to balance them with more inclusive episodes. It's a sacrifice fans have to make for this show to stay on the air for the rest of our lives. And that's what we all want, right? Full episode:
But all that said, I absolutely cannot wait to see what they do with Don Giess's flower-eating daughter as proxy chairman of GE.
Posted by Lindsay at 9:20 AM in Sitcoms
Tags: 30 Rock | Alec Baldwin | Judah Friedlander | Tina Fey | Tracy Morgan | Will Arnett
Well, it makes me feel better to read this. I didn't watch 30 Rock as a first time viewer last night because of any media whoring Fey has done.. I watched it because I didn't feel like leaving the couch between The Office and LOST. I really didn't get most of it. But I love Will Arnett.
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If I'm such a bad dad, why are we all dancing??
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I don't know, Diabetes Repair?
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chairPERSON, lindsay. chairPERSON.
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If Rip Torn was a gallon of whole milk, he'd be three weeks past his experiation date.
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Man, you guys are really reverent about 30rock. The amadeus parallel was funny but it didn't go anywhere. To me, it felt more like ornamentation than a motif that actually drove the comedy (like the Simpsons' Lord of the Flies episode).
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I agree with jo that 30 Rock sags when they take on big parody structures. Like in the MILF Island episode I was just bored by the paralleling editing between the fight at Donnaghy's (sic?) office and what was happening on the fake reality show.
That being said, there were approximately one million great jokes in last night's episode despite the Mozart stuff ("Diabetes repair, I suppose"), which is a pretty high number for one show.
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