CROSS OFF THE RUG-PIDDLING/WHAT RHYMES WITH HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW? Much Office-love below, so I won't touch that, but we should also mention that the rest of NBC's comedy block was strong tonight as well. Alan loves Bad Earl, so this episode seemed like a love-letter to him, a Whitman's Sampler of Bad Earl misdeeds that could be recounted without trying to build a Good Earl episode around them. Lots of really funny moments, with an especially strong performance from Young Earl, who is really nailing Jason Lee's mannerisms.
Even with a strong Earl and a solid Office, the show of the night for me was 30 Rock. After a couple of weeks where I thought it was merely good, not great (I wasn't a huge fan of the Paul Reubens episode) I laughed all the way through this one. 30 Rock is not a show that I think will ever develop the kind of broad, emotional appeal of HIMYM or The Office, probabably because where those shows are centered upon blossoming or doomed relationships, 30 Rock takes its cues from Seinfeld's no-hugging-no-learning aloofness. When it's working, though, it is in Arrested Development territory, piling jokes, pop-culture reference jokes, inappropriate jokes, wordplay jokes, and random in-jokes upon each other. I laughed out loud in the pre-credit scene last night as much as I've ever laughed out loud in an entire episode of HIMYM (except maybe Slap Bet), and the show sustained the pace throughout. I think it hit on 95% of its material (basically everything except the Rachel Dratch stuff), which is astoundingly high, and which I read as support for my belief that the Jenna character is the weakest part of the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment