NBC Thursday Thoughts

Community Interpretative Dance

Last week I complained that Community broke the fourth wall too much and after rewatching this week's episode I'd like reword that complaint to "they broke the fourth wall too overtly". When characters are literally winking at the camera I roll my eyes more than laugh. This episode had a subtler 4th wall break, which I really enjoyed. At the climax Troy decides the most masculine thing for him to do was save Brita from being embarrassed. Generally the motivation for this action is noble, preventing a friend's shaming out of pure altruism. Community flipped this on it's head my making Troy's actions selfish, since he knew the others would react as if his actions were altruistic. Another strong showing for Community, which I pleasantly discovered will add more episodes this season because of the Leno fiasco.

Stray Thoughts

- I am tired of the will they won't they stuff with Jeff and Brita, hopefully they will turn this into a Jerry/Elaine relationship and not Ross/Rachel relationship.

-Prelimiwow

- I have been spending too much money on breakaway clothing.

Parks and Recreation Leslie's House

Parks and Recreation manages it to be at it's best when it is really well grounded. I like being in a little world that thinks Indianapolis is a booming metropolis and the library is your biggest rival. This episode was less grounded than I would have preferred, but it still managed to be really funny. I thought they had a really solid tight episode before they added the belly dancer, fencing, etc. and I wish they decided to end the dinner party with good, funny human interaction instead of a couple of sight gags. I generally don't care for trials in comedy's as it is a stale contrivance that has tapped into most of it's potential humour. Specifically asking about a date in a trial is an old tired gag and something I really wish they eliminated at the time, however they did have a nice payoff with Leslie's talking head at the end. Similarily the respond to any question with a question is a gag that stopped being funny in high school, but Ron Swanson managed to make it hilarious. I think it worked so well because generally the hostile witness isn't good at asking questions, but Ron's proficiency at evading questions was really funny, ending with this little needle "Thank you Ron" "Are we done?".

Stray Thoughts

-Every episode I feel like I want to see more Tom

- "I'm going to need to refoliate"

- Ron bringing deviled eggs had me dying.

30 Rock Get Dale Snitterman

Last week I didn't blog about 30 Rock because I find it really hard to write about. Firstly I find it really hard to judge 30 Rock because I could watch 22 minutes of Tracy reading off a teleprompter, secondly because a lot of my reviews would just be listing 8-12 funny one liners. I think 30 Rock usually doesn't use their peripheral characters enough and last night gave every character a couple of solid jokes Toofer's attempt to name drop Harvard, which was later repeated by John Hancock, a couple of good Lutz moments, Grizz bashing dotcom's screenplay, etc. All of these elements led to what I felt was a pretty strong B story, some broad silliness with good writing that was very funny. My one problem with the B story is that they didn't give it a satisfactory ending, it was as if they thought the audience would forget about the B story once they went to the credits. The A story was pretty weak and I love Julianne Moore in almost anything she does, it wasn't particularly funny or engaging and I found myself waiting for those scenes to end a lot.

Stray thoughts

- As someone who hates all Boston sports teams, watching Boston jokes for 22 minutes was fantastic

- She's the female Kevin Mchale