By Sarah Carlson | TV | March 2, 2012 |
By Sarah Carlson | TV | March 2, 2012 |
Last night’s ultimate winner: The tumblr user who posted the header photo of male centaurs kissing with the hash tag “Great now its in MY history too.” You wanted to demonstrated what Liz Lemon was talking about, and you hit the ball out of the park. I salute you.
“30 Rock”: “Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whisky”
Real life may be for March, but February Sweeps were still around last night as three guest stars stopped by: Susan Sarandon, reprising her role as Lynn, Frank’s childhood teacher/illegal love interest; Patti LuPone, back as Frank’s stereotypical Italian mother, Sylvia; and Stanley Tucci, as a onetime business nemesis of Jack’s. The more, the merrier, I suppose. Liz, at least, was at her best — still neurotic (recognizing the taste of tears in food), but back to handling other people’s messes that make her own weird life seem OK. She needs the balance of the craziness to bring out her normalness, if that makes sense. But we can’t blame her for going along with Frank’s charade of their relationship, considering it meant some tasty meatballs coming her way. … That didn’t come out right. Moving on, Tracy and Jenna’s plots poking fun at stereotypes was cute if not original, and I did like Pete’s Phil Donahue story mixed with some Billy Joel. The Kenneth plot was weak, however, just like the character has become. He still gets some funny lines playing at his backwoods upbringing, but mostly, he’s grating. If Kenneth went back to his mountain, I don’t think we’d even notice. It’s not like he’s as interesting as the porn version of “Temple Grandin,” “TentTen Poles Rammed In,” or majoring in Bro Studies at Syracuse.
“Parks and Recreation”: “Campaign Shake-Up”
The great Carl Reiner will be 90 this month. NINETY. That’s awesome. Good to see his guest spot as Ned Jones, the ring leader of the Pawnee seniors, just as it was nice to see the hilarious Kathryn Hahn as Bobby Newport’s new campaign manager, Jennifer Barkley. Although where’s Paul Rudd? We need more Rudd! Leslie and Ben maintained the cute quota, at least, with her multiple references to her love of his slim frame. Joe Biden may be her celebrity sex list, but she knows she’s got a keeper in The Hedgehog. It was also good seeing the Parks people back to their office antics, what with April giving a two-armed, Steve Holt-style salute to herself for annoying Ann; Andy, duck-taped with water balloons, attacking Chris; and Donna forgoing balloons and just spraying Jerry with a hose. We even got some classic government hating from Ron, whose emphatic “Noooo!” needs to be my new ringtone. This show is its own brilliant, sexy little hummingbird.
“The Office”: “Test the Store”
Side-stepping the issue of how the team was able to set up a Sabre store so quickly, their Florida assignment being only for three weeks, the test run of the venture provided some great bits. Using NBC’s “Chuck” as the main promotion tie-in was pretty genius, given that we know “Chuck” just aired its last episode. Can we assume the Sabre store is destined to fail? Other highlights: Dwight and Jim channeling Kelly and Ryan’s mother, respectively, as an encouragement to Ryan were perfect, as was Jim’s ultimate presentation to the sound of Coldplay’s “Clocks.” The man looks good in anything, even a white suit and eyeliner. The night’s guest spot went to Georgia Engel, Georgette from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” as the elderly woman Erin spoke with after chasing her out of the store. Reports have her returning for a few more episodes. Back at Scranton, Andy’s bully storyline was weak in itself — He got beat up by a girl! Ha! — but bringing her and her mother (comic Tig Notaro) in for a bitchy apology and Toby for a self-defense session (complete with sections such as “Begging for mercy”) saved it completely. All that was missing was Michael acting disgusted by Toby’s very presence. At least That Bitch Kathy only tried her moves on a blogger and not Jim. Maybe they can sic the fifth-grader on her when the team returns to Scranton …
“Up All Night”: “New Boss”
More guest stars! The lovely Eve Best (“Nurse Jackie”) stopped by as lady business guru Yvonne Encanto to briefly encourage some of her favorite heroines, Ava and Reagan, in time for Ava’s fifth anniversary show. Her leaving behind Luke (Steven Pasquale) to help run things is a smart move on the show’s part; Reagan needs another obstacle, and by bringing in Luke as everyone’s boss, the writers are continuing the shift of making Ava more of a friend to Reagan and not some weird Oprah spin-off. Ava has gradually become more grounded, if still eccentric, and it’s better to keep Rudolph funny but relatable. We’ll definitely miss Kevin (and Jason Lee), too. At least we got some more Will Forte action as Reed, another stay-at-home dad looking for some excitement and a chance to wear red leather. I appreciate Chris’s obliviousness when it comes to stereotypically “manly” things — he can’t even tell Steve McQueen and Elton John apart. He’s like the opposite of every character Tim Allen has played, and it’s wonderful.
Sarah Carlson will forever think of Adam Scott as a sexy elf king.
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