30 Rock won back its crown (with a wedding episode, no less!), turning back a decent effort from The Office and a mediocre League. I hate writing these intro parts, so let’s just dive right in, shall we?
We get a bonus episode of The League tonight, so I have four shows to review.
This was SitCombat for December 6, 2012:
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30 Rock (NBC) – “My Whole Life is Thunder”
Tonight’s Episode: Jenna is none-too-pleased when she finds out that Liz got married so close to her own wedding, Jack deals with his ongoing mother-related issues, and Tracy tries to cheer Kenneth up after his break-up with Hazel.
Good Stuff: “You got married?!? To what?” . . . “Hathanobody” . . . “I’m 42, Cerie.” “I don’t know what that is” . . . 80 Under 80 . . . “Backslash ‘Garbage File?!?’” . . . “She insists on traveling on Pearl Harbor Day to, and I quote, ‘show the Emperor we’re not afraid’”. . . “Do you have any idea where she is, little boy?” . . . “I told the black guy – no Brady stuff!” . . . Liz’s picture in the program . . . Jack’s three appropriate subjects of paintings: (1) horses, (2) ships with sails, (3) men holding up swords while staring off into the distance . . . “Apex Technical School puts students first…(turns to camera) and the perfect time to enroll is NOW!” . . . I loved that all the women at the Women in Media banquet went to the bathroom together and can’t figure out A/V equipment . . . “It’s all right! The lack of oxygen is making me orgasm!” . . . I think killing off Jack’s mom was the right call. It gave the character closure, and I think it was the right time to wrap things up from Elaine Stritch’s perspective . . . “Jenna! I mean…Liz” . . . “Where else but real life would a millionaire movie star care so much about a Hillbilly janitor that he would spend two days trying to cheer him up?” . . . Frank’s “APPROPRIATE” hat . . . “The man who, in 1984, wore a tuxedo so well that he broke up the Go-Go’s” . . . Reverend Gimp was definitely voiced by Lorne Michaels.
Non-good Stuff: The Jenna “Abusive / crazy male from my past doing something outrageous to me” lines are getting a little “mad-libby” . . . The Oprah stuff doesn’t really resonate with me.
Line of the Night: “Someone’s looking lovely today! . . . What a burn. I could have meant someone else…although I didn’t. She’s radient!” – Kenneth, trying to be mean (and failing)
Overall: Good show. I loved a lot of the little things, like Dot Com’s line about Apex Technical. I think ending the Mrs. Donaghy storyline is appropriate at this point in Elaine Stritch’s life, not to mention the increasingly-limited life of the show itself. There weren’t as many huge laughs as last week, though. This was a good, solid, all-around episode with lots of fun cameos, but the highs weren’t as high as the best shows that the 30 Rock writers create, possibly because a character, you know, died on the show.
GRADE: B
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The Axis of Ego’s second year was a productive one. This is the 105th and final post of the year, which averages out to a hair over two pieces per week. Not a bad clip. As of this writing, the blog has accumulated a little over 31,000 views in 2012, which is good progress. I checked in at about 26,000 last year, and half of that came in a matter of two or three days from 
The last few weeks have provided a veritable cornucopia of off-base commentary and unsophisticated political thought. From David Dow’s call to 
The Axis of Ego 
Must Be a Typo
Vacationing—or, more specifically, flying on an airplane—affords me opportunities unknown in the remainder of my day-to-day life. From the irrational anxiety I feel if I’m not at the airport at least an hour before my flight, to submitting to a full-body x-ray for some reason, to paying $8 for a blueberry muffin, to being berated by a slightly-higher-than-minimum-wage employee because I didn’t take my shoes off fast enough—air travel offers experiences I just can’t get anywhere else. And thank God for that.
The Litter Kwitter System
One more pleasant example is my perusal of the free SkyMall catalog, a periodical packed with insane products that I wouldn’t contemplate for a moment if I were within 20,000 feet of sea level. Yet, somehow, at altitude, I mull them over. There are dozens of bad ideas for gifts (or good ideas for bad gifts, depending on your perspective), from Justin Bieber singing toothbrushes to “Litter Kwitter,” a potty-training system for your cat.
Yet, of all the zany items listed this year, there was one that exceeded the implausibility of all the others.
No, it wasn’t a life-sized Bigfoot statue, or an irrational numbers wall clock, or even a “disinfection scanner” to kill hotel bed bacteria. No, the item in question was a seemingly innocuous autographed basketball in a glass display case. Continue reading →
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