Here we go here we go here we go again, with another batch of new NBC episodes, including the return of Parks and Recreation, a touching and shocking 30 Rock, and the non-return of Andy on The Office. Plus, 1600 Penn.
- 30 Rock: Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, and Tina Fey are on the cover of next week's Rolling Stone, as Superman(s) and Lois Lane, respectively, and in an interview with Baldwin inside the magazine, he reveals that he nearly left the show after season five because it was a "low point." It's a good thing he didn't; otherwise we wouldn't have been treated to an episode like "Florida," which was predictably hilarious but also, by 30 Rock standards, had an honest-to-God story culminating in an unexpected ending. Also surprising: Jack's mom was a lesbian, probably from all the boiled blue Gatorade she drank.
- Parks and Recreation: What's better than penis hats and Babe Lincoln and Retta making a man dig for her and April in a pretty dress? Well: steak, alcohol, the return of Benji's Cool Times Summer Jamz Mix, boardgames (Settlers of Catan is kind of awesome), ice cream, and, obviously, a game of throw-and-catch with Andrew Luck, Reggie Wayne, and mentally ill cowboy Jim Irsay at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Pawnee guys made for the better half of "Two Parties," but the ladies furthered the show's overall plot more, with Councilman Jamm continuing his efforts to claim Leslie's plot of land as his own (not a euphemism — he's more interested in Ann). This issue's going all the way to to the top, to President Nick Cannon's desk in 2018.
- The Office: Not sure if I've laughed at anything on The Office as hard as Darryl's terrible basketball shot in years. (That probably says more about The Office than anything else.) It's about time we spent an extended amount of time at Athlead, too, because up to this point, it only existed as an abstract; now we know a little more about the company that's turning Jim into a cocky prick. More of a cocky prick. Back in Scranton, well, the writers aren't exactly being subtle with the "tearing up the place" metaphor, are they? It mostly worked in "Suit Warehouse," though, despite a tired "too much coffee=crazy" story, and the sight gag of the torn-up carpet when Pam and Darryl returned made me — shock — laugh hard again. Andy, still dead.
- 1600 Penn: So...how about that Manti Te'o?
Gah, only two more weeks of new 30 Rock episodes. Not ready for this at all.
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Yep, once I heard the “No wrong way to consume alcohol” line I knew that was going to be a gif.
I’m bummed the entirety of Andy’s speech isn’t in GIF form yet.
Andy’s speech was fantastic, but his reaction to Roy Hibbert walking in was my favorite
God that line was great, followed by his response to the waiter after he requested the scotch in liquid form
I want to go to that bar so bad.
Andy’s reaction to the waiter rubbing the scotch onto Ron’s hand was perfect
“This is the wrong way to consume alcohol.”
I knew that was coming, but it was still hilarious.
Someone needs to get on this vodka as a flash of light thing, like yesterday.
The basketball shot was funny- but preceding that the “Darryl can’t do interviews” schtick followed immediately by “Oh, look how prepared Darryl is – he brought NOTES!” screams as to the woefully inconsistent characters The Office is reduced to.
Also – where did Toby go?
The Darryl story hasn’t made a lick of sense since Andy got the manager gig over him. He was clearly the most competent man for the job.
The hiring practices at Dunder Mifflin seem to be skewered toward hiring the least qualified.
Ryan got the job at corporate despite having never made a sale. Andy gets regional manager despite having the worst sales record.
Sounds a lot like companies I’ve worked for.
You are promoted to the level of your incompetence, I guess. It’s probably the most realistic part of this show now.
The basketball shot killing the fish was awesome, but Darryl was woefully inconsistent because he brought notes? His interview was terrible, worse than his interview for branch manager.
The other hiring isn’t really all that illogical. Andy only got the job as manager because Robert California got the job then gave it to Andy immediately based on apparently nothing – pretty consistent with the Robert California character we’d seen exactly once before that episode. Daryl had one good idea Joe liked so she moved him upstairs, otherwise how was he the most qualified? Ryan got the job at corporate because he got his MBA in seasons 1-3, he didn’t need to be good at sales to do well with that job (like how Micheal was an excellent salesman but a horrible manager). The hiring makes more sense than most things on the show (Timothy Olyphant arc aside), now why most of the people haven’t been fired at this point is the mystery.
No, I felt the fact he brought notes inconsistent with his attitude of just leaving the interview before even bringing it up. In a show that regularly steps on my suspension of disbelief (for a workplace sitcom, anyway) that really stuck out for some reason.
Unlike their hiring practices – which are arguably the last realistic aspect left.
Timothy Olyphant and *ugh* Nellie aside.
Andy got the job because he was the character that resembles Michael the most. Just nowhere near as funny.
Ah, I get what you’re saying about the notes now. It does seem odd he’d bring notes if he was walking in already defeated in his mind.
I would argue that Nellie’s hiring makes sense since Joe hired her because she was her friend. She hired Deangelo Vickers because he saved her dogs or something and then gave her own job to Robert California. Her hiring pracitices were just off the walls crazy all around.
And sure, in terms of production/writing they made Andy boss because Helms was the biggest name on the set after Carrel left. I meant in terms of why Robert California gave him the job as part of the hiring at DM/Sabre.
The key is that Darryl was only bad at the actual interview….in every other facet, he’s by all accounts a tremendous employee, including pre-interview prep (his ideas folders). Also, in this case Jim probably told his co-workers up front that Darryl was a terrible interview so they were expecting him to be nervous.
One of the more consistent Office ideas is that they gave reasons for the bosses to be employed. David Brent, for instance, was apparently an okay boss work-wise who simply couldn’t help suppress his need to ‘perform’ for the cameras and thus made an ass of himself. Michael Scott was similar except he had one great talent (making sales) and the Scranton branch was one of Dunder-Mifflin’s few, or only, profitable offices, so they kept him around despite his many screwups.
Compare this to the modern situation when you get Vickers or Andy in charge despite there being no logical in-show reason why either would be hired.
I plan on implementing the snooze button into regular, boring conversation from this moment forward.
I was sad that the reaction shot of Jerry checking his watch after being “snoozed” wasn’t there. I rewound that 3 times.
I aaaw’d out loud at that. Poor sweet Jerry.
Every time I feel bad for Jerry I remember that he’s married to Christie Brinkley and has the largest penis that a doctor has ever seen. Then I don’t feel so bad for him.
I always try to pinpoint which moments in the series he mentioned during his Q&A.
I love that Jerry has the best out-of-office life of anyone.
i knew that ben’s ideal bachelor party was just going to be them playing settlers of catan. why must he be after my own heart, sometimes?
Retta?
Kevin’s machine gunning was the best part of an otherwise ridiculously stupid episode of The Office.
I need to snooze button someone this weekend.
I seriously thought The Office had already ended, I watched a bit for the first time in a while and had no idea WTF was going on.
I started not being annoyed by Chris last night. I hope they keep this trend up.
Best use of Rob Lowe/Chris in a season and half. I get the depression storyline, but it didn’t the highs of this
Ellie Kemper is just the worst. She’s less funny than church.
I agree, but find her pretty damn attractive.
I do not like Parks and Rec anymore. It’s become way too sweet and sappy for my taste. It’s like Modern Family now. It still had a few funny moments like the weird club they went to, but most of the time i’m just cringing now while watching it. Especially when they got those sports guy cameos. I have no idea who they are, but it was still very cheesy in a Full House kind of way.
The difference between Parks and Modern Family is that Parks earns their moments.
Not everything has to be dark and cynical. Part of why I love Parks is because it’s funny while still being lighthearted and warm, which is a nice change of pace after a bunch of Archer/Sunny/30 Rock/etc
It’s always been sweet and sappy (barring the first season.) The reason they’re upping it somewhat now is because they do not know if they’ll get another season or not so they’re trying to wrap everything up just in case. Also, how cynical are you? “I can’t stand this show, the characters like each other too much.”
I LOLed at Ben subtly pumping Jerry for information on how he got Gail.
Penis in Ann’s mouth!
Penis in Ann’s mouth!
Penis in Ann’s mouth!
That was the best moment of the season.
I think it’s weird Alec Baldwin calls season 5 the low point. that was the season I thought was starting to rebound after the actual low point of season 4.
Glad I’m not the only one who cracked up at Daryl’s basketball shot…I felt ashamed that I laughed so hard.
And I loved the 720 Entertainment callback on Parks and Rec…”I’m not paying for his dinner…he owes me a lot of money.”
My bachelor party would be the combination of 3 of those.
Football, steak, and ice cream?
Almost…replace the ice cream with games. I don’t see a bunch of guys playing Catan, but set up some tvs with Madden, Street Fighter, and other head to head games, along with some good scotch and cigars, and that sounds like a fine way to exit singlehood.
PS-I like ice cream, but I can’t imagine the intestinal gymnastics that combo of beer, booze, ice cream, steak, and playing football would produce.
Rashida Jones talking about putting penises in her mouth wins everything.
Oh, and that fish tank had Chekov’s gun written all over it.
I’m going to cry when 30 Rock is over.
Ditto
“Not sure if I’ve laughed at anything on The Office as hard as Darryl’s terrible basketball shot in years. (That probably says more about The Office than anything else.)”
The entire sentence is about The Office, so I should hope so.
Newt Gingrich made me laugh last night. That’s weird, right?
I have one recurring thought every time I watch Parks and Rec and that is that Tom is just a colossal dick to Jerry. I hate Tom.
Yeah, I’m cool with a lot of the Jerry jokes, but I’m not a Tom fan. Besides his constant ripping on Jerry, he’s just so unlikable, especially when Jean Ralphio is everything funny about Tom times a big number.
It should be illegal to dislike Haverford
I love Councilman Jam. Jon Glazer is my spirit animal
What, no King of the Nerds gifs? Was I the only one who watched that show out of morbid curiosity?
Yes.
I want to make the I didn’t super duper finish law school gif my photo on my firm’s website. I will retain zero clients, but it still seems worth it.
damn, i forget the line but a line on 30 rock from Jack made me literally LOL. something about not being picked by the child molesting priest?
I was very concerned that reporter was going to try to hit on Ben again at the end of the episode and very relieved when he set her up with Chris. I don’t need drama on my Parks and Rec, just pure hearted goodness. And Jerry getting shit on by Andrew Luck.
That basketball shot scene was so hilariously awkward that I had to immediatly pause it and hide under the covers.
I haven’t watched The Office in a long, long time and tuned in for the first few mins in the beginning, why is Meredith bald? Is it something serious or just plot based?
Pam gave everyone lice last week, so Meredith shaved her own head… in the office kitchen.
I think it’s time we went ahead and crowned Ron Swanson the Honorary King of Bears.
I award Stanley the funniest line in The Office.
I thought Parks was great, and it was the funniest Office ep in a long time.
Every scene at Jim’s new office was cringe inducing. “Bob, have you leveraged those numbers yet? We need to perform a data double take prior to finalizing.” Ughh.
The boys took over the show in Parks and I loved every minute of it. I will always love Andy Dwyer.
That roving bachelor party was legendary. I freaking love Parks and Rec.