This Week in the Mercury

Playing with Fire

News

Playing with Fire

Code Changes Could Snuff Indoor Fire Dancing in Portland


Shaking Behind the Scenes

News

Shaking Behind the Scenes

City Quake Tour Dances Around Fears Over Portland's Harbor Wall—and Bridges



Friday, January 27, 2012

Recaps for Poor People, Briefly.

Posted by Elinor Jones on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 2:15 PM

Hey guys. I’m keeping things short today because I am busy. And aren’t you? Don’t you people have jobs? What are you doing on Blogtown all day? Sheeeeeeeeesh. (JK! Please never leave.)

30 Rock

A continuation of last week’s episode shows Jack still in Lemon’s head about her new boyfriend, Criss. Those two have a weird relationship, don’t they? Seems like on sitcoms, platonic friends have oddly close relationships because they really want to get together, but I don’t believe that is the case here. It’s just…weird. What do you people think is happening?

Jack is entangled in a mess with the gravel-voiced Devon Banks. Will Arnett gets to be on 2 Thursday night shows now! Lucky guy. Just like the iconic Jessica Hecht, who played Ross’s ex-wife’s new wife Susan on Friends, and also was on The Single Guy. (Yes, I am available to be on your '90s television trivia team, and yes, I will destroy.) Banks is ready to leak some more negative Tracy stuff if Jack doesn’t get his triplets into a top preschool. One thing leads to another, and they have to placate Kathy Geiss by making a unicorn the mascot of NBC. I am for this.

My brief recaps are still lengthy so hit the jump for my thoughts on Alec Baldwin's hair and why bowling sucks.

Tracy, meanwhile, is still working with NAZI (National Association for Zero Tolerance). The idiot protests had developed out of 30 Rock’s response to Tracy Morgan’s anti-gay rant from last year, and fellow commenter Fruit Cup had commented on 30 Rock's making light of the situation last week, and I think he was right, especially since the original controversy has kind of been blown off now for this sillier bit. Where are you, FC? What do you think now?

Jenna and Kenneth are still using Kelsey Grammer to cover up having poisoned Pete. Kelsey Grammer skeezes me out. I wish they’d gotten another big-name '90s sitcom star here. What is Paul Reiser doing these days?

Wow, I’m like 5,000 words into this recap and have left out a ton of stuff and I’m trying to be brief. The thing with this show is this: plots don’t make this show awesome—the amazing writers and cast do. Like Liz going off on idiots, who she blames them for Florida and the possibility of an Entourage movie. So awesome.

Final thought: I have been rewatching older 30 Rock episodes on Netflix and Alec Baldwin’s hair used to be salt and peppery but now it’s like, fluorescent brown. I do not like it.

Parks and Recreation

Hilarious, as always! This show is on a fucking roll so far this year. Leslie has a focus group for her city council campaign (against the dreamy Bobby Newport, not featured in this episode, booo.) Some hick loser says that he’s not too sure about Leslie because he doesn’t think he could go bowling with her. To win that guy's vote and prove she's not an elitist, Leslie puts together an event at the bowling alley.

Ron shows up to the bowling alley event because it serves his favorite foods: hamburgers and hot dogs only. He says he is not afraid to eat there, because:

Fear him, meat products.
  • Fear him, meat products.

Over at April and Andy’s, the rest of the Parks staff phone-banking and whoever can raise the most money wins movie tickets. The highly enthusiastic Chris is poised to win, but April decides to beat him so that his happiness will go away. Little do we know, Chris is about to be crushed by Jerry’s daughter Millicent, who dumps him midway through. Chris is sad. April wins! But then she invited Chris to the movies with her and Andy. That girl is all over the place. Smart! Dumb! Mean! Nice!! Way to keep us on our toes, April. Or way to be inconsistent, writers.

After that hick loser calls Leslie a bitch after she kicks his ass at bowling, Ben punches him. Leslie doesn’t condone violence, but rightly calls it an awesome move that made them make out a bunch. Awww. Her non-apology for the incident got the next focus group on her side. People are stupid. I loved this episode because it was super funny, and because it confirmed my belief in the idiocy of both the voting public, and bowling.

30 Rock

Crap, two new episodes in one night?!?! This one I'll really keep brief: excellent. I loved Liz talking with her new best friend about imagining how Peeta Mellark smells. Preach.

Up All Night

A rerun! I'm out.

Okay, e-nut gallery: what other one-liners rocked your socks off, and what are your general feelings on the direction of these fantastic shows this year?

 

Comments (5) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
I didn't get to watch last night's episode due to circumstances beyond my control. But I'll be watching it tonight and will report back!
Posted by Fruit Cup on January 27, 2012 at 2:34 PM · Report
2
Re: Parks & Rec
Can someone please make a .gif of Donna telling Jerry: "Shut up!!"
Posted by Wm. Steven Humphrey on January 27, 2012 at 3:19 PM · Report
3
30 Rock:
Liz and Jack have a fairly ordinary "work spouse" sort of relationship; don't those always involve a low level attraction that (ideally) isn't ever acted on?

This episode was all over the place in an annoying way, but it was a very good Jenna week.

P&R:
A very good episode, where we get some quality old-school April, some awesome Ron, and some excellent Leslie and Ben. The non-apology was wonderful. Tom's little kid whining wasn't that believable, (or Millicent's breakup timing) but he was still funny. April when she's distractedly trying to out-do Chris on the phone. The Pawnee Monoplex. BOWLING COMMENT BINDER.

Donna: "Bring a jacket. It's about to get REAL cold out there. "


Posted by Commenty Colin on January 27, 2012 at 3:40 PM · Report
4
This Blogtown stalker loves Recap for Poor People. It's nice to know the commenters I love to follow, love P&R as much as I do, and I love it a lot. Why arn't Donna and Jerry in the opening credits? blasphemy I say.
Posted by volcano on January 27, 2012 at 11:15 PM · Report
5
"Fluorescent brown" is my favorite Husker Du album that never happened. Thank you, Joneser!
Posted by Lewcifer on January 28, 2012 at 7:46 AM · Report

Add a comment

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use