Four Course Meal of Comedy!

Thursday night is officially back to Comedy Night Done Right with all four NBC comedies finally back on one night.   No more half hour Weekend Update episodes and most likely no more hour long comedy episodes, at least until sweeps anyway.   And if experience has taught us anything those hour long episodes can either be pure genius or make you feel that part of your life force has been sucked away.   I’ve been waiting since the beginning of the season for them to get back to this old, but perfect formula, and have four good half hour programs of hilarity.    We are now back to a good ol four course meal of comedy.

First off is Community which is like a nice appetizer as its light and not what you’re always looking forward to but usually comes off nice and easy.   I’ve found myself liking this show as the season progresses and I’m glad for that because it could’ve been a train wreck from beginning to end like I thought it would be.   Though I still think they need to tone down the insanity of Ken Jeong’s Asian Spanish teacher, he wasn’t overly annoying in this episode as he went way overboard after finding someone had cheated on his Spanish test.   Jeff then used his questionable powers of attorney to defend said person in some funny scenes involving a disciplinary board and a swimming pool.   I also liked how Chevy Chase’s character got himself roped into coming up with a song for the college and just kept ripping off other song’s tunes.   But, again, the least interesting part was the Arab kid as he used yet another tired plot device to try to trick Troy into thinking he was an alien in scene after scene that remained unfunny.

Then Parks and Recreation comes at you like the pre-main course salad because everyone loves a salad and it’s great to have around right before you get that big old steak.   This episode I thought was really the highlight of the night and was really the funniest episode of the season so far.   It was great to see Fred Armisen play the Venezuelan Parks and Recreation person from Pawnee’s sister city.   All he had to do through the episode was to completely insult Pawnee and America and everybody in the town and he did it perfectly.   I also loved how one of the Venezuelans went head over heals for the intern girl’s character and she acts so apathetically to it all.   Also when they think Tom is a servant and he hates it at first but then realizes these guys are loaded and tip him for every little thing that he does.   This show has really been on its game lately and continues to deliver perfect episode after perfect episode.

Then we have the big main course of the evening being the episode of The Office.   Sadly I wish I had done this whole meal analogy when they had a better episode on because you might want to complain to the waiter how bland it was.   It was just one of those episodes where it really feels like they just put it in there to take up time.   All that was the plot focus was Michael thinking he was getting a shake down from the mob and Dwight and Andy pushing this belief so Michael can do stupid thing after yet again stupid thing.   It did have its good moments though and I wouldn’t say it was the worst episode I’ve ever seen but it all felt so pointless in the end.   Though by the end Michael was showing more confidence in his wheelings and dealings and there was a great bit with different people from the office in some way screwing up Jim and Pam’s honeymoon for them.

And then for that sweet desert that you know you really want there was the premiere of 30 Rock to get all excited about.   Yes the show I know I’ve been waiting the most to come back on the air is finally back and it didn’t disappoint in the least. Mostly the episode followed Liz and Pete being forced by Jack to find a new cast mate and then everybody thinking that the two of them are having an affair together because they don’t want anybody to know they are looking for a new cast member.   This leads to a great part with Pete’s wife showing up just as they are lying to the writers and saying they are sleeping together and she kind of invites Liz to join them.   Also Kenneth and all the NBC pages go on strike leaving Jack to figure some way bribe Kenneth into calling it quits and we have yet another cameo by Steve Buscemi as the getting weirder private eye we first saw in the second season.   All, of course, leads to hilarious moment after hilarious moment in the show that has yet again won the Emmy for best comedy, and it’s easy to see why that is.