A blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik.

The Morning After: Top That!

After putting up my post about Ken Tucker's new blog, I had an e-mail exchange with a fellow critic about the value of writing about shows after the fact, on a blog, versus writing about them before the fact, in a traditional review. 30 Rock, at least, is a perfect show for blogging about the morning after, because, really, all my review of last night's show would be is

Funny!

...followed by a list of all the LOLs I could manage to type down: the gold shoes and suit of money, "What is that iron bird?", the Teen Witch shout-out... but you can do that in the comments. Beyond that... well, yeah, Jack's storyline showed him confronting his false bravado about being alone and Liz's, her babyfever, P.C. awkwardness and difficulty connecting in relationships—all well done, but I'm sure we've talked about that before. So: "Cat sound!" LOL!

OK, one thing: The flood of celebrity appearances are threatening to become a distraction soon. As in four episodes ago. Still, I can't find anything to knock in Peter Dinklage's wry performance, and while Salma Hayek's was nothing special (as in her early Ugly Betty telanovela cameo I didn't see a home health aide but Salma Hayek playing a home health aide)... well, it's Salma Hayek, and if the ladies can watch The Mentalist for Simon Baker, then fair's fair.

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  • 1

    Selma Hayek is easy on the eyes but man is she unfunny. She can deliver a joke for anything in english (see: Dogma), she really should just stick to rapid fire authoratative spanish ("Wait was that the subjunctive?").
    Also: "A Blafair to Rememblack"
    and the purse full of baby shoes

  • 2

    IMHO, spoilers about comedy are far worse than spoilers about drama. Knowing what will happen in a drama does not necessarily impact a drama's effectiveness (a perfect example is United 93, a very good movie whose ending was a surprise to no one.) But comedy is dependent upon the timing of the jokes -- and knowing a joke is coming interferes with that timing.

    In other words, no more comedy spoilers, please! ;)

  • 3

    I love Peter Dinklage and loved him in this ep but didn't love the ep. It was still very funny, just the whole didn't come together for me even as I enjoyed many parts. I'm clearly the wrong gender for Salma Hayek to salvage the situation. I do think the special guests stars are getting out of hand, but they just need to land Simon Baker before giving up on them.

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