What I’m Watching: 30 Rock

30 Rock: Season 4, Episode 19 “Argus” (B-)

While this episode is considerably better than the double-header last week, it’s still not solid by any means. There’s too much of a focus on irreverence and the need for wacky plotlines to support some of the more sensible ones. That peculiar tangent in this episode is the receipt of Argus by Jack, and his suspicion that the spirit of Don Geiss was inhabiting the peacock’s body was more than a little silly. Liz and especially Kenneth encouraging him doesn’t help matters much either. Kenneth used to be a great character, but now he’s become simply someone for everyone to send around to do their bidding, and everything he does is just so far-fetched and preposterous. Liz trying to help DotCom out because she knows that he’s in love with Grizz’s fiancée is a decent arc, but why does her name have to be Fiancée? Jenna dating an impersonator of herself is a bit better, but there’s a certain point when things get to be too over-the-top, and this show reached it a while ago and has remained there, for better or for worse, since then. It’s not impossible for it to make a creative and logic-driven comeback, but a decent episode here and there doesn’t mean that the next three won’t make a bit of sense. You can be sure that this will continue to win countless Emmys, although Alec Baldwin really doesn’t need or truthfully deserve any more, and new shows like “Modern Family” should hopefully be able to break through.