What I’m Watching: 30 Rock

30 Rock: Season 5, Episode 8 “College” (B)

This episode is entertaining, if a bit all over the place. Whereas the title of last week’s episode was somewhat obvious (the clothing store of which Liz was so very fond), it wasn’t so clear to me, and I guess “College” makes sense as a way to define the times that all of these characters either remembered being or wished they had been cool. Jack’s voice being programmable was of course very amusing, and it’s true that Alec Baldwin does have an awesome voice. I enjoyed the sight gag of Baldwin playing a pizza delivery man who entered the lab right after Jack left, prompting the lab geeks to question their racist sentiments. Jack’s efforts to destroy the microwave were entirely hilarious, and this was one of those episodes that did reaffirm Jack as a fantastic character since he hasn’t been quite as front-and-center lately. Liz’s desire to be cool is nothing new, and as a result, it wasn’t all that funny. The presence of Daniel Sunjata out of uniform from his role as Franco on “Rescue Me” was fun, though he didn’t have all that much to do other than be a Good Samaritan and give Liz a hard time. The pranking of Pete was less enthralling, but I did enjoy the fact that it was exactly what Jack needed at the end of his earth-shattering (and nearly microwave-shattering day), therefore letting Pete off the hook and making his behavior infinitely less embarrassing. Definitely not what the writers had in mind.