What I’m Watching: 30 Rock

30 Rock: Season 5, Episode 15 “It’s Never Too Late For Now” (C+)

After a strong installment last week, we’re back to some of the off-kilter ridiculousness that this show often features. Liz in a relationship is much more stable, and it seems that the same is true of this show. Her going out on a date dressed in a sweatshirt and similarly casual clothes was enough of a reality stretch, and to have her meet the guy of her dreams, essentially crafted by all of her co-workers, was pretty far-out. The reason that I’m especially disappointed is that this show, even just last week, demonstrated that it’s capable of more sedated, on-target humor, and seeing it regress to this is a real shame. I wasn’t terribly impressed by any of the other storylines this week either. It’s weird not to see Avery the week after she gives birth to her baby and to have her stood in for by an unenthusiastic nanny. That’s the trouble with having a main character who’s not actually a credited regular cast member – she’s likely not to be able to appear in every single episode. Jack’s funny, as always, but he can be doing much more than just get intimidated by his nanny and not be able to get away with pretending he doesn’t care about his child. The new band put together by Pete and Frank doesn’t interest me much at all, and sometimes I wish this show would stick a bit more closely to the television world and not get so easily sidetracked by temporary distractions.