What I’m Watching: 30 Rock

30 Rock: Season 7, Episode 5 “There’s No I in America” (B+)

This half-ridiculous, half-hilarious, and sometimes both installment was definitely worth airing in advance of the election, and I’m glad NBC opted to put it on Wednesday night rather than bump it a week like the rest of its Thursday night lineup. Any episode that heavily involves Jenna at its center is bound to be absurd, and this half-hour was just that. It did, however, include two of the best Jack moments yet: his point that the head has five holes, all of which are needed, and his insistence that he has never dropped a hat. The debate was entirely silly, but it’s fun to see Liz and Jack trying to so hard to make points that definitely did not go over as they had planned, for the most part at least, with Jenna. Liz defiantly shooting back “herstrionics” to Jack’s mention of histrionics was great, and I enjoyed their accidental exchange of drinks at the end of the episode, which got Liz drunk instantly Pete’s Obama enthusiasm related to the great kiss he had with Maria four years earlier was entertaining, and it’s entirely accurate that this election doesn’t feel anywhere near as exciting as the 2008 race. Tracy is getting wilder and wilder as he’s featured less and less, though I guess that Twitter insensitivity totally tracks with his personality. Kenneth’s election questions were, at best, disturbing, but that’s nothing surprising for the page who manages to exist in a world even more preposterous than the ones inhabited by Tracy and Jenna.