30 Rock

As the first of two 30 Rock episodes this Thursday,  "Idiots Are People Three"  featured a lot laughs and served as a fitting conclusion to last week's "Idiots Are People Two."

Things picked back up with Pete passed out, Tracy and his fellow idiots out for Liz's livelihood and Jack out for her relationship. The first of which led to my favorite story of the episode.

Kelsey Grammer, fresh off of his Golden Globe victory for his dramatic work on Starz's Boss, was absolutely hilarious in his role as...Kelsey Grammer. It must be awesome to play yourself, especially a much more James Bond like version of yourself who calls everyone "baby."

I'm not sure which was better, Kelsey deciding to make up a one man play about Abraham Lincoln in order to distract the people of 30 Rock, or the fact that he pulled it off and everyone in the crowd loved his performance. Either way, the "Best Friends Gang" needs to stay together forever.

Tracy's idiot plot took more of a backseat, but was highlighted by the fantastic speech the dummies wrote for Liz. It really started to get good when Liz started naming things she thought were dumb, but the idiots around her found them to be awesome. I mean, what buffoon wouldn't start chanting "Turtle! Turtle!" when Liz reminded him there may be an Entourage movie?

While the return of Will Arnett as Devon Banks didn't have me jumping up and down, it did allow for a number of funny moments, including Devon's inability to fake laugh and Kathy Geiss's request for a magical unicorn as the new NBC mascot.

Finally, we were treated to more of Jack getting in the way of Liz's relationship. While I enjoy some of his methods, like handing out the index cards describing his level of acceptance for Lemon's boyfriends, this story just doesn't do it for me. The Jack and Liz friendship is a pleasant entity, but 30 Rock is too crazy and filled with non-stop jokes to have time to build a friendship that the audience is supposed care about.

James Marsden, although he wasn't given much to do comically, had maybe the most subtle, calm and humorous "that's what she said" ever on television. There is a time and a place for the Michael Scott screaming version, but this one might have taken the cake as an all time best.  He was just so damn quiet about it... but of course, it had to be said.

The interesting thing is that these two episodes - "Idiots Two" and "Idiots Three" - would have worked just as well if not better as an hour long installment. If you wanted to split them up, how did NBC not work it so that the two that were part of the same "to be continued" plot aired in the same night, instead of the second segment, and then another random episode? It was just poor planning.

Other than that, it was a very funny start to the 30 Rock double feature. We leave you with some of the best lines from "Idiots Are People Three" below, and invite you to check out the rest at our 30 Rock Quotes page.

Liz: And now he's inserting himself into this.
Criss: Well that's what she said but... | permalink

Criss: You don't use the tab closers on cereal boxes.
Liz: If you think those are doing anything to seal in freshness, you are living in a fantasy world, pal. | permalink

Tracy: My ringtone is the chicken dance. If I answer it, I won't hear the whole song! | permalink

Criss: I don't understand your relationship with Liz...
Jack: She's my subordifriend. | permalink

Kenneth: In school, all you learn about Abraham Lincoln is that he was a gay alcoholic. | permalink