The excellence of the third episode of 30 Rock has been alluded to in other posts this week, but I thought it deserved its own special post, written by me. As some of you may remember I was at the taping of the pilot in March. I watched the pilot closely, but I did not make an appearance on my 27″ TV. If I see it in HD maybe I’ll be able to make out my head in the crowd. I’ve been looking forward to this show for a long time. If Tina Fey was going let SNL escape her iron grip, she had better make it worth my while. Especially since SNL has sucked hard this season. I’ve been watching SNL fairly consistently since I was 13 and I don’t remember a time when the show has been considered “good this year,” even if people later looked back on the episodes with fondness. Maggie once said “It has the singular ability to appear as if were in a state of constant decline” which is the greatest description I’ve ever seen of the hate/hate relationship my fellow SNL-watchers have with the show. I’ve liked it through some pretty low times, but it looks like Tina’s absence is hitting the show hard. I also think the new director is a problem. The show will get better, but it’s hard to imagine it will get worse than the John C. Reilly episode (my nomination for worst of the past 10 years: Robert DeNiro episode).

Anyway, our beloved Tina has moved on. And I was worried. Remember when Andy Richter left Conan to seek his fortune and then Fox canceled his show? That was sad. Andy will be back mid-season with Andy Barker, P.I., but for a while it looked like he gave up something pretty good only to get the rug pulled out from under him. And the first two episodes of 30 Rock didn’t live up to the hype. Alec Baldwin stole the show, because that’s what Alec Baldwin does. But if he hadn’t been around, the show would have been pretty lifeless.

Then came the third episode. Liz finally had a great storyline. Jack set her up on a date and neglected to mention it was with a woman. It was a good twist on the emerging pattern of Alec Baldwin always being right. He was right that they were perfect for each other, except for the small problem that Liz isn’t gay. It was smart and dealt with Tina’s themes of insecurity in a more self-deprecating than self-bashing way. In the first few episodes you had to wonder how Tina got anything done since everyone hated her and she was worse at her job than the guy who invented the GE Trivection Oven.

The other standout—and the character that makes the show click for me—is Jack McBrayer, as Kenneth Ellen the NBC page. I saw Jack at the UCB theater a few years ago, and he was a young, pretty funny improv comic. I remembered him mostly for his southern accent. But on 30 Rock he’s going up against Alec Baldwin and winning more than just poker. Baldwin got the brilliant last word “In 10 years we’ll all either be working for him… or dead by his hand” but McBrayer made himself a star this week.

And now let’s talk a little about that other show. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that keeps showing too much of the sketches. The extent of the “show” on 30 Rock this week was a fight about the number of bear costumes Judah Friedlander could use in his Robot vs. Bears sketch. I hope Aaron Sorkin is watching the show too. He could learn something about economy.

Eagle-eyed TiFaux readers may have noticed that we've added Google ads to our sidebar. We kept it ad free when it cost us $1.50/mo to host the site, but there are too many of you now and you bandwidth hogs are eating us out of house and home. I can't ask you to click on the ads, but I will ask you to look at them. They're quite attractive. And they tend to be about TV, which is what this blog tends to be about. So there's some synergy there.

Coming up next: TiFaux t-shirts. We're starting with the TIFAUX text from our header with a red record dot next to it, but if you have any requests we will do our best to make it for you.

Pretty good episode of Lost this past Wednesday, right?  That whole thing with the watch and the heartbeat and then Sawyer getting the ever-loving snot kicked out of him?  I swear, Josh Holloway must have had to do some hardcore stage combat training before this show, because he's always on the business end of someone's fist (as opposed to the other end… which, I guess would be attached to the arm).

Anyways, how about recapping this episode with the Lost Stockmarket.  Who has lost stock, who's gaining it and who's just staying the same.  It's just like I'm ripping off Conventional Wisdom in Newsweek, except hopefully you won't be reading this post three months late and in the dentist's office.

Jack

Well, lookey here!  I actually found myself liking Jack a little more this episode, what with all of his righteous anger.  I think my favorite Jack moment of all time occured in his conversation with Juliet, when she asked him if he was just trying to make her feel better by saying that saving Col was a lost cause.  When he said that he didn't care about making her feel better, I whipped out my pom-poms and made a human pyramid with my roommates.  I have a feeling that in a few seasons (episodes?) Juliet might become a lot more sympathetic, but for now it was really nice to see Jack rub a little bit of lemon juice in that wound.

Paulo

Double you tea eff, Paulo.  You show up out of nowhere and all you do is practice your golf swing and act like a douche to Desmond?  You're fighting an uphill battle, bucko.  Show us some personality before gettin' all testy.

Desmond

Speaking of whom, Desmond was acting kind of bizarre this episode.  I mean, no more bizarre than usual, but this time he was just pitiful.  He got shot down on his offer to fix Claire's roof, rebuffed by Paulo and now he's just wandering around the beach.  Charlie was right on target when he said they need to find him a new button to push.

Sawyer

In case you missed it, Sawyer has a heart of gold.  The writers like to point this out a few times each season.  This episode it happened twice — once in the flashback when he gave all that money to his newly discovered daughter, and again when he lied about his fake pacemaker to protect Kate.  I guess they want you to hate him one minute and think he's not so bad the next — a device which I'm a complete sucker for.  For all his antics, moments like him walloping Ben in the face will probably keep him consistently in the two-sideways-arrows category.

Sun

Sun wasn't even in this episode.  But she killed that Other, so kudos. 

You may have noticed that cable channel G4 is showing reruns of Arrested Development. Then again, you may not: G4 is hiding way up in the far regions of the box, and it's a video gamers channel. I'm not even sure what that means, or why they should be showing Arrested Development, but I'm grateful anyway.

I've been watching them for some nostalgic viewing recently, and it is still amazing how good it is. That's why it's exciting to hear that Mitchell Hurwitz, Arrested Development creator, is

I'm excited, but also cautious. Just because The Office is a raging success doesn't mean we should lose sight of all the failed Brit imports of the past: Fawlty Towers. Coupling. The monarchy. Etc.