Just a few thoughts on the 30 Rock season finale:
I’ll keep this short – there have been thousands upon thousands of words written about Liz Lemon, Tina Fey, and 30 Rock as a whole over the past week, eulogizing one of television’s modern classics. ‘Hogcock/Last Lunch’ puts a bow on that era with a hilarious episode that pays off all of its long-standing relationships and leaves us all wet-eyed and smiling, a poignant farewell to an era.
The best of the many plot threads in ‘Hogcock/Last Lunch’ is Jack’s personal journey: it completes the deconstruction of a man that’s taken place over seven long seasons. As Liz and Jack point out in a heated argument in his office, they’ve fundamentally changed each other over the years, and seeing Lemon finally get some happiness in her life – complemented by his mother’s dying wish for him to be happy – causes Jack to question his perception of his own life, trying to fill a hole inside himself that he can’t seem to crush, even with his best A.S.S.
Watching Jack break down not only makes for good comedy, but bookends his journey from the beginning of the show beautifully – as does every other character’s on the show. Liz’s great grand daughter pitches a show about Liz’s life to the immortal Kenneth, Grizz gets his TV show, and Jenna gets to sing her (almost) award-winning song from The Rural Juror: The Musical on the last episode of TGS, and Jack finally gets an assistant not named Jonathon.
The second episode in particular was masterful television: it’s not only a half hour of characters saying goodbye to each other, it was about saying goodbye to a faithful audience. 30 Rock, for all its critical acclaim, was never a high-rated show, but even when it lost itself for a bit in seasons five and six (and most of four, to be honest), it was still better than almost ever other comedy on television. And ‘Last Lunch’ was a testament to so many of those jokes, topped off with Lutz’s Revenge (something we’ll all have to turn around and look for ‘next week’ when we’re missing 30 Rock).
What else is there to say? ‘Hogcock’ and ‘Last Lunch’ is the perfect swan song, episodes that give us the happy endings we want to see with our characters, finding real emotion in the last few plot lines without being exploitative or self-serving. 30 Rock took the victory lap it deserved tonight with two fantastic episodes, both which will be remembered in the upper echelon of the show’s history (something many, many other finales fail wildly at achieving).
We’ll miss you, Liz Lemon – and always think of you when we have our night cheese.
Grade: A
Other thoughts/observations:
– Jack Donaghey, the High Priest of Capitalism.
– Jenna’s comment about the world spinning on “Kaballah monster’s fingernails” is the kind of subtle shot at wacko celebrities I’ll always miss.
– an all-time great Tracy nickname: Ken-tucky Derby.
– why was the scene with Conan so obviously filmed on a green screen?
– the gravity of the situation finally hits Jenna when she can’t look in her mirror, complete with flashbacks.
– ‘Hogcock’ and ‘Last Lunch’ were clearly conceived with syndication airings in mind; that being said, the two still work really well together as one extended narrative, particularly with Jack.
– NO DENNIS DUFFY IN THE FINALE??? BLASPHEMY!
– same goes for Jon Hamm, to a smaller degree.
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