30 ROCK: Thursday Night Live

So who else watched tonight’s much hyped live 30 Rock? Bad news first. This was in no way indicative of the style of the show. Alec Baldwin’s Jack, usually so cool and collected despite the constant glass in hand, morphed into a desperate alcoholic in what seemed like an excuse for Baldwin to feed off of the energy of the live audience. Jack McBrayer’s Kenneth, already a broad character, drifted perilously close to cartoon territory with his case of the giggles on account of Lutz’s unfunny shirt. And Tracy Morgan, who often did break during his SNL days, was trying too hard to sell the joke of Tracy intentionally sabotaging TGS. But on the plus side, Jane Krakowski’s theatrical background served her well. Jenna is not my favorite character, but Krakowski gave the best performance of the night. The mock commercials with Chris Parnell’s Dr. Spaceman and Jon Hamm’s Drew (what can’t that man do!) were hilarious. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus as “fantasy/past Liz” was surprising and inspired. In short, this was a reminder of what SNL once was and could be if Tina Fey was back at the helm. What did everyone else think?