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After many years of writing underdog New York fairy tales, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock are trying something new - for those looking for "Good Place 30 Rock", you might at first feel a bit thrown. The insane, madcap joke density and magical realist world details are all there, but we're presented with a gentler, less corporate-nihilistically-scrappy sandbox for them to cut loose in.
In this opinion, however, this is because they're building a bigger, perhaps even better sandbox from scratch/. "30 Rock"s show-within-a-show TGS gang had worked together long before Tracey and Jack joined the fray. "Kimmy Schmidt"'s Titus and Lillian were already living in the same building before meeting the titular heroine. We were introduced to established, strong groups of individuals whose familiarity preempted the ever-cringey task of creating a reason for people having a reason to WANT to be around each other. The pre-existing ties created a base that could already support the brand of bats**t crazy we expect. Neil and Co. are building their relationships and their world from the ground up. This is new! This is different! But the promise and of quality present in those developing possibilities is very present.
Every good comedy show has a moment when it "clicks." In most cases, this is not within the first few episodes. "Parks & Rec" and "The Office" took until their Season 2 premieres to find their footing. "Seinfeld"'s first few episodes are... difficult. Even "30 Rock" stumbles in the first half to 2/3's of its freshman seaosn. I patiently believe in and look forward to "Mr. Mayor"'s lightbulb moment.
We're starting at "pretty good", but we're headed to "great" if we know anything about this writing team.
score 9/10
ZaLordArmy 8 January 2021
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6453384/ |
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8-1-2021 00:39:04