The 90 minute upside down episode will be the first upside down television program to air in prime-time since Connie Chung interviewed former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos from the ceiling of the Malacañan Palace in 1986.

Based on early interest in the upside down episodes, AMC honchos are already planning to follow up with “The Walking Dead: Rewound,” which will replay the series in reverse starting with the most recent episode to air.

“The possibilities are limitless,” said show creator Robert Kirkman. “If this goes well, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be unveiling ‘The Walking Dead Slow Mo” by this time next year.”

The post The Walking Dead to Air “Upside Down Episodes” appeared first on The Faster Times.

Hey, know what would make this show even better? Another Big Bad! On a show that prides itself in being un-serialized, there certainly is an intricate, villainous haze hanging around our good guys. Baddies in the NYPD. Baddies in the CIA. Baddies in the FBI. Baddies in the mob. Amy Acker. For all the cases Reese and Finch have solved and the lives they’ve saved, there is a metric ton of villains that are still walking around.

Thematically, it makes sense. “Trust nobody, save the innocent, be redeemed,” is a big theme for the show’s creator Jonathan Nolan. There aren’t that many good and honest people in this world they’ve crafted, demonstrated by new character Maxine Angelis. Occupation: Sexy Journalist. And an old-school journalist-lady, not those waifish whiners that write on social media or blogs.

Wait…? Yes, I’m being told, okay, alright, irony administered. It’s so terribly bitter.

Once Sexy Journalist Maxine Angelis has been introduced as a good-doing gal that’s well-respected and connected, it’s time to throw her into danger. Deadly danger! Journalistic danger. Mobsters and crooked cops and setups! Maxine’s aggressive journalism inaccurately publishing pieces on the NYPD’s HR department got her into hot water and got an innocent witness in a federal case against the rebuilt mob dead. I imagine that that right now, there’s a girl in Iowa that’s running the Features department of her high school paper, and she is positively glowing at the prospect of moving to New York some day to be a razor-sharp journalist that gets in over her head.

The problem is, the guys have intel that Maxine is already researching Reese, since he, you know, has been moonlighting as, “A guy in a suit. He comes out of nowhere. He saves a lot of lives. And shoots a lot of kneecaps.” Well, yeah, it sounds sociopathic when you list off all of that stuff in one go, Maxine. He has to protect her but pretend not to be a complete badass so she doesn’t put two and two together about the Man in the Suit being real. It’s funny how he handles this — in fact, the whole episode was fairly funny with good gags like Finch dropping off Bear so it fits with Reese’s online dating profile when Maxine comes over. Also, Finch hiding in one of Reese’s closet full of guns. And Finch dissecting the female psyche to give Reese dating tips on how to draw Maxine in.

Basically Finch, in general, a role that Michael Emmerson has embraced, thankfully helping me forget his later days as Ben Linus on Lost.

Earlier, I mentioned that the show laid another Big Bad on us. As it turns out, after some creative fact-finding at a merry-go-round and a gunfight a few minutes later on the same merry-go-round, one of Maxine’s old-guard journalism friends was actually the one running the show for HR, and they actually had both of NYC’s mayoral candidates on the payroll!

This is crafty. It reminds us that the true villains are the ones that aren’t public-facing. It doesn’t make for in-your-face, Gandalf versus a Balrog confrontation-drama, but it is scarier and realer. Elias preached secrecy. Agent Snow is still skulking around elsewhere. Ambiguity is scary, man. In summation, if you’re a villain, it pays to be subtle on Person of Interest. It means you’ll get to be in a second episode.

Image.

STILL BORED? Read my thoughts on the importance of Frosted Flakes over on http://www.ghostlittle.com, because it IS important — and you can always keep up with my thoughts over on Twitter!

The post ‘Person of Interest’ Recap (Season 2, Episode 5): Bury The Lede appeared first on The Faster Times.

There weren't any official stills for this ep (probably because of the time slot switch) so here's a spooky scary classic for this unexpected Halloween broadcast

30 Rock of late dabbles deeply in time-sensitive political shenanigans, but it got real-life scooped this week when Hurricane Sandy blasted New York so hard that this episode got sent back in time one day. In reality, I’m not clear on the details, but my vague understanding is that NBC used their coverage of the storm as an excuse to air The Voice during the sitcoms’ usual slot on Thursday, so Cee-Lo, Xtina and the other ones might guide young singers in a bonus installment complementing the nine weekly episodes that constitute their normal air schedule. It’s a test of my patience, then, that Fey and the Gang must complete their enthrallingly satirical elections-get-decided-by-idiots mini-arc instead of returning to the presumably season-long plot of “tanking” the network, that I might let my eyes glaze over and cathartically envision the demolition to be real.

I’m heartened that, even when it has its hands full, 30 Rock impresses as one of the most agile productions maybe ever—as Liz rushes through the studio at the beginning, who should pop up but Cheyenne Jackson’s long since last seen Danny Baker, one of those classic TV-world phantoms, who naturally has a dire request to which Liz responds, “Dammit! Now you have a thing?” Unfortunately, this bright moment just draws attention to the fact that the gags here, even if they were better, would remain distracted by the episode’s insistence on the cleverness of its premise. As we learned last week, Jenna Maroney is the most powerful woman in the world as she commands the favor of Northern Floridians, whom Jack Donaghy and Tracy Jordan’s concurrent analyses have identified as the decisive bloc of swing voters in the Presidential election. Jack and Liz race to direct her influence toward each’s favored candidate, but Jenna plainly explains that she only cares which outcome could benefit her most directly. I have this impression that Jenna is most people’s least-liked 30 Rock character—with or without the knowledge that Jane Krakowski replaced a counterpart character played by Rachel Dratch presumably at the network’s behest—and I could mount a defense, but I don’t know when the last time Jenna’s self-centeredness has been stated so baldly as it is here, and I don’t like it. Not that I’d presume to tell the writers how to do their job, but in my estimation it always seemed that the point of the character wasn’t exactly to be repugnant, but more to represent the occasional repugnancy of American aspiration by inflating it into a clownish portrait, buoyed by the show’s absurdist momentum. At a moment like this, though, when they slow down and try to make a real point about how, uh, there are shockingly influential people in this country who only care about their own stature, the objective fades from view and it’s like I’m stranded in On-The-Nose Valley.

The discomfort continues as Liz accuses Jack of directing his “campaign” with dirty hands: “This is what you do. You trick people into voting against their own interests, and then you sell them out at the drop of the hat.” Here it’s posed as a setup (for a weak character joke) but I can’t disinvest from the part of my brain trying to reconcile the episode’s moral swerving with the show’s usual, inclusively destructive candor. The whole thing sort of breezes by like this, lightly brushing on the hypocrisies that currently plague our nation while trying to affect its characteristic sort of postmodern amoral affability. Kenneth gets his absentee ballot from back home, newly devoid of the reverend who deemed “choosing” a sin, and tries to decide between the platforms of the psychos in hick-run Stone Mountain, GA, while Pete cheers manically for Obama as he hopes to recapture the drunken romance of 2008. These are all variations on a theme, though for once I enjoy the B-plot as a more diluted variant of the week’s main attraction. Liz promotes the Democrats as the party of posturing aesthetes, flattering Jenna’s self-image, while Jack reminds that in a neo-con dystopia she’d be considered one of the more prominent arts and media figures simply for lack of competition. Meanwhile, Kenneth deliberates between ideological poles (“Should we let Old Man Berkel marry his daughter or make him bury her like the rest of the dead folks?”) while Pete flails for transcendence. It’s Hornberger, the pragmatic glue of TGS and an unsung presence of agreeable desperation on 30 Rock (I can defend against his detractors less ably than Jenna’s—he’s a fun but admittedly unnecessary presence most of the time), who gets to deliver the ep’s emblematic passage: “That night in 2008 everything felt possible. Like my whole life was ahead of me. I was gonna drive a sports car and say cool stuff like ‘Wikky whaat?’ and none of that has happened! Nothing has changed! For Pete or America!” “There’s No I in America” gets points for wearing its exasperated heart on its sleeve, but I don’t know if what we need now, in these anxious times, is smirky nihilism. It certainly doesn’t do any favors for this network staple, on any night of the week.

Blurry screengrab courtesy nbc.com

The post ’30 Rock’ Recap (Season 7, Episode 5): “There’s No I in America” appeared first on The Faster Times.

Jane and Henry, lookin' good

The episode begins with a flashback to Halloween, 1929. Two businessmen discuss some sort of evil deal they did to bring incredible wealth as the stock market crashes. One of them expresses regret, right before going home and ax-murdering his wife. But, like, he was possessed to do it. His young daughter, (now the resident ghost girl of 666 Park Ave!), witnesses some of the horror, and before dying, her mother hands her a necklace.

Today, the evil/possessed guy, who is also the guy who came out of the suitcase in a puff of smoke, whose name is also Peter Kramer, is just walking around the Drake, being creepy.

After last week’s incident at the mayor’s house, Henry is lauded as a hero even though he didn’t really do anything. He appears on a morning talk show, and soon some harpy media consultant starts talking to him and trying to take him on as a client. She tells him his fifteen minutes will be up soon but she can make them go on forever if he wants to amp up his political career. Perhaps she too is an evil temptress; she maybe seems to have the hots for him?

Next Brian the playwright arrives home to find his wife with her shirt off being fondled by some guy. Turns out this guy is a doctor (Dr. Scott) examining Louise, and Louise wants to set him up with Alexis. Brian is suspicious. Then she takes some pills, indicating that she’s probs addicted.

Gavin receives some mysterious and threatening texts and Olivia almost gets run over. He becomes concerned for Olivia’s safety at the glamorous Halloween party they’re hosting tonight. When are they not hosting a party? When does Gavin even have time for all the killing, and the siccing of demons upon his victims, and the casting of the evil spells?

As usual, Olivia dropped off stuff for Jane and Henry to wear at the party: a Tippi Hendren from The Birds costume and a cowboy outfit. Kinda lame.

Now sexy temptress Alexis has shown up at Brian and poor, pill-addicted Louise’s apartment, wearing a really boring naughty nurse outfit. She apologizes for “getting psycho” with Brian, saying she thought they had a connection. Brian, looking foolish as a gladiator, coldly rebuffs her. Then she hints Dr. Scott’s examined Louise “lots of times.” Too bad that Alexis is such an evil, homewrecking whore, am I right??? Wouldn’t it be cool if we found out that Alexis was just Gavin in disguise?

While heading down to the party, Jane and Henry share an elevator with the Smoke Guy, aka Peter Kramer, who eyes Jane’s necklace, which is actually the same one that the dying mother gave to the ghost girl, but I must have missed something cause I thought it was Jane’s grandmother’s necklace? I don’t know.

Gavin tells Tony the Concierge he needs to protect his “most valuable possession”, his wife, Olivia. How sweet. Gavin opens a hidden safe to reveal some sort of Box of Mystery. Might have to do with the Order of the Dragon. It’s like carved with something symbolic and ancient, you know the kind. We all have one.

The post ’666 Park Avenue’ Recap: “A Crowd of Demons” appeared first on The Faster Times.

A lot of you are probably dealing with your own power outage due to Hurricane Sandy so I’m not sure how many of you will actually be reading this – or will have even watched this episode of Revolution – but I hope you’re having an easier time than the characters in the show. In an episode called “Sex and Drugs,” you would think the characters would get a taste of one or both of them, but unfortunately that’s not the case: misery and death is all that’s on the menu this week.

After the last episode (which was two weeks ago; you didn’t actually miss anything last week) which had all of the characters run into one another after four episodes of searching, I’m afraid “Sex and Drugs” is just a little bit of filler. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you – while it might be all filler in terms of the plot, it’s certainly not in regards to the characters – Charlie and Aaron in particular make decisions that will probably change the way they think, and how the audience thinks about them, from now on.

The episode two weeks ago ended with the failed rescue attempt and Nora being stabbed and this episode begins with Miles and the gang stealing two horses and a cart and trying to find Nora some help, as her wound is now infected. Miles takes the group to an old associate, a drug dealer named Drexel, who is willing to help Nora, but in exchange he wants one of his enemies dealt with. Miles volunteers to kill the man, a former police officer named O’Halloran who burned Drexel’s poppy fields as revenge for his daughter’s death, but Drexel sends Charlie instead, disguised as a beaten prostitute.

Miles realises that Drexel is basically sending Charlie to her death and goes after her, leaving Aaron to take part in Drexel’s weird games: he wants Aaron and an adrenaline-injected Nora to shoot each other. Aaron refuses and shoots himself, and as Drexel leans in to investigate, Aaron shoots him as well, revealing a flask saved his life. After Maggie’s death a couple of episodes ago, I actually believed Aaron was going to die too – this show is certainly ruthless! Meanwhile, Miles stops Charlie from killing O’Halloran, but it doesn’t matter: it was clear Charlie fully intended to kill O’Halloran despite her reluctance, which means it’s only a matter of time before she does kill an innocent man and actually becomes a completely interesting character. I love a good conflicted protagonists and Charlie is definitely on the path to becoming one now.

There’s barely any Neville, Monroe or Rachel this week, and the group obviously are too distracted to go after Danny just yet, which is why I called this episode filler, but I must say I’m still enjoying Revolution. It’s still learning what is good and what is bad, but it is slowly improving each and every week, and it already feels like it’s come a long way from the pilot. What I am interested to see is how the show will continue after Charlie rescues Danny. Presumably she will somehow get involved with the magical medallions and Monroe’s quest to get the power back on, but what happens next? I really hope the writers know where this is all going and they’re not just making it up as they go along, unlike every other show that’s wanted to be Lost. Maybe we’ll see a glimpse of where this show is headed next week. Until then, stay safe everybody, and if you’re without power I hope it comes back soon so you don’t have to find yourself one of those medallions.

The post ‘Revolution’ Recap (Season 1, Episode 6): “Sex and Drugs” appeared first on The Faster Times.

The Walking Dead demanded that this episode be boring. The first two episodes, as good as they were, serve as a powerful representation that describes a potential version of humanity’s continuation, post-zombies. Rick’s existence is frantic, dirty, desperate, and rapid. Leg got bit? Hatchet unto Hershel! Find a prison? Occupy prison! Noob-prisoner took a swing at me? Machete to the dome! It’s a Ricktatorship, bitches. Deal.

On the other hand, we have The Governor. Yes, The Governor has arrived on the scene, which is a big deal for people that have read Robert Kirkman’s original Walking Dead comics — I can’t count myself among them, but I’m being lured by continuous and glowing recommendations by the guys over on the Cape Crisis podcast. The Governor represents a calmer version of the New World, taking in Michonne and Andrea to his sanctuary hamlet of Woodbury, which he presides over.

Woodbury place is a town. It is a small town. It has people and they walk from building to building. It is surrounded by a wall made of scavenged materials that is meticulously arranged and well-guarded by efficient, accurate watchmen. All of them are afraid of The Governor. The Governor looks like a guy you might know, and he talks and listens and treats Andrea and Michonne to breakfast, and he pumps Andrea full of medicine to fight her nagging sickness. The episode’s boredom is too good to be true, and Michonne is right to want her sword back.

Firstly, Merle is alive! Remember ‘ole Merle? He’s Daryl’s brother and he chopped his own hand off after Rick handcuffed him to a pipe on a roof in Atlanta, which is the worst way being handcuffed to something can end (and begin, for that matter, because, c’mon, zombies and Atlanta in the same day, fuck (I’d like to thank my sponsors, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance)). ‘Ole Merle remembers Andrea, I guess and he’s fairly forgiving, at least of her, it’ll likely be a different story when he meets Rick again. Again, though, Merle, like all the other tuff-guy guards in Woodbury, do not stand in comfortable shoes when The Governor is in the room.

The Governor does have a side-building where a few science geeks going over the dead walkers, which they refer to as “biters.” The geeks conclude quickly that Michonne not only used her mule-zombies as pack-animals, but as a sort of camouflage. With no arms to grab with and now jaws to bite with, the zombies can become docile, and better still, if you’re standing next to a zombie, other zombies will sort of ignore you, making Michonne’s execution of her pets a bit more tragic, and even more so when it was revealed that she actually knew them before they turned. This is the first time we’ve seen any decent mad-science to discover how the zombies work and it’s more good proof that the show is smoothing out its pacing and purpose. The way The Governor demanded the guards and geeks make peace with each other though spoke volumes about his authority, all the while remaining self-aware, calm, and thorough. This is a menacing villain waiting to pop, and pop he does.

Prior to snatching up Michonne and Andrea, they had come across a crashed army chopper, which is kind of a big deal in and of itself, to know the army has, you know, guys with helicopters, and guns, and orders running and flying around. The lone survivor of the crash directed The Governor and the gang to the army camp. He sprung the ambush flawlessly. The Governor’s guys mowed the soldiers down easily and their weapons and humvees were taken with very few wasted bullets.

It was an easy lie back at the town for The Governor to tell the Woodbury citizens that they found the soldiers dead, and they salvaged their trucks and supplies for the sake of their own survival. That’s is how The Governor rules and that’s how The Governor rolls — like a politician that sleeps in a bed with clean sheets after the apocalypse.

Slow cut to him hanging out in his locked room, sitting in a squishy leather chair, fingers wrapped around a glass of whiskey, staring at a wall of fish tanks, each hold a severed head.

Anybody else excited for the war between The Governor’s Woodbury and Rick’s Prison — the one that will happen some day soon?

STILL BORED? Read my guide on how to not suck at being sick over on http://www.ghostlittle.com, because it’s that time of year again — and you can always keep up with my thoughts over on Twitter!

The post ‘The Walking Dead’ Recap (Season 3, Episode 3): The Governator appeared first on The Faster Times.

After last week, I’m happy to say that this episode had a better handle on what it wanted to do with itself. It had a rather mechanical plot with Irish mobster-types that most folks will be familiar with including a crusty, grumpy boss, an enforcer with a decent heart, a young widow that wants nothing to do with her husband’s old crew, and none of that would be all too interesting at a glance. Actually, it’s not interesting at a second glance, either, if you should be so kind to give it that additional look. What this episode did was establish that there is a bigger unifying theme for the show, namely, that humans can be terrible, but we can evolve and improve ourselves, given the right environment.

Reese and Finch were led to these Irish mobsters, specifically Riley Cavanaugh, a quiet enforcer for George, the local boss, and they don’t waste much time to loop in the back-story for Annie, the widow. You can probably guess the story beats from there, with George sending Riley to kill Annie, the two of them secretly being a couple, then another twist that George had Annie’s old husband killed, and it was Riley that did the hit. All of these points were well-punctuated by Reese fighting off bounty hunters after George puts a hit out on Riley, which eventually escalated to a gunfight that kills everybody but Reese and Annie, who flees to New Mexico.

That’s all well and good, the ‘ole plot machine trundled along and the show remains well-executed, if not terribly surprising or written with much crunch. There were a few notably cool ideas worth touching upon, most notably Finch borrowing Root’s phrase “bad code,” and perhaps more interestingly, a visit with incarcerated mob-king Elias.

Finch remains rattled by his time spent with Root. He didn’t like the idea of leaving his little nest to help with the investigation — and who would when you have Bear to hang out with (lookit him — who’s a good doggie?!). It was when he used the phrase “bad code” to describe Riley when Reese suggested that they help him escape from George’s bounty hunters that I perked up. He later explained to Reese that bad code is usually a mechanical term for faulty engineering or bad design, essentially condemning it as useless, then adding that humans aren’t bad code, because we can change and evolve and improve ourselves.

This ties in to the conversation Finch had with Elias at the prison. First, it’s pretty likely these two are going to become frenemies, now that Finch is visiting him to play chess since there were no worthy opponents in jail. Creepy as can be with his math teacher-grin, Elias scoffs at George’s old-school shoot ‘em up style of crime, calling it flashy and counter-productive. Elias had been successful in taking over a lot of the various mobs last season, consolidating the power under his demi-god-esque dominion, transforming him and his consolidated ur-mob into a dark reflection of Finch and the Machine. He threw out the old way of doing things and evolved the system, just like Finch did by creating a machine that wasn’t just aware, but self-improving, and it was insanely powerful. So the moral, if there is one, is that you can have faith in people to change themselves and their environments, both for good, if you’re Riley or Reese, or for ill, if you’re Elias.

Hopefully there will be more involvement with Elias and his super-mob moving forward. What did you guys think?

STILL BORED? Read up on my Halloween Survival Guide over on http://www.ghostlittle.com — and you can always keep up with my thoughts over on Twitter!

The post ‘Person of Interest’ Recap (Season 2, Episode 4): Triggerman appeared first on The Faster Times.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. “Skeleton Crew” is easily the best episode of Last Resort since the pilot and what I have been expecting and sorely missing from every episode since. Despite only being the fifth episode of the show, “Skeleton Crew” feels like a season finale – and it probably could have been if the ratings were any worse – because a lot of serious shit goes down.

Secretary of Defense Curry (Jay Karnes, also known as Dutch Wagenbach) finally arrives on the island after talking to Marcus on the phone. Jay Karnes is great at playing smug assholes and Curry is no exception: he immediately pisses Marcus off, which means this is going to be one hell of a negotiation. Marcus and Sam actually manage to get their crew their freedom and their sentence reduced to 18-24 months after mentioning the Navy SEALS they picked up, but everything goes wrong after advisor Amanda Straw decides to go ahead with plan b: blow up the submarine and everyone on it.

Grace, who has been left in charge of the sub while Marcus and Sam negotiate, is forced to pull off some drastic measures to stay alive, abandoning James, who is repairing a broken down sonar doohickey, and threatening to launch four nuclear missiles at Washington D.C. unless the other submarines coming after her leave the area. Grace’s courage and badassery has not only impressed the COB but also transformed her from a rather lackluster character to a great commander. More of this please.

The negotation falls apart after this as Admiral Shepard, Grace’s father, shoots Curry and kills Straw in an attempt to save his daughter’s life. Yikes. Meanwhile, back in Washington, Kylie teams up with Christine, who isn’t as dumb as I thought: she knows the lawyer is actually a government spy. Basically: this is a good episode for all the ladies, especially since Tani is barely in it, leaving James to get more involved with the submarine crew. But he kisses her at the end, which means she’s probably going to stick around for a lot longer. Sigh.

Andre Braugher continues to be the best part of the show, successfully playing both convincing and crazy at the same time. In this episode he even threatens to crush the jelly from Curry’s eyes. Yikes!

Last week I said I wouldn’t be surprised if ABC cancelled Last Resort, but they almost did the exact opposite: apparently more scripts have been ordered, which I guess is a good sign? It certainly can’t be bad; it shows that ABC have faith in the show and are willing to give it a chance, and hopefully after “Skeleton Crew,” more viewers will be willing to give it a chance too. I also really hope it doesn’t slow back down again now because this episode introduces a lot of interesting developments: the United Nations vs. the United States, China invading Taiwan, the confirmation that all of this is a result of what the Navy SEALS did. There’s a whole world out there that has changed due to Marcus’s actions and that’s what excites me the most. I’m ready to see what the rest of the world does next.

The post ‘Last Resort’ Recap (Season 1, Episode 5): “Skeleton Crew” appeared first on The Faster Times.

As “Unwindulax” opens, Liz Lemon navigates an irritating Caribbean-themed street party, where she runs into day drunks Gary Cole and Amy Sedaris: “New drinking game! Drink when someone says something!” (Been there.) It comes out that Jenna has earned a Jimmy Buffet-like following with her new single “I Caught Crabs In Paradise.” When Cole’s bearded Unwindulaxer spills some thermos wine on Jenna she’s forced to restrain a conniption to preserve her new chill-out image and face that, as Frank puts it, “she can’t be herself in front of these losers.” His ensuing pranks with Lutz and Toofer backfire when Jenna threatens to sic on them her assembled army of blue-collar dirtbags. Themselves a breed of dirtbag, they’re naturally threatened at the prospect of low-rent persecution, and even their effort to dispel the crowd with video of Jenna’s high-strung freakouts is derailed when Pete is consumed by the brainless jubilee.

Liz is quickly distracted when Jack invites her to a Republican fundraiser dinner, where she promises to stay her liberal tongue in return for a first-class seafood buffet. This proves easier said than done, and she can do little but stuff her face with more shrimp to muffle retorts to jibes like “No bureaucrat can force me to subsidize female promiscuity” and “Michelle Obama’s on steroids.” Meanwhile, when the shrimp well runs dry, Liz swiftly chides the assembled robber barons and inbred WASPs. Her big reproach becomes incoherently enraged and just as incompletely-informed as the straw man she’s assembled of her opponents’ worldview. Jack reveals that he set her up, expecting the inevitable outburst to convince the attendees to loosen their pursestrings further to prevent the reelection of the freewheeling liberal lunatics’ champion. After a nice double-entendre—attending as Jack’s “chum,” Liz is told she was intended as fish bait, get it?—she vows to show Jack that she can meet his cynicism with cutting edge commentary, stirring the masses with ideas rather than money. Liz has her work cut out for her—somehow, in 30 Rock world “Catcher’s Mitt Romney” isn’t setting the viral zeitgeist ablaze— and fortunately, Lutz’s nephew and Twilight hottie Kellan Lutz is in town, but his celebrity is such that the crowd’s screams drown Liz’s grandiloquent script. Jack, surrounded by yes men and piles of cash, hires Don Cheadle and Jazz, the black Transformer, to court the African-American vote but they are somehow unmoved by Cheadle’s nauseated shilling. This whole plot is exemplary of a specific mark at which 30 Rock frequently aims, but I want to focus again on Liz’s stumbling diatribe at the fundraiser. It’s a token of their comic generosity that her rant begins: “You’re hypocrites. You believe in the death penalty but it’s okay to kill animals for food? I don’t know where I’m going with this yet.” The whole scenario highlights something about the nature of this show that probably elevates this episode in my eyes above its actual quality, which is good but inessential. (Though I should mention it’s a Part One, with an A-and-B-plot-tying twist that could lead to something special.

When 30 Rock premiered six years ago alongside Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, they acknowledged the similarity in jokey, self-effacing ads; Alec Baldwin thinks he’s been cast in the next great TV drama, Tina Fey shrugs apologetically, waka waka. The ironic proceeding of the Big Important Drama’s collapse and the disposable spoof’s cultural canonization is now public record. While any nods toward the Aaron Sorkin show have usually appeared light and un-scathing, like aping the famed “walk-and-talk” in an early episode, there are deeper slights against Sorkin’s integrity-troubled, authoritarian mode embedded in the show’s DNA. Even though it seems unlikely that 30 Rock could have been plugged in enough at its conception to comment directly on elements of Studio 60, it’s intriguing, for example, that one of the latter show’s most-derided characters, Sarah Paulsen’s Harriet Hayes—the female star whose political obstinacy would be easy to write off were she not so damn talented—seems to point straight toward Jane Krakowski’s bizarro-bitch egomaniac Jenna Maroney, the perfect counterpart for a Sketch Show show stripped of unearned self-importance (which Sorkin masquerades as needed optimism, a ploy that fewer and fewer critics seem to be buying with his latest grandstandfest The Newsroom). Similarly, we can immediately picture the Sorkinverse version of the benefit scene, where instead of flailing Liz Lemon we see handsome Jane Q. Protagonist deliver a stirring, even-keeled impromptu jeremiad as though reading from a TelePrompTer inside her contacts which, of course, falls on deaf ears, because doing the right thing is hard, man. Fey and co. are confident about their characters deeply enough to never ennoble them in any such way, or let them off the hook, and this is what separates its cultural/political take from, say, that of The Daily Show, in which everybody in power is a little bit silly but some of them are, after all, basically “right.” Of course, the Bill Mahers of the politicomedy world would insist upon the importance of taking sides, and I can’t entirely disagree, but 30 Rock‘s magic has always been its ability to exploit the value of universal derision in a way we haven’t really seen since—huh, what do you know—early 2000s SNL. (There’s a hard balance to strike in pursuit of that ideal; South Park, for instance, is often good but so in love with its own antipartisan firepower that its satire is left ineffectual, lightly amusing where it seeks to cut.) 30 Rock‘s attitude often borders or crosses over entirely into meanspiritedness, as in tonight’s Jenna plot and its galling party zombie Floridians, or in occasional, well-blog-documented missteps of racial and sexual humor; a show that so militantly favors comedy over editorial runs the risk of abiding cultural ills rather than critiquing them. But—and this suggests a larger conversation for another, non-episode-specific column, perhaps—if it means more bullseyes, I prefer sometimes overshooting the target to always landing short.

Image courtesy NBC via huffingtonpost.com

The post ’30 Rock’ Recap (Season 7, Episode 4): “Unwindulax” appeared first on The Faster Times.

The Devil gave me this new outfit.

Jane is trapped in the evil basement room after the Door of Mystery swings shut behind her! She sees scary old dolls, hears ghostly whispering, and a little ghost girl grabs her leg! Then Henry comes in to save her, thank god.

Next we meet an obituary writer and Drake resident frustrated by her go-nowhere writing career. She dreams of a career in journalism, and Gavin offers to help her. Don’t do it, obit writer! Next thing we know, she’s making up impressive-sounding lies in her obituaries. She writes that her subject was a CIA spy locked into battle with an evil Russian KGB type named Kandinsky.

Playwright Brian fools around in bed with his wife Louise, who seems to be feeling better than ever after her elevator attack. Alexis, her sexy assistant, swiftly interrupts them. In case you haven’t been reading these recaps, Brian spends a lot of time looking into Alexis’ open window, and she’s a sexy, probably evil temptress of some kind. They made out once but not sure if it went anywhere.

Meanwhile, Jane is pressing on with her plans to uncover the mysterious history of the Drake, and also restore it to its original splendor. Even though Henry tells her not to stir up trouble because Gavin invited him to a “well respected” club today, she goes to Gavin’s office, asking for architectural plans. He tells her today’s the 10th anniversary of his daughter’s death. Awkward. Finally he gives her the plans, after an evil pause. He also asks her to accompany his wife Olivia on this sad day.

The obit writer, stuck in a cab, sees a CNN piece about the lies she wrote. It’s all coming true, sort of! Her world starts to change as she writes more lies. She even gets a new outfit, a better one.

Somewhere, possibly at the well-respected club, Gavin and Henry play racquetball, and Gavin lectures some more about ambition. He loves to talk about that. Later, at lunch, Gavin encourages Henry to hard-talk a city councilman at a neighboring table, which Henry feels will definitely lead to a new, higher profile job.

Olivia and Jane have some heart-to-hearts. Jane mentions how the Drake is creepy and she’s having visions, and then they go for a drive in Olivia’s Porsche. Olivia’s had a few, and starts driving like a maniac. She speeds towards a concrete barrier, swerving at the last second. I would probably get out of the car at this point, but Jane doesn’t seem too traumatized. Olivia tells her that the car accident that ended her daughter Sasha’s life was no accident: it was suicide! But Gavin doesn’t know.

Lately Brian’s thinking of moving, what with the elevator that almost killed his wife and the sexy, probably evil temptress across the way. Henry agrees to look over his lease (which of course is IRON CLAD because Gavin wrote it) and spies Alexis changing. However, Alexis only changes for Brian, and, looking upset, closes the blinds on Henry. Then they agree to go out and celebrate Henry’s new job south of 14th Street. Wow, downtown! That’s where all those crazy bohemian artists live!

Then the vents start ringing, and the Mystery Door drips blood, and the little ghost girl’s all, “It’s back!”

The two couples drink and dance at da club below 14th Street, only to have evil Alexis show up and dance sexily with Louise. Brian then decides to leave; Henry has already recognized her.

The obit writer has been hired to write more lies, but she’s barely started writing when Kandinsky himself breaks into her apartment and drags her off.

The city councilman and Gavin discuss “the boy”, aka Henry, who appears to be around thirty-five. Gavin tells the councilman that he doesn’t need to pay him off for hiring Henry because Henry’s a real asset/such a good boy. They discuss the Greenpoint Towers deal.

Olivia sits outside o

n a public bench, possibly for the first time in her life, and burns Sasha’s suicide note. The note mentions Gavin being evil.

Gavin pushes the councilman down an elevator shaft, possibly to Hell. He meets with Henry and tells him he’s not so sure about the job now.

And Jane, pantsless as usual, pokes around in the laundry room. She finds an old suitcase and brings it up to her bedroom, god knows why. As the couple sleeps, we see something moving inside of it!

The post ’666 Park Avenue’ Recap: “The Dead Won’t Stay Dead” appeared first on The Faster Times.