30 Rock – “Respawn” – review

“Respawn” would have been okay as an episode if it had been written for a little earlier in the season, but because it was intended to be the season finale, it falls short of a few expectations. Nowhere in the episode (except with Jack and Kenneth, but I’ll get to that later) did things feel final, or even of dire circumstance. What we got was Liz worrying about spending her summer with Tracy, and Jenna and Paul struggling to hide their oddball relationship. That’s what we’re ending the season on? Really? Last year we had three weddings, Avery being pregnant, Liz meeting her soul mate (or not), and Kenneth getting fired. Now Tracy lives next door to Liz. Boo freaking hoo.

Now Jack is still dealing with Avery being kidnapped by Kim Jung Il. This gives us the only really entertaining story, as Jack copes by imagining Kenneth is Avery and forcing him to eat dinner with him and cuddle in bed. What made it worthwhile was Kenneth’s reaction to the situation. Normally everyone else is weirded out by Kenneth, so it’s a good change of pace to have the tables turned on him. The best was when Kenneth had to tell Jack off while pretending to be Avery. Kenneth nailed his impression of Avery doing an impression of him.

So, yeah. Overall that was a pretty weak way to end a season. It did have a cliffhanger ending, but I think it was just supposed to be joke, but who knows. Maybe Kenneth’s shouting to “Jacob” that he “needs more time” is a real thing and will come up next season.