'Live Show', as an episode of '30 Rock', didn't work. It wouldn't have worked had it been filmed, and it certainly didn't work live. 'Live Show', as an experiment not to be repeated again, and as a nod to itself - a show about producing a live show, it worked very well. I was massively impressed with the almost entirely smooth way in which the episode operated.
In fact, the plots were so threadbare it's only been an hour since it finished and I genuinely can't remember any of them except for Jack's non-drinking pledge. And - oh! It was Liz's birthday - Liz's birthday and everyone forgetting it, while an interesting idea for a story, didn't get the service it deserved here.
I suppose the best thing to compare 'Live Show' to would be an episode of SNL. It was certainly funnier than SNL has been for years, and considering the actors had to keep jumping between sets (with a little help from the inspired casting of Julia Dreyfus as the other Liz), I thought they did well to keep the momentum going. I appreciated the nods to how live shows often go wrong, such as the movie poster falling down and - Tracey wants to break! - Tracey wanting to break, and it just seems like despite the bad press this episode might get, it was an incredibly daunting task to take an show like '30 Rock' and make a live episode out of it.
And if nothing else, it was nice to see Rachel Dratch and Jon Hamm back on the show. That replacement hand was bloody disgusting, but very funny. Didn't quite beat Dr. Spaceman airquoting the word 'Doctor', though.
Happy 100th, '30 Rock'.
What did everyone else think?
