’30 Rock’ review: ‘Sex and the City’ meets … ‘Pokemon’?

There are not many shows out there that can successfully pull off some sort of hybrid between Carrie Bradshaw and Ash Ketchum; but luckily, “30 Rock” is this very show. With that in mind, we luckily had a rather funny episode Thursday night that introduced us to a number of stories that really helped to illuminate yet again what this show does best: give us stories that feel true to the characters, while also pushing them forward in some way.

Easily the story with the most long-term impact is probably Jack’s as well as Jenna’s, as they have each been forced to more or less come to terms to terms now with the fact that they are each growing older, and thanks to that there are some adjustment that have to be made. When it comes to Ms. Mulroney, she has decided to rapidly age herself to land endorsement deals; meanwhile, Alec Baldwin’s character is now getting used to being the older man as just one of many partners for a woman.

This point about aging was rang even more true courtesy of the different nicknames that both Jack and this woman had for it; while he chose to call what he was doing “Great Escaping” as a reference to a classic film, she chose “Pokemoning” in order to fill the “gotta catch ’em all” mantra. Both were ridiculous, but it did at least bring us a brief but funny appearance from Ryan Lochte playing a “sex idiot” version of himself.

Speaking of sex, Liz Lemon seemed desperate all episode long to isolate herself with the ladies with a “Sex and the City”-inspired cocktail party; but at the same time, she was desperately trying to play up that women were just as funny as men and deserved inclusion. The parallels between these two stories could have been stronger, and the other problem with this story was that we really didn’t buy that Tracy would not find women funny, mostly because he works alongside one on stage in Jenna every day.

These complaints aside, this was still a solid “30 Rock” installment … but with the show ending soon, we do hope we start to find out a little information as to just how things are going to wrap up for good.

What did you think about the comedy this time around?