- Network: NBC
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 16, 2020
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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“30 Rock: A One-Time Special” absolutely excels at what it is and does. It is a perfect commercial for NBC Universal, a perfect commercial for television, and a perfect commercial for people who believe they are too cool to watch commercials but not too cool to watch television reunion specials. ... A blatant hour-long commercial for television is technically the natural progression for the story 30 Rock told, which allows the special to somehow reach an even higher level of meta inception than it already had.
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The special didn’t allow for that same kind of self-mockery, and it created an odd fissure between the presenters and their presentation; between “30 Rock” and the upfront itself. The “30 Rock” reunion gets the job done. ... With all our favorite faces plus a bunch of celebrity cameos (thank goodness all that Mandy Moore hype actually led somewhere), made for an enjoyable reminder of just how great “30 Rock” was when it was firing on all cylinders.
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Yes, it’s an infomercial and yes, the NBCU ads during the “commercial breaks” are pure puffery. But there are more than enough funny moments to keep you watching. Just keep your finger poised over that one-minute skip button; you’ll need it.
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Its title is an ad for NBC. Kenneth’s page uniform is an ad for NBC. About 30 percent of Jack Donaghy’s lines in any given episode could be reasonably construed as ads for NBC. About 70 percent of Kenneth’s lines also count. At its best, though, 30 Rock always seemed to be enthusiastically participating in corporate synergy with one hand, and doing its best to dismantle it with the other.
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It was a 60-minute sales pitch lumbering around inside the husk of an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning sitcom.
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The content basically felt like the kind of promotional video that actors would be enlisted to shoot for an upfront sales presentation for advertisers, which is precisely what this was, just on a national platform. It was occasionally funny -- especially the outtakes at the end, for those who stuck around -- sporadically clever and more than anything, really strange.
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If you’re a “30 Rock” fan who tuned in to see a “30 Rock” reunion special, it would have felt both very strange and... well, kind of familiar. ... Maybe if “30 Rock” were still airing now and had to integrate a Peacock shoutout instead of briefly returning for the express purpose of acting as an advertorial boost, it might’ve erred towards something slyer.
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An hourlong, sporadically funny grinfomercial that occasionally recalled how good the show was at its best, but mostly underlined how long ago its cultural moment had passed.
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The episode started well. ... But the velocity was disrupted, increasingly frequently, with throws to NBCUniversal content. ... Where there had once been toothless rebellion, now there was eager compliance—even if the show had trained me to see insincerity floating in the air, like the afterimage from decade-old flash.
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The One-Time Special feels like 30 Rock's "Man Cave," like something the show once would've mocked. Without the sharp jabs at NBC, the show's essence has been hollowed out.
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The special felt like a forced, largely jokeless game of "Name That Celebrity." ... If only the rest of the "30 Rock" special was half as inspired as Krakowski's wonderfully weird performance. Instead, it all felt just as hopelessly out of touch as Dennis Duffy's beepers.
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The special was bad. The reunion portions were not great—Fey’s bumbling Liz Lemon has diminishing returns as the savvy professionalism of the woman behind the character becomes ever more apparent, and if the other performers were spirited, especially an indomitable Krakowski, there’s only so much TV magic you can make out of Zoom calls. The interstitial ads for NBCUniversal content were worse. The attempt to marry the two into a coherent narrative was excruciating.
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“30 Rock’s” sardonic skills in the meta department couldn’t overcome the corporate stink of it all.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 7
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Mixed: 1 out of 7
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Negative: 4 out of 7
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Jan 1, 2021absolutely horrible. an hour long pile of garbage which is a lame advert for the peacrap streaming service which censors the past. garbage and shame.
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Jul 18, 2020
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Jul 18, 2020