30 Rock "Secret Santa"

The best way to sum up 30 Rock is like this, last night's episode wasn't one of their better ones but was still great to watch. That is when you know a television series is doing its job, a bad episode for them is better than everything else that was on TV at the time.

This holiday themed episode just didn't get me to laugh out loud like the previous episode did. There were not many clever one-liners in this episode where as last episode it was packed full of them. One thing that I did enjoy was Cerie the blonde interns role in this episode. When she was on her Iphone looking at Jack's high school crush's profile while Lemon was still trying to find "YouFace" was witty writing, as was when Liz ended up on a hardcore porn site instead "YouFace". Another great scene with her was when she told Jack that Nancy, his crush, was in a "weirdsie" relationship on her YouFace status and he responded O M F G. It was classic and if the boss of NBC actually said that to one of his receptionist it would be comical to say the least. They should try to work Cerie in more often, she produced quality work and in my opinion is under-utilized in the show.

Another highlight of the show was Kenneth losing his faith momentarily, something I thought would never happen. This was due to the writers lying to him about their religion to get of his intensely organized secret Santa. When he realizes their lies go unpunished he decides to stop his religious beliefs. By the end of the episode though, Kenneth returns to God because he punished the writers as they had to go to jail for calling in a bomb threat to Penn Station, which Lemon actually did, not any of the writers. Kenneth calls it his "Christmas Miracle". The funniest scene in the show happened at the end when Lutz got tazered for being Al Qaeda and drops to the floor in pain. That actually nearly made me laugh out loud, close but no cigar.

Lemon and Jack's Christmas presents to each other was also a highlight of this particular episode. Since the present had to be free, Lemon called in a bomb threat to Penn Station so that Jack's Boston accented crush would have to stay for another night in NYC. It works and Jack ends up kissing her and as TV Without Pity said, what could be a better Christmas gift than adultery and imprisonment? Jack appears to only get her a program for the Crucible play that Lemon was in back in the day, but in the end actually gets Lemon a night out with her first crush, Officer Jon Baker from the 70's hit show CHiPS. When she ask him how it was free, Baker responded that Jack promised him a chance on Dancing With the Stars, to which Lemon responds, isn't that on ABC? Once again, classic 30 Rock witty humor.

All in all I give this holiday episode a 6.5 of 10, it was good but not great or the best. To anyone who likes Christmas themed TV shows, the Secret Santa version of The Office was laugh out loud hilarious, it is worth checking out.