In the original run of 30Rock, the ads were usually jokes. In NBC's one-off reunion, most of the jokes are ads. kvanaren writes
In spite of the videoconference formatting and the stripped-down main cast, the 30 Rock reunion felt a lot like the original series — with the major exception of its approach to NBC corporate synergy. Photo: NBC Near the end of NBC’s one-night-only 30 Rock reunion-special episode, Kenneth Parcell is in the middle of a presentation for the all-virtual NBC upfronts.
In classic 30 Rock fashion, too, that line about making advertisements “a seamless part of the story” is just one small element in the episode’s larger metafictional game. The joke of it is in how obvious the seams are when Kenneth performs that line, but the entire hour is built to be indistinguishable from the onslaught of NBCUniversal ads woven throughout.
It was a teetering, sometimes uneasy balance, and in many areas the show often tipped too far. Like several other sitcoms, a few 30 Rock episodes have recently been pulled from streaming services because they feature characters in blackface. Its superficial sense of humor about race was often just an excuse to reiterate racism, something the reunion episode acknowledged for one tiny moment as a character once called “Toofer” insisted that there’s no way he’d accept being called that now.
This is exactly what the 30 Rock reunion was not. Many of the jokes and premises seemed designed to create that same twisting sense of spiky, winking subversion, and all the trappings of a messy TV fiasco are in place. Kenneth seems primed to fail at this upfront presentation. Liz & Co. are trying to bring back TGS, an effort that just cannot succeed. Jenna’s called upon to improvise an NBC theme song. The dominoes are set to fall.
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