It was set up to be a dramatic return, as Tracy Morgan returned to 30 Rock. Did it live up to the hype? (Spoiler: Oh yes, yes it did. and here's how, onto the review).
Democratic Debate Cold Open: The show kicked off the 1st Democratic Presidential Debate. Taran Killam played O'Malley, and Kyle Mooney did a delightfully bewildered Lincoln Chafee, but the stars were Alec Baldwin as Jim Webb.........and Larry David as Bernie Sanders. It was just the perfect impersonation. One could say that David played Sanders better than Sanders does. As always, Kate McKinnon continued with her strong impersonation as Hillary Clinton (especially when asked if she wanted to respond to Chafee about her e-mails). Larry David just made this cold open work though (even given how it went a good 10 minutes or so). This was a solid start to a fantastic show. (8.7)
Monologue: Tracy Morgan rightfully got one of the biggest ovations any host has gotten while walking out for his monologue. His monologue was a perfect mix of sincerity (mentioning how he told Lorne Michaels that he wanted to come home when he was ready), and humor, mentioning that his IQ has gone up since the coma from the accident. The main part of the monologue was a "lost" 30 Rock episode, featuring Baldwin, Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer, along with Morgan. Now I've never seen an actual episode of 30 Rock, so maybe I missed some of the nuances, but it was a good monologue nonetheless. (8.5)
Family Feud: I cringed at first when I saw it was going to be a game-show sketch, but the fact that it wasn't a celebrity edition gave me some hope. The first family featured recently divorced Leslie Jones, and her kids Jay Pharoah, Sasheer Zamata & Michael Che. On the other side.....was her recently divorced husband Tracy, with his new wife Cecily Strong. This set-up was ingenious, and it gave good material for Kenan Thompson as Steve Harvey. There were just so many good lines, from Leslie, Tracy, Jay and Kenan ("show me keeping 'em off the pole!"). A game-show sketch, when done right with original material, can be masterful, as this was. (9.0)
Brian Fellow's Safari Planet: One of Tracy's recurring characters that I figured we'd be seeing. Only Tracy can pull this character off. It started off with Pete Davidson and a beaver.....but the star of this sketch was Aidy Bryant, and a real live camel. Its fun to think about how they got a camel into the 8th floor of 30 Rock. And being live TV, anything can happen, as the camel decided to walk into Tracy's camera shot. Sometimes mishaps like those are simply the best. (8.8)
Fake Mitchell's Cocaine Spray: The first misfire in my book, this ad seemed to make its point too quickly. Trying to fake a foul smell in a bathroom, Beck Bennett uses a fake cocaine spray, because he'd rather it be that. There was also a "fake poop spray" from Leslie Jones. This whole idea just fell flat for me. (5.0)
Demi Lovato - "Cool For The Summer/Confident" (8.9)
Weekend Update: While not as strong as last week, Jost & Che were still on their game with a solid update. They had another riff, this time on why not just anyone should run for president.
The 1st guest was Tina Fey talking about Playboy stopping nude photographs. As always with Tina, she provided great commentary here "arm butts and all".
Next was the return of Kenan's "Willie". While not a great recurring character, this Update guest is solid enough. He was joined by his own mentor, Woodrow (Tracy). When Woodrow showed up, this part of Update really got going. (7.5)
Good Morning Song: This sketch had a great production value, but it sort of hit the punchline a little too soon. It featured an ensemble in a medieval era, all singing a song, and then Tracy comes along singing whatever was on his mind. Tracy's interactions saved this sketch from really sinking, but it still was a bit of a hit & miss. (5.9)
The Standoff (Short): This was a quintessential skit for Tracy Morgan. He confronted Taran Killam in a bar "to dance".....which was literally what Tracy wanted to do. The interactions between Tracy & Taran were really great here. Sadly, they didn't actually dance though. (6.9)
Demi Lovato - "Stone Cold": The first music act I'm featuring here, I've simply never heard Demi like this. She just let loose with tons of soul. Just a fantastic performance. (9.5)
Yo! Where Jackie Chan At Right Now: This was one of those odd late-night sketches that worked. It again featured Tracy & Kenan, this time as hosts of a show actively looking for Jackie Chan. The whole concept was so absurd that it worked (from the Peabody award, to all the guests they were able to get). What made this even better was the impersonations, from Kyle Mooney as Walker Texas Ranger, Jay as Chris Tucker, and to top it off, Bobby Moynihan as Steven Seagal. This was a sketch where everyone committed, so no matter how absurd, it worked. (8.4)
Astronaut Jones: The Martian: The night closed off with another recurring character of Tracy's, Astronaut Jones. Used in a take-off the "The Martian", this was as good as the original. It was great that they used the original theme song. As always with Astronaut Jones sketches, there actually isn't a lot of material. Jones encounters an alien (Demi Lovato), and then makes a fantastic closing punchline (followed by the theme song). An underrated recurring character to close out the night. (8.2)
All in all, Tracy Morgan's return was glorious. He didn't skip a beat. He simply blended it and meshed with the current cast, but still had his classic energy. This was one of the most enjoyable shows in recent memory (which we'll need given how the next new show in a few weeks will be hosted by Donald Trump *sigh*),
Overall Score - 7.94
Tracy Morgan - 7.94
Amy Schumer - 7.18
Miley Cyrus - 6.07
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