'30 Rock: One Time Special': The gang is back together, but fans aren't happy with all the Peacock commercials
'30 Rock: A One-Time Special' is finally here!
Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan and Jack McBrayer are back in their iconic roles of Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy, Jenna Maroney, Tracy Jordan and Kenneth Parcell respectively. Kenneth is now the President of NBC as Jack had passed on the throne to him at the end of the run of the show in 2013. He also has an apparently attractive assistant Vivica (played by McBrayer himself). Liz is asked to get the gang together because the president wishes to reboot 'The Girly Show' (TGS) for the network.
But psych! All Kenneth really wanted to do was check on his friends. For months since the quarantine began, they had all individually ignored him and all his antics for good. But seem to be available when the possibility of a reboot was there.
The premise might have gotten you excited for an hour-long apparently "commercial-free" reunion, but as it turns out, the 'One Time Special' is a commercial in itself.
The '30 Rock' reunion turned out to be sort of a front for NBC's brand new streaming service Peacock showcasing everything that the platform will offer.
Safe to say, fans aren't happy with this.
"This 30 Rock is a borderline bummer," tweeted a fan. "This 30 Rock "episode" is so very bad," added another. "Okay, this 30 Rock thing is genuinely embarrassing," concurred yet another disappointed fan.
Commercials pushing new content on Peacock were run every two minutes or so, upsetting many fans. "This 30 Rock special is awful. It's basically a commercial for Peacock." tweeted one. "@30Rock I love you so much, but this would be so much better if you’d leave out the Peacock commercials every five seconds @NBCUniversal," added another.
In between several complaints, there still are many ardent fans of the show who would watch it anyway, no complaints. "30 Rock always danced close to the line between self-reference and content marketing for NBC. Tonight it’s just diving right in. Almost so bad it’s funny," tweeted one. "Bravo to @NBCUniversal on their brilliant #30Rock upfront. The sizzle reels might be traditional but the format is unprecedented. Well done," added another.
"Honestly feeling pretty conflicted about this 30 Rock special. Although if I'm going to watch a bunch of commercials this is a better way than most," this fan reaction probably sums up our reaction best.