Do you know why “30 Rock” is so great? Because it mixes real life happenings and translates them to hilarious, comedic television. From tackling Tracy Morgan’s real-life gay slur scandal, to referencing NBC’s executive issues, to now emulating what happened to Tina Fey when she parodied Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock” rarely leaves a pebble unturned.

In last Thursday’s episode, Mitt Romney’s actual running mate, Paul Ryan, had to drop out of the race because he was actually born in Kenya (which is funny in itself). Romney then chose Gov. Dunston, a Tracy Jordan doppelganger, which made the public demand Tracy to play him. From there we had a perfectly executed show, underlining what it meant for the Republican Party to have an unintelligent VP candidate. Sound familiar?

Not only did it mirror the Sarah Palin-Tina Fey relationship, it also brought attention to the election that is three weeks away. That makes great pop culture television, which is a shame because only a mere 3 million people watch this show weekly. It’s a sad realization that there are only 11 episodes left of what I consider the best comedy show on television (however, I can’t lie that “Modern Family” has been spot on this season).

The biggest disappointments in the comedy world have been “Parks and Recreation” and “How I Met Your Mother.” As much as I am yearning to laugh, “Parks” has just not done it for me yet this season. It’s bland and dull. Leslie Knope and company need to spice it up a bit. And as for “How I Met Your Mother,” if this isn’t the last season of the series, I’m not sure how much longer I can take this. Although, the latest episode where Lily and Marshall tried to find a nanny was the best so far this season.

For me, the drama series have had the strongest season thus far, throwing curve balls and twists in the first and second episodes. Anyone who saw what was coming at the end of the second episode of “Homeland” must have seen the script beforehand, because that has been this season’s biggest twist. Not to mention, “Dexter,” “Revenge,” and new shows like “Revolution” have me wanting to come back every week.

This weeks’ recap:

I mentioned earlier that “Modern Family” was having a spot-on season, that was mainly because of Wednesday’s double feature when we got to see Cam and Mitch interact with lesbians, Phil makes a book called “Phil’s-osophy” and Gloria deals with her pregnancy. For me, watching Cam and Mitch do the venn diagram with straight and gay couples was one of the funniest things the show has done in a long time.

The only issue I have had with the show, and something they still haven’t changed, is the moral lesson or how every episode wraps up with everyone being happy, it’s so “Full House.” Fortunately, the writers have yet to lose their comedy touch and I find myself laughing consistently throughout the whole episode, all four seasons. That’s a rarity for any comedy that has been on longer than two seasons.

New show of the week:

According to everyone and their brother, “Nashville” is this year’s best new drama, and after finally watching the pilot last Wednesday, I couldn’t agree more. The show has everything a great drama needs: dramatic conflict, multiple storylines meshing together and a great evil jerk who is going to be a homewrecker. Now, I’m pretty sure this show is not going to be sweeping away at next year’s Emmys, but I can see it being a fun, juicy, drama. It reminds me a lot of “Revenge,” in the way that it is a little campy, but has some backbone to it.

What I am looking forward to this week:

I can’t wait to get to my DVR so I am able to catch up on the five shows I missed Sunday night.

Supposedly, “Revenge” is going to be a game-changer for the rest of the season and there hasn’t been a week where I haven’t anxiously awaited to see what will happen to Dexter and Deb on “Dexter.”

But this week is the first week where “Grey’s Anatomy” won’t be solely going off of what happened in last season’s finale, so I’m excited to see what kind of tone the rest of the ninth season will have. And of course, I look forward to the next thing “30 Rock” is going to tackle in its final season.

Until next time, I’m shutting this down.

Samantha is a senior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].