30 Rock may wow the critics here in America—at least the fake parts—but in Germany, the New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff reports, something got lost in translation. The first airing of 30 Rock auf Deutsch got a 0.0 rating. Which it turns out is also a 0.0 in the metric system! Itzkoff attempts an explanation in a followup.
It’s a shame, but maybe the mistake was starting the series at the beginning. As the show moves along, it becomes one of the more German-oriented comedies on U.S. TV. There is, for starters, “Episode 210″ above, in which Liz commits a linguistic faux pas when Jack asks her to deal with a group of German investors.
But that’s not all! Tell me this musical moment wouldn’t warm those chilly Teutonic hearts:
On the other hand, there may be such a thing as trying too hard:
