Episode 15 - Cooter
6 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Jack finds Homeland Security in an appalling state. They won’t let him quit though and he has to find a way to get fired. Liz thinks she is pregnant and even though it is Dennis’ baby, she is happy. Kenneth wants to be a page at the Olympics but Donnie, the head page tries to sabotage him at each step of the way.
The Good: Unlike most season finales, there is no attempt to cram in all the big plot developments here. It seems that Don Geiss and Floyd will have to wait for next season. Considering the havoc the writers strike of 2008 caused, this may well be a sensible idea.
Liz becoming pregnant would have been a big deal. Considering last week she could have got together with Floyd and before that was potentially going corporate, her character doesn’t have a clear direction at the moment. The fact that her Spanish chips caused her false positive tests is a clever twist, given extra credibility because we saw her eating them three episodes ago. Her closeness with Jack is exploited pleasantly once more.
Jenna is involved in the best jokes of the episode (see Comic Highlight). The concept of back door bragging fits her character perfectly and there is something very plausible about her line “Kenneth, where have you been? I had to put on my jeans by myself.” There are some other fun lines in the episode but I take issue with them (see The Bad). Dennis’ brief cameo is good though; he is an authentic sounding sleaze bag and can still get through to Liz no matter what he is saying.
The Bad: Donnie the page is an unconvincing character. They almost make him funny with his missteps, particularly when he swings his chair round too fast. However his cartoon laughs and clichéd “evil” behaviour are just the wrong side of plausible and aren’t as funny as they should be. The personal essay Jenna does throw together for Kenneth is awful, which makes it odd that he would be happy with it. And his Olympic run to the elevator is typically stupid.
Meanwhile Jack is involved in some of the lamest, most simple minded mocking of George W Bush I have ever seen. Almost every comedy show and comedian has taken easy shots at him for the last eight years. And now 30 Rock’s unique brand of corporate irony humour gets its own guest star (Matthew Broderick) to try and make it as funny as possible. But it fails. The big joke is that the Bush administration is in such a bad state that they can’t even equip their own offices. There are no pens, the ceiling is leaking, there is no electricity and when Jack suggests they buy pens he gets a standing ovation. It’s all so tame and lightweight. There is no sign of real satire or clever humour. Broderick adds very little to all this and it finishes in another lame joke as Jack and company prepare to get gay with one another.
The joke at the end is that Frank thinks three months is only two hours. There isn’t a shred of believability about that.
Comic Highlight: Jenna and Grizz are recording voices and sex noises for Tracy’s video game. “Now join me in the orgy chamber” Jenna says. Tracy tells them to stop. “It’s not working, not you Grizz, you’re doing great.” Grizz looks unsurprised by this, “I memorised all my lines at home.” Tracy rebukes Jenna and says “Don’t overthink it, I don’t want another Judy Dench situation.” He makes her run through an array of silly sounding sexual suggestions before telling her to “give me some random sex sounds.” She obliges with gusto before he says “Wonderful, wonderful. Let’s take it again from the top and this time let’s record.”
The Bottom Line: Another mess from 30 Rock. Some things work, some don’t. Considering the writers strike must have changed their plans, this isn’t a bad final episode. I doubt the show will change much next season. It has been successful enough to keep its audience, though I still believe it’s lack of reality will never make it a classic comedy. As maybe you can see in this episode, a tremendous amount of comic potential is wasted on silly, implausible ideas.
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