Episode 10 - Episode 210
6 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: The episode has no title because of the Writers Strike of 2008. Jack and C.C meet in a town half way between New York and Washington and consider staying there. Liz tries to buy an apartment but gets nervous when the co-op board meeting is like a blind date. Tracy brings in a cappuccino machine to work and Kenneth swiftly becomes an addict.
The Good: There is one good line here. Jack apologises to Liz and says that you can’t have it all. You can’t have the great career and the great love. You have to choose between them because they both demand so much of you. It’s an interesting revelation for Jack who is slowly but surely becoming more human as the show goes on.
The Bad: I don’t like criticising 30 Rock. I really don’t. But once more I am forced to shake my head.
It’s just not convincing that Jack would give up work for love. We have spent two seasons seeing him as a larger then life, work obsessed, in control boss. And now we are suddenly supposed to believe that he is considering leaving work for C.C. We know he was married and in love before (112), so his claims that he has never felt like this before are not an adequate explanation.
Liz’ plot suddenly turns into something else half way through. She needs to invest money, so she goes to see an apartment and buys it. Then when she arrives at the co-op board meeting the joke becomes swiftly apparent. The co-op board is like a date for her. From then her entire story is one long joke about the co-op board or the apartment (it’s not even that clear) being a guy who didn’t call her back. There is no subtlety to this (“I’ve moved on, I bought a whole bunch of apartments, I bought a black apartment”) and it happens so suddenly within the story that it jars. A joke like that needs a lot more focus and patience to really make you laugh. Instead we get a montage of Liz getting drunk and emotional and saying silly things. It further demeans her at the protagonist of the show.
Silly, over-the-top addictions are one of the oldest and lamest sit com jokes. Kenneth’s cappuccino addiction is about as bad and uninteresting as any I have seen. It is then followed by the entire cast singing “Midnight Train to Georgia.” It’s not a dream, it’s reality, including C.C joining in from a TV monitor. I may be the only one who cares but imagine if that had happened in Friends or Frasier or Cheers or any sitcom that people cared about. The episode would have been decried for so blatantly breaking from any suspension of disbelief. Once again I will say that the producers can’t have it both ways. They can’t expect us to care about Jack and Liz if they are going to screw around with reality this way. If they want to make a show which isn’t real then I suggest they don’t focus on the emotional lives of the main characters the way they do.
More lame jokes are thrown in for good measure. A dull looking German documentary draws anger from Jack “I can’t watch anymore of these German sitcoms!” Then later on we hear that a bill was passed in Congress to “Legalise recreational whale torture.” Lines like that are so implausible that they are more groan worthy than giggle worthy.
Comic Highlight: This is a bad joke. But it is surreal and funny if you ignore how ludicrous it is. Jack explains to Liz that while dating C.C he works around her schedule in Washington:
We cut to G-SPAN live footage of the House of Representatives where C.C in some kind of committee hearing asks “Mr Donaghy, what are we doing this evening.” Cut to Jack sitting in a chair consulting his lawyer. “There is an 8 o’clock showing of Fred Clause.”
The Bottom Line: Stupid, stupid 30 Rock. A terrible episode from a terrible show. Even if you argue that I shouldn’t take the stories seriously, I should just enjoy the silly jokes – I ask you, where are the jokes?
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