Episode 2 - Jack Gets In The Game
6 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Jack thinks Don Geiss is going to retire and is hoping of taking his job. His rival Devon Banks is also in town, engaged to Geiss’ daughter and he soon discovers about Jack’s heart attack. The two go head to head at Geiss’ house and attempt to one-up each other. Liz attempts to get her life in order while also fighting the corner of women’s figures as Jenna prepares to undergo surgery to lose weight. Meanwhile Kenneth tries to make Tracy jealous so that he will get back together with his wife.
The Good: The show starts brightly with Jack’s strange request that Liz eat a steak in front of him, which she promptly does. Things go rapidly downhill from there.
Though Devon has a good line when Jack “accidentally” finds him eating dinner with Don Geiss. Under his breath he curses “I never should have said we were going to a restaurant.”
The result of the Tracy story is that his wife will presumably become a regular character which should give him a fresh dynamic to work with.
The Bad: The problem of putting Kenneth and Tracy together in stories is that neither is a serious character. Therefore their actions don’t mean a lot to the viewer because there is likely to be no meaningful consequence to them. So you can tell instantly that Tracy won’t fall for Kenneth’s trap as planned. And when he does we know Kenneth hasn’t done anything untoward. So all their scenes were just time wasting to get to the point that his wife will be by his side from now on.
Equally silly is Doctor Leo Spaceman. The writers clearly think his complete lack of ethics makes him a funny character. “Now Jenna, medically speaking, for your height your weight puts you in what we call the "disgusting range". Fortunately, there are solutions. For example, crystal meth has been shown to be very effective. How important is tooth retention to you?” It sounds like a great bit of dialogue but it is delivered by a character with no basis in reality. There has been no hint of morality or any kind of normal behaviour from Spaceman. It makes all his lines fall flat because only a break from morality is shocking and funny. When you are simply a mouthpiece for shocking statements without any real qualities, the viewer quickly loses the ability to take you seriously and therefore be surprised by things you say. For example, Liz agreeing to eat the steak is only funny because you assume she will say no.
Speaking of Liz, it’s another episode of pathetic behaviour for her. Her teeth begin falling out, she can’t assemble a simple desk and she agrees to bad ideas for TGS just to make a point about women’s figures. Again it all makes her look like a loser and so when she tries to play the protagonist or voice of reason for the show she has no authority at all. Even Jenna just slams her down with the truth which makes no sense. Jenna is meant to be the delusional mess and Liz the sensible one. And yet it is Jenna who makes the ‘sensible’ decision to keep her weight because it is bringing her notoriety. Does Liz point out the health and self esteem issues? No of course not.
Jack and Devon’s arguments and fights make for a simple and relatively harmless story. Unfortunately it is the homosexual jokes that bother me slightly. First there is Jack making abusive remarks about Devon being gay. That would be fine if Jack were portrayed as a jerk but he isn’t. In the face of Liz’ incompetence, Jack is in many ways the sensible character. For him to gay bash like that makes him look bigoted. Then there is Devon’s delight at male contact from the former wrestler. It’s borderline as inoffensive but more importantly it lacks any subtlety and so isn’t very funny.
The dig at scientology doesn’t have much subtlety either and the ‘Me want food’ line would make more sense if it was actually funny.
Comic Highlight: Liz and Jenna are discussing her surgery.
L: “What is this liposuction?”
J: “Plus bone shaving and organ reduction.”
L: “Uhh.”
J: “Liz, you don’t understand. People look at me differently now. Jack, the writers, the manager at Forever 21.”
The Bottom Line: Dismal. The humour is so basic and so poor it amazes me that this show has been so widely praised. At least the stories they established in the previous episode are continued logically enough.
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