Episode 21 - Hiatus
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Tracy goes into hiding in Pennsylvania with Kenneth’s cousin Jesse. He quickly grows frustrated with small town life but Jesse won’t let him leave. Kenneth soon arrives to rescue him and rush him back to 30 Rock in time for the last TGS of the season. Jack’s mother Colleen arrives for Bianca’s wedding and doesn’t like Phoebe at all. The stress of it all drives Jack to have a heart attack. Once hooked up to a heart monitor he can’t hide his true feelings for those around him. Liz and Floyd drift toward a break up.
The Good: The stories all wrap up as you would expect them to. Floyd and Phoebe are dispensed with and Tracy finishes season one as a loved member of TGS.
Tracy’s return to TGS was quite fun. Even as they run away from his kidnapper Tracy has thought about his “pre-show rant” about immigration. Which is a scary thought in itself. Then Kenneth badly injures himself on purpose so that Tracy can ride to TGS in an ambulance. “If I die will you look after my birds?” Kenneth sweetly asks – “I got a lot on my plate right now Ken” replies the ever selfish Tracy.
Liz turns out to be Jack’s emergency contact, cementing the friendship which has grown between the two throughout the season. Jack sums up his character ideally when he looks back on his life and concludes “I should have worked more.” It’s just the sort of counter-crowd logic that workaholic Jack should come out with.
The Bad: Poor Sean Hayes, a very gifted sit com actor (Will and Grace) is forced to play a creepy hillbilly and it’s a terrible role. At least the “Black Crusaders” idea was an interesting idea but Tracy being held captive is dull and irritating. Mainly because the balance of humour shifts to hillbilly jokes which are tired and clichéd.
Liz and Floyd’s relationship has been a terribly disappointing story. The show has rushed through their time together so fast and we don’t even see them break up. If he isn’t part of the show next season then this will have been a poorly thought out storyline. It didn’t reveal much about Liz except I suppose that she wasn’t as in to him as she seemed in the last episode.
The Phoebe story ends in similarly dull and uninspiring fashion. Nothing was made of her fake accent or gold digging. Jack simply revealed what was obvious, that he didn’t love her. Bringing in his mother was an anti-climax too. After building up their tempestuous relationship (109), she seems rather too rational.
Comic Highlight: Dr Spaceman tells Jack about his new sex book “You’re Doing It Wrong.” He tells Jack that “My techniques guarantee male orgasm.”
The Bottom Line: An unsatisfying end to an uneven season. I’m not sure the producers of 30 Rock know yet what they want the show to be. The first third of the season introduced the characters and then branched out into traditional sit com plots. But toward the end their seemed to be promise for some arc plots only for them to all fade away rather meekly.
The show has some terrific actors but it still feels like a half way house. Half way between a sit com and a sketch show. I certainly don’t feel like Liz Lemon has been well written. She ought to be the sympathetic central character but she has been worryingly flaky in that role. The show could use a moral centre to make the jokes really take off.
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