Episode 2 - The Aftermath
25 March 2012
Â
Synopsis: Liz has to manage the feelings of Jenna and the writers who are put out by Tracy Jordan's arrival. After managing to insult everyone Liz turns to Tracy for help. He suggests a harbour cruise on his yacht. Things go well until Liz realises it isn't his boat and the police arrive.
The Good: This is a very engaging story and there are the bones of a good comedy show here. Liz is scrambling to keep everyone happy and she is in a hierarchy which is ideal for humour. She has Jack leading her against her better judgement, Tracy and Jenna as difficult stars and the writers as her subordinates and her friends.
Here that dynamic works really well because Liz' instinct is just to tell everyone what they want to hear. But in such a small world as the NBC studios everyone ends up hearing the things she is saying about them. Here Liz makes for a sympathetic character trying to keep everyone happy. Jack too comes off well as the wheeling dealing boss showing an impressive command of the situation (and tying up the loose end of why no criminal charges were pressed for the yacht trespassing).
Tracy isn't yet fully formed as a character. At times he looks very sharp: schooling Toopher on grammar and doing his homework to butter up Jenna. But in equal measure he comes off as stupid: messing up his simple promo lines and claiming he has "taken this boat many places: Miami, Tokyo, Denver." His unpredictable behaviour leads to the amusing revelation that he had thrown a party on someone else's yacht and leaps into the water to avoid the police. It will be interesting to see how well rounded a character he becomes.
The Bad: The humour just isn't formed yet, but it should come as Liz and the writers become better developed as characters. The cut away jokes just don't land any punches here though. Jack memorising who people are from picture cards is a nice idea but it doesn't lead to a joke. And offering pizza to a focus group to get them to agree with his ideas is surely counter productive? The whole idea behind bring in Tracy is that Jack is a master of focus groups and sees that as the way to make TGS more popular. Last episode he was able to analyse Liz perfectly because of his focus group knowledge. So to imply he bribed focus groups to get his way doesn't make sense. He is supposed to trust the opinion of focus groups not lead them.
Comic Highlight: Jack and Liz are talking about Tracy:
J: "That's not my problem; I have other thing on my plate. You hear about that chemical factory explosion outside of Colorado Springs?"
L: "No."
J: "Good."
The Bottom Line: This is a nice logical story about Tracy transitioning into life as a member of TGS. But it's not very funny.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
|
’)