Episode 9 - The Baby Show
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Jack is stress eating because his mother has gotten hold of a phone and keeps calling him. Josh impersonates Tracy and Tracy is angry about it. Josh calls Tracy as Jack to sort out the problem but they soon discover what he has been up to. Liz is having baby yearnings and foolishly confides this to Jenna. When the makeup lady hands Liz her baby she somehow ends up in her apartment still holding it.
The Good: There is more solid characterisation here.
One of the reasons Jack is so successful is because of his relationship with his mother. Her antagonism clearly pushed him to great things. The inclusion of innocent Kenneth and his relationship with his mother was fine too. Jonathan, Jack’s assistant further establishes his fierce loyalty to his boss.
Liz’ desire for a baby is perfectly understandable. The way she tries to be a mum to Cerie was a nice subtle touch in the story. Perhaps this experience will help her to grow. Josh is well portrayed too, looking every inch the lovable oblivious comic, which is how he has come across so far.
The Bad: Jack’s plot is very similar to last week’s Condoleezza Rice story. Whenever a character spends a whole episode on the phone it’s going to be a struggle to keep the audience interested. Instinctively viewers know if we don’t see something or someone, then they can’t be very important.
The Josh plot reached a nice fun conclusion with him paying a price for his impersonating. But until that point it wasn’t very funny. His impersonated conversations were more silly than funny. And is it just me or did his impersonations sound post produced? There was a bass or a depth or even an echo to his impressions of Jack and Tracy which just didn’t sound like he was saying them then and there. Of course post production is done on a lot of episodes but an impression loses a lot if it is clearly being manipulated, even a little bit.
Liz’ character isn’t gaining traction because she keeps doing stupid things. Her “highway hypnosis” moment as she steals a baby makes her look a little unhinged. Particularly when she confesses to having renamed the child. Behaviour like that would probably have gotten her fired in the real world. She also manages to humiliate herself in front of the whole crew by again jumping to conclusions before someone has fully explained what they are saying. It’s the same joke as a couple of episodes ago (106) and it’s a tired attempt at humour.
I’m confused by the desire of every guy at TGS to impregnate Liz. They all laughed uproariously at her attempt to be sexy (104) and she has been portrayed as asexual and wearing “man shirts.” So it doesn’t seem plausible that the men are into the idea just to have sex with her. But that only leaves the idea that they all desperately want to have a baby with her. For a start that goes against common sense and even TV show logic where guys are most often afraid of the responsibility and drain on time and finance which a baby will bring. So that leaves two options, one that Liz is being seen as this amazing woman who either through behaviour or genes would make a great mother. That doesn’t ring true at all from how they treat her, though I suppose she might be well respected as their leader. The second option is that the guys are such losers that they see this as their only chance to have a baby. Possibly true in some of their cases but not Tracy’s entourage or Pete, who already has children. In fact Pete’s character takes on more water here as we discover his marriage is so pathetic that he lied to his wife about getting a vasectomy and now fakes his orgasms. Again with such a miserable home life why would he want to have a baby with Liz? Rachel Dratch’s latest cameo was awful in its pitifully obvious attempt at humour as she propositions Liz.
Comic Highlight: Jenna clearly knows she is getting a surprise birthday celebration and is determined to suck in all the attention she can. After everyone yells “Surprise!” she pretends to be moved and then grabs a conveniently placed microphone to sing everyone a song. Her naked selfishness is pretty fun, especially when she holds the mic down for Kenneth to sing a line of the song and then yanks it away after two words to resume her rendition.
The Bottom Line: A confused and uninspired episode with few laughs.
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