Episode 17 - The Fighting Irish
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Jack’s brother Eddie arrives to tell him that their father has died. Eddie claims to have reformed and refuses Jack’s money. All he wants are donations to Chicago All Saints Hospital (or CASH if you write it on a cheque) for the nurses who took care of his father. Jack reunites all the Donaghy children to remember their father. But their father arrives pulling the same con on Jack and it all ends in a huge brawl. Meanwhile Liz meets Flower guy and his girlfriend Liz. Jack asks her to fire ten per cent of her staff and when she discovers that the other Liz works for her, she fires her. Pete and Jack tell her she’s wrong as she loses control and fires the whole accounting department. Jack has to give the other Liz a promotion to make it up to her and gets her a position at GE headquarters in Connecticut.
The Good: Jack has become increasingly well characterised as the series has gone on. Now we see the corrupt squabbling family that he had to rise above to become so successful. The old write cheques out to CASH con works nicely (see Spin City 614) and the Irish jokes are predictably silly (see Comic Highlight).
Tracy’s search for religion fits into the background and sets up that final joke nicely. We also get a really fun shot of Tracy going to Kenneth’s church where the Southern Preacher talks hell and judgement much to Kenneth’s delight and Tracy’s dismay. There was even time for a fun dig at Scientology.
The final result of this episode is good. Jack and Liz bond again as he helps her out with her relationship and she helps him with his family. It looks like she and Flower guy will start their romance next episode and we may get to see Liz being a likeable character. Which she was for 8 minutes of this episode until…
The Bad: she went crazy. Now the story idea is actually a very good one. Liz has to fire fourteen people. She doesn’t want to fire anyone until she realises that she could get rid of the other Liz and have Flower guy all to herself. To see her struggling with that moral dilemma could have been fun but instead the writers decided it would be funnier to have Liz melt down and take pleasure in firing her and her maniacal plan.
This was a bad idea. It makes Liz look like a TV character and not a real person. It’s rather like a few episodes ago (114) when we suddenly learnt that Liz had a mean streak. We had never seen a hint of it before and so it seemed unconvincing. Here it’s even worse. We have spent seventeen episodes getting to know Liz as a likeable boss and person. Suddenly she snaps and does something unethical and illegal. It’s completely out of character and so ruins the episode because any viewer paying attention will see that the writers aren’t following her character’s established traits but are making a big joke out of the story.
Adding to my irritation is Pete. Once more his character is mixed up as well. He plays the voice of reason trying to talk Liz out of a crazy plan. And yet he has no credibility because he lied to his wife about having a vasectomy. Why did he do that by the way? We know he is frustrated by his wife and children? Did he really want to keep the ability to have more? That needs explaining because otherwise he looks as inconsistent as Liz.
Liz has now stolen a baby (109), shot someone (116) and fired an entire department and yet suffers no consequences. It’s getting harder to buy into.
Comic Highlight: Tracy is happy to be Irish Catholic because he has heard of the wonders of confession wiping away all his sins. But Jack explains that being Catholic comes with a crushing guilt that you can never escape. Tracy doesn’t like the sound of that and renounces his new faith. “Somehow I feel oddly guilty about that” Jack says and crosses himself for good measure. Jokes which fit the characters are funny without needing big punch lines.
The Bottom Line: A sad moment for the show as they abandon consistency for a cheap laugh at Liz melting down. But the result is the show damages its relationship with the viewers. Why should we care about these characters if they are going to change who they are at the drop of a hat?
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