Episode 13 - Up All Night
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Having missed work due to food poisoning, the TGS writers have to stay at work on Valentines Day to write the next show. Pete forgets his wife’s birthday, the writers play Marry\Boff\Kill and Liz gets a present from a secret admirer. Tracy has a special valentines night planned with his wife. Bianca arrives to finalise her divorce with Jack and he is emotionally conflicted over the whole process.
The Good: A strange episode for 30 Rock, it provides much of the character development which the show has lacked so far.
The office interactions are particularly good. The staff all behave like real people, teasing one another and playing Marry\Boff\Kill in a convincing way. Frank’s relaxed character gets fleshed out when we see how he feels about Jenna’s phony behaviour. It makes them both seem more interesting after this confrontation as they acknowledge their differences. Pete remains the loser husband which is a shame but an easy laugh as he loses his carefully purchased balloons.
Kenneth seems a little more real after his overwhelmed response to the idea that Cerie might like him. His attempt to prove he got somewhere with her by holding up large male underpants with a stupid grin was one of the funnier moments of the show. I also laughed at his embarrassed “How dare you” after licking her face. Cerie plays her role really well, she seems so naïve and genuine about everything she does.
Elsewhere Jack is similarly well characterised. His night of drinking devolves in its classiness in an amusing way. The idea of his divorce dragging on for over a decade is an interesting way to show us why he keeps people at a distance and why his standards are so high. His conflicted emotions seem very real even when played for laughs (see Comic Highlight).
We have a new actress playing Tracy’s wife (Sherri Shephard, after another actress played the role in 104) and she seems a good choice. The way he caved in to her immediately (when he called to say he would be late) was pretty funny.
Finally Liz seems like the proper heroin of the story which is what she should be. She looks after the writers, Tracy calls her for help and Jack too looks to her for guidance. And we seem to meet a new love interest for her. A scene which was played about as straight as any “normal” comedy show would have done. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
The Bad: The episode isn’t very funny. If these character sketches are expanded to make good jokes in the coming episodes then that won’t matter.
Rachel Dratch is back playing a prostitute and again it doesn’t work well. Most viewers will probably be distracted by her presence, remembering all her previous roles.
Comic Highlight: In typically surreal 30 Rock fashion the elegant high flying Bianca and the equally debonair Jack argue over an Arby’s franchise of all things. The scene where he tries to taunt her by saying he will leave it abandoned, slowly dragging her back into a drawn out battle with him is really fun. It’s a skilful way to show us the push-pull attraction that the two can’t seem to let go of.
The Bottom Line: An episode full of surprising depth but not much humour. It depends on where the show goes from here as to how good this really was.
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