Episode 17 - Cutbacks
25 March 2012
Synopsis: NBC is cutting back everywhere. They bring in a consultancy firm who begin slashing Liz’ budget. Liz in inspired by one of the women Jack has to sack. She sleeps with Brad Hollster (the consultant) in exchange for not laying off any of her staff. Only he doesn’t know that. Meanwhile Kenneth becomes Jack’s assistant after Jonathan is laid off. He asks Tracy to feed his pet bird but not to go into his bedroom. Tracy and Jenna assume Kenneth must be a serial killer and accidentally kill his bird.
The Good: Jack’s parade of scared executives waiting to be fired is pretty funny. First we have Jack trying to fire the head of the boom box division “We’re not behind the times, we’re groovy.” Then Kenneth obliviously tells three of them they are about to be fired, much to their dismay. And we have the female executive preparing to seduce Jack who suggests to Liz that “Maybe we could team up, go in there together, les out, give em a show!”
That conversation inspires Liz to offer sex in exchange for saving her crew’s jobs. It’s a typically foolish decision on Liz’ part and I suppose her “sacrifice” has a vague whiff of nobility to it.
And as stupid as their story is Tracy and Jenna can make you laugh with their ridiculous behaviour (see Comic Highlight). I enjoyed Jenna nodding enthusiastically as Tracy says “Well I might be crazy...”
To be fair to this episode, the cutbacks provide a nice flowing story which links the three plot strands together.
The Bad: But the details are not good.
Tracy and Jenna’s conclusion jumping about Kenneth being a murderer is too ridiculous to be plausible. Kenneth’s total ignorance of appropriate corporate behaviour becomes tiresome quickly. It seems odd that the verbose Kenneth wouldn’t have just told Tracy why he couldn’t go in his room. I don’t know why Kenneth claims he has had his bird for sixty years, it just felt nonsensical.
As for Liz’ prostitution, I have two major problems with it, both related to the Liz Lemon character. First is just that prostitution is a pretty serious issue. For a supposedly likeable central character on a sitcom to resort to prostitution just feels wrong. But worse than that I think is that she is doing it for the sake of two hundred people who clearly wouldn’t do the same for her. We know that she barely knows her own crew (301, 308) and that her writers have no respect for her (316) or even real friendship (312). So her self esteem is so low that she prostitutes herself just to keep her own weird “family” together. The whole story just feels too casual and inappropriate. If she had been attracted to Hollster the story might have had a different tone.
Oh and the human resources term for sexual bargaining is definitely not “being a filthy prostitute.” Jokes like that remind you that you are watching a stupid television show and don’t help you suspend your disbelief.
Fifty shows doesn’t sound many for TGS. I was under the impression that they had been going for some time before Jack showed up. Now three years later they have only made fifty episodes? What do those two hundred employees do with their time? Lutz being extra sad and creepy doesn’t help his character seem any more real or funny.
Comic Highlight: The ever reliable Tracy Jordan tries to put a positive spin on the fact that he thought Kenneth was a murderer and accidentally killed his bird. “But on the bright side you’ve been downgraded from suspect to ‘Person of Interest’!”
The Bottom Line: The episode flows nicely until the prostitution kicks in and then it goes to an unfortunate place.
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