Episode 1 - Do-Over
29 March 2012
Synopsis: Jack begins work in the mail room and discovers that if he sleeps with Kathy Geiss he could get his old job back. Liz is being interviewed by an adoption agency and is worried when the interviewer Bev, wants to see her workplace. Tracy’s computer game is a huge success and Jenna wants some compensation for her voice acting.
The Good: 30 Rock is a weird show. It’s now firmly based around the friendship between unlikely friends, smooth operator Jack and mess of a woman Liz. The writers and actors do a good job with that basic story. Both characters are reasonably easy to like and route for, largely because they bring a measure of sanity to their crazy lives. The scene where they can’t bring themselves to kiss actually underscores how enjoyable their friendship is to watch. There is no hint of sexual tension at all, making their plutonic affection seem even more special.
However the crazy worlds they inhabit are so stupid and unrealistic at times that it stomps all over the humour. It is my firm belief that when you see something on television (presented in this supposedly real context) which defies any logic, it just isn’t remotely as funny as something rooted in reality which you can suspend your disbelief over. But of course how can one judge in a show full of such inanity what crosses the line and what doesn’t?
It is like a street fight at times, I have to take each line one at a time. I don’t laugh a lot because it is mostly too silly but I try to consider what is well written and plausible and what isn’t. So: Liz does a decent job with some of her flapping behaviour in front of Bev. Her unfortunate mix up with her two black employees and her comments about her annual sex guest are believable. Jenna’s claim of compensation is justified and Tracy’s poor treatment of her has been well established. It’s good that the porn video game story along with Pete shooting Donnie are addressed (from 215). I smiled at Frank leaving his nun chucks in Bev’s hands after accidentally hitting her (to imply she did it herself), again because his lowlife behaviour is well documented.
Finally, of all people, Kathy Geiss is well characterised. She has always been a side character, her social or mental inadequacy never fully addressed. Credit her acting though, she always seems out of it and slow with an almost inhuman expression on her face. Given that background her real desire being for drama and not for sex makes a lot of sense. It maintains her innocence and naivety better than the other direction the story could have gone in.
The Bad: Devin remains a silly character. Selling the ‘E’ from GE to Samsung so that they can be Samesung is one of those jokes I don’t like. It’s the kind of joke a stand-up comic could tell where that clearly wouldn’t happen but the thought that it could is funny. Here it is presented as reality and as such is too ridiculous to be funny. His out of control libido and poor business sense all make him a mockery of a character and his jokes fall flat as a result.
Pete’s character isn’t well defined enough either. We know he’s a nice guy, who likes his adult entertainment and had some marital problems. But other than that we don’t know his talents or motivations. So jokes about his anger and the blow up doll in the office leave you wondering more than laughing.
Jack getting promoted twice in a day and Bev’s concussion are the kind of lazy sitcom joke that just shouldn’t exist. They both remind the viewer far too clearly that this is a stupid show and you shouldn’t get fully engaged in it. But it is only with that engagement that true emotions can be created in you, including of course real laughter.
Comic Highlight: Tracy Jordon (who else?) marching in and declaring that his video game is “The most profitable thing since the War on Terror.” He then points ahead and says “Yes! I am provocative.” Now there’s a character who can say something so foolish sounding and yet it fits with his delusional selfish persona.
The Bottom Line: There is enough good about 30 Rock that I can’t condemn it entirely. But I remain of the belief that it is built on a bankrupt concept. I believe that all good television is built on plausibility, the producers of 30 Rock disagree.
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