Episode 21 - Mama Mia
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Liz encourages Jack to seek out his father. He gets Len on the case and discovers that there are three men who could be his father. Jack and Liz set up a fake contest and invite the three men to come to New York. Once there it becomes clear that Jack’s father is liberal professor Milton Green. He is thrilled to have Jack as a son because he needs a kidney. Tracy introduces everyone to his illegitimate son Donald who is clearly not his son and scamming him. A catchphrase which Liz wrote for Jenna suddenly takes off and she is invited to pose for Time Out as the funniest women in New York. Liz is jealous and joins her for the shoot.
The Good: Jack’s story carries the show as you would expect. He is understandable anxious about meeting his father and goes on quite an emotional ride as he meets his real Dad Milton Green. Liz’ excitement at recreating Mama Mia was fun and at least the writers tried to make PI Len’s (Steve Buscemi) strange behaviour funny. The twist ending should set up a soul searching finale as Jack tries to decide whether to give his new Dad a kidney or not.
Not commented on much is that apparently Milton is Jewish. Though am I right in thinking that Judaism passes through the mother’s family line?
I don’t even know what to make of Tracy’s pride in his scamming fake son. At least Tracy’s huge riches have been a consistent source of stories all season, so we know Tracy won’t miss the money that Donald is spending. As soon as Liz was sure that Donald was a con artist you knew that wouldn’t be the case. As his behaviour was so obviously duplicitous, it was nice that she was at least right on one level even if that wasn’t the whole story. Tracy revealing his illegitimate son to the media was fun (he forgot the interviewer was in the room), particularly as he claimed “somehow those vultures in the media found out about it.”
Cerie being able to get Donald’s birth certificate was a nice plot device and did lead to understandable irritation from Liz – “You will get old someday.”
The Bad: Liz is involved in all three stories but once more proves to be a liability. I still don’t see the fun in laughing at someone because they aren’t good at something. The comedy comes when they don’t realise they are no good or they are cocky or mean about it and then get shown up. Liz is trying to help Tracy but she is wrong about Donald. She is trying to help Jack but is wrong when she claims there will be no weird result to him finding his real father. She is always wrong and it isn’t funny.
Worse than that she is petty here. Jenna gets all the credit for saying a catchphrase which Liz wrote. Understandably there is tension between the two of them. But Liz steals Jenna’s thunder and gets the Time Out cover for herself. It’s actually a pretty foolish thing to do. Liz should be the bigger woman and realise how much it would mean for Jenna and for TGS. Jenna of course lives for the publicity. But she is the star of TGS and not Liz, it does more for the show if Jenna is portrayed as a star.
More Liz in Tracy’s story as she and Pete can’t tell how old African-Americans are. I have no problem with that as the basis for a joke. But she and Pete then claim they literally have no idea how old Tracy, Toopher and Samuel L Jackson are. Their guesses are ridiculously off. So ridiculous that it kills any sense of comedy. Pete and Liz are both near forty, they would remember Tracy and Jackson being young men twenty five years ago, it would be impossible for them to be so far off with their guesses. As for Toopher, he got that nickname because he is both a Harvard guy and a black guy. They would know when he was at Harvard and thus how old he was likely to be. Jokes like that destroy any credibility in the show. I am not picking on 30 Rock, I said the same thing about Joey and Phoebe on Friends. Stupidity on this scale isn’t funny, it just reminds you that you are watching a dumb television show.
Pete is another character who has no plausibility. Once more he jumps violently from being the voice of reason to being the desperate middle aged man. There needs to be more definition and subtlety to his whole character or it just comes across like the writers stuff any old joke in his mouth. Here he is calm and reassuring to Liz about Jenna’s success but then jumps to claiming he is trying to steal his dead neighbours identity so he can leave his family. The two behaviours contradict one another. Why should Liz be rational if he isn’t?
Like Liz, there is no comedy in Lutz being humiliated. He is presented as a loser, so where is the fun in seeing that reinforced?
Comic Highlight: Having insulted Milton, Jack comes to make amends while Kenneth is giving the “contest winners” a tour.
J: “Kenneth I’d like to speak with Mr Green for a moment.”
K: “And as head of this tour I’m going to deny your request.”
Then the fastest jump cut possible to Jack and Milton sitting together in Jack’s office.
The Bottom Line: Just not funny. The stories are ok but the characters are riddled with issues.
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