Episode 14 - The Funcooker
30 July 2009
Synopsis: Liz is called to jury duty and leaves no one in charge at TGS. Jenna is exhausted because she is filming her Janis Joplin movie at night and so takes experimental pills from Dr Spaceman. Tracy realises he can say whatever he likes on television and pay off the regulators afterwards. Jack grabs the TGS writers and works with them to come up with a name for his pocket microwave.
The Good: Tracy Jordan. Right now his performances make him one of the most consistently funny characters on television. It helps that his character is simple and consistent. The story of his wealth has been told consistently through the season (301, 304, 307, 312) and his wild side was the reason he became a star in the first place. So combining the two is perfectly plausible despite how ridiculous his public cursing might seem.
His decision to be outrageous and rude on television allows the climax of this episode to be so amusing. As Dr Spacemen tries to knock Jenna unconscious, Tracy decides to “save the day”, drop his pants and show everyone his “funcooker.” This of course simultaneously ruins the show and the name for Jack’s pocket microwave. Liz sensibly suggests cutting to a commercial break. Unfortunately for her Tracy bought all the ad time and proceeds to show his “funcooker” once more. As his story built consistently through the episode this was a suitably funny punch line.
St Patrick’s Day provides a nice jumping off point for Tracy and Jenna’s story (see Comic Highlight). "Passing out? Cursing? On St. Patrick's Day? Is nothing sacred?" Jack says with customary seriousness. And the idea that Liz can only get obedience by almost burning the staff is an appropriately serious accident to try and show how she can reassert control.
The Bad: The Jenna story is as predictable as her whole character. Hopped up on pills she was just more unlikeable and irritating to watch than before. Her one dimensional character is a waste of a good actress (not just Ally McBeal, but check out the episode of Due South she was in). Kenneth being in charge of TGS was a really pointless idea. Literally one scene after declaring he was in charge Liz returns.
But the problem with this episode is in Liz’ character and the TGS office itself. There is no core consistency or plausibility to what they do, who they are and how they behave. For example, everyone craps on Lutz. Why? Because he is a loser I guess. But we don’t know anything about him at all. Crapping on someone we don’t care about (either positively or negatively) doesn’t create real humour. You might smile at the random rudeness but it runs out of steam quickly.
Then there is TGS itself. 30 Rock has never been about TGS. We have never seen more than very brief excerpts from the show and plots tend not to centre on how episodes are created. I have long felt this robbed the show of much of a sole. It has left all the smaller characters with no character and undermines a sense of reality. This episode is no exception. Liz’ story is that she is under so much pressure working on TGS and so constantly let down that her life is in disarray. But when she rushes back to the office Jack completely undermines the entire show. He reels off a mocking description of her creative efforts and says it shouldn’t take her (alone) more than an hour to hack out a script. And she doesn’t argue! She seems impressed with his grasp of her work. So what can we conclude as a viewer? That her life shouldn’t be that stressful? That maybe she doesn’t need all those annoying writers if the show is so pitifully easy to put together? Any sense of emotional connection we might have to Liz and her stress is wiped away because Jack is right. He always is in the story so if he says it’s that easy then it probably is. That’s what the viewers are being told.
Jack himself has to wade through some pretty unimaginative jokes with his pocket microwave. Spelling out inappropriate words with scrabble tiles is implausible and too obvious to be funny. And as for the writer who happens to be French and Dutch for the purposes of a silly microwave name, well that’s dumb and implausible too. Speaking of too implausible to be funny, can I just throw in a child with a fake moustache at jury duty and Dr Spacemen telling Jenna to take twenty five pills a day for the rest of her life.
Comic Highlight: Jack shows Liz a video of Jenna collapsing from exhaustion on live television. She and Tracy were presenting the St Patrick’s Day parade. Tracy looks down at her and says “Wake up motherfu” as Jack turns off the video.
The Bottom Line: There is no sympathy for Liz in this show. The only thing which is consistent about her (aside from being wrong all the time) is her love of food (that is bad for her). But considering she is slim and attractive those jokes themselves fall flat as they are incongruous from how she actually appears. That’s the problem with 30 Rock. Liz isn’t a sympathetic lead character and really viewers need that. Humour comes from your emotional relationship to someone.
You wouldn’t laugh at your own mother falling down (most of you anyway). But you would laugh at a pompous mean person falling. What is Liz Lemon to the viewer? I still don’t know. The story of her struggle is undermined entirely and because she constantly does “evil” things (deceiving and manipulating in 301, 310, 313) it is difficult to like her. Even Jack threatens her here with her the thought of returning to live with her parents. But wouldn’t Jack take care of her? He offered her a huge promotion when he had the chance (213), rushed back to help her when she needed him (215) and has been bailed out by her before (309). Until she gets some proper characterisation this show will frustrate more than succeed.
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