Episode 14 - Sandwich Day
6 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: One day a year the teamsters bring delicious sandwiches for the NBC employees. When their greed leads them to eat Liz’, she demands they get her a replacement. So Tracy, Jenna, Frank and Kenneth take on the teamsters in a drinking contest. Meanwhile Jack grows increasingly desperate with Don Geiss remaining in his coma and he decides to quit the company. Floyd returns to New York looking for somewhere to crash and Liz wants to make him regret leaving.
The Good: Liz and Floyd’s story is nice and straightforward. It also shows a surprising level of maturity for both the characters and the writers. Liz wants to make Floyd wish he had never left and succeeds, which is fun (see Comic Highlight). But when his flight is cancelled he returns and she confronts him about their break up. She ends up rushing to the airport to make sure he knows that she still cares. Instead of trying to make that scene funny or have him admit his love for her, they just make up. Simple as that, they smooth things over and hint at a future relationship. It’s very pleasantly restrained. The scene where Liz eats the teamster sandwich before going through security is really funny (and consistent). Especially her muffled cry of “I can have it all.”
Jack’s decision to join the Bush administration and the possibility of Floyd returning make the next episode intriguing enough for most fans.
The Bad: The drinking plot is pretty shoddy. It’s typical 30 Rock where no effort is put into making it very real. The teamsters demand a drinking contest, which is fine, but the writers have to rub in the sillyness of it by having Jack claim that drinking contests are “in their contract.” No they aren’t, that’s absurd. Then Frank, Tracy and even worse Kenneth all realise they can drink at the same time. For devout Kenneth, this doesn’t make much sense at all. As usual the flippant treatment of the story is what undercuts all the jokes. As we can see nothing of consequence will happen, we don’t get invested in it and therefore don’t laugh as hard.
There are other silly jokes too, such as Floyds airline going out of business just before a flight. Which is absurd too. Then we see Floor 12 of Rockefeller Centre which looks like an insane asylum which it obviously would not look like in reality. Had Jack mentioned that it was some strange department of NBC that might have made it that touch more plausible.
Comic Highlight: Determined to make Floyd regret his decision to leave New York Liz is decked out in a beautiful red dress which hugs her figure. Floyd walks up and says she looks great. We cut away to see Pete adjusting the lights and then aiming some air in her direction to create the movie effect of wind in her hair. He asks if he can take her to dinner, “maybe we hit that barbeque place you puked at.” Quick as a flash she says “You’ll have to be more specific” and does a fake laugh. Then after he leaves she says “Uh, somebody get me out of this dress, I can’t breathe.” A really fun scene.
The Bottom Line: Not a funny episode. But the plot moves along passably and sets up the finale well enough.
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