Episode 6 - Somebody To Love
6 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Jack sleeps with a Democratic Congresswoman who is suing his parent company. Despite the potential damage to their careers, they decide to continue their romance. Liz suspects her middle-eastern neighbour is a terrorist but in fact he is preparing for The Amazing Race. Kenneth loses a pair of Jack’s pants and tries to make enough money to buy a replacement pair.
The Good: I suppose the fact that you know Liz is wrong is consistent. It took me a while to work out that in this show, Liz is always, without fail, wrong whenever she has a hunch. So discerning viewers know instantly that Raheem is innocent. Her suspicion does lead to a nice joke too. She walks past a poster which says “If you see something. Say something.” She then sees another poster saying “If you suspect anything. Do everything.” She then comes across another poster and you suspect something even less subtle is coming. But instead the Sheinhardt Wig Company (part of Jack’s plot) have an advert up saying “We don’t poison the world. Terrorists do.” It’s a nice, unexpected payoff.
Kenneth’s story yields one surreal line worth reporting. He has been searching everywhere for Jack’s pants “and I tried looking in the last place you’d ever expect and no Mr Donaghy’s pants are not in the ladies room at that laser tag place on twelfth avenue.”
Jack’s story seems very fitting for him. Falling in love is a logical excuse to threaten his no-nonsense conservative lifestyle. It shows him in a different light, doing things for himself instead of for the good of the corporation. It also leads to fun lines for them as a couple. When she says she is helping Hilary Clinton re-tool her universal health care platform, he replies “God I want to kiss you on the mouth to stop you from saying such ridiculous things.” For advice he goes to Tracy (see Comic Highlight) who accompanies him and does his best Cyrano de Bergerac impression from behind a garbage can: “Tell her that you want your privates and her privates to do a high five.” Followed by “Tel her that you want her to donate her body to science and you science. Tell her Jack!”
The Bad: The plug for Verizon Wireless phones damages the show. I am not against product placement in a show. Or even silly product discussions on 30 Rock (I was happier with the plug for Snapple in 105 than this). Given the show’s setting at a television network, some product placement is natural. But when Liz Lemon breaks the fourth wall and talks to the camera you damage the show. Why? Because you tell viewers not to take the show seriously. Who would take this show seriously? Well yes, it is a comedy and yes it is a silly one at that. But all jokes need some plausibility to be funny. Imagine if Cerie played Liz’ role and vice versa. Would it make sense that Cerie felt she was unattractive or that Liz was seen as a hot young thing by everyone? No it wouldn’t. If that were the case the show wouldn’t make sense. Well I ask you, how are you supposed to believe anything that happens on the show if the characters suddenly stop mid conversation and turn to the camera and slap you in the face saying “none of this is real.” I know it may not seem like a big deal but it is one of the reasons which makes 30 Rock a deeply flawed show incapable of utilising the considerable talent at its disposal.
I’m not quite sure what the point of Donaghy’s closet of suits is meant to say. Are they implying Jonathan is being mean to Kenneth by not telling him about it or simply showing how unnecessary Kenneth’s suffering has been? Either way it doesn’t do much for that story. Similarly Celeste’s deliberately preposterous Lifetime movie is too silly to add much to the show.
Raheem’s torture at the hands of homeland security is a real low point for the show. Until then I felt this episode had been funnier than the average episode but suddenly the shows foolishness was brought to bear once more. The joke is that Raheem was innocent all along but was tortured simply on Liz’ suspicions. And now thanks to her he is angry and may yet become a terrorist. That’s not a funny story. The show is not nearly dark enough to be making a deep point about terrorism. They are going for a cheap laugh with an edgy idea. Instead they present a story which is offensive (torturing Raheem presents homeland security in a terrible light) and unpleasant (how can you laugh at a guy being tortured). More than that though is that Liz doesn’t seem genuinely repentant for what she has done. She doesn’t seem angry either. She shows no redeeming quality to make up for what she has inadvertently caused.
The writers can’t have it both ways. If they want us to care about Jack’s romance story then they can’t ask us to not take seriously offensive material or product placement.
Comic Highlight: Tracy’s outrageous and silly statements still get me, delivered as they are with a completely straight face. “Oh I get it, Romeo and Juliet. Capulets and Romulans. Um humm. I’ve been there. I’m black, she’s white. I’m black she’s light skinned black, I’m black, she’s 17!”
The Bottom Line: 30 Rock annoys me. The producers want to have things both ways. They want to do sketch comedy which we aren’t meant to take seriously and present characters in stories which we are supposed to buy into. I can understand people tuning in to 30 Rock for the silly sketch show jokes but if that is the purpose of the show then I think it fails. It is not remotely funny enough to just be a sketch show and when it tries it tramples all over its traditional sitcom stories. This episode is pretty funny, but it is funny when it tries to be a sitcom and not when it tries to be something else.
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