Episode 11 - Winter Madness
25 January 2010
Review
Synopsis: The TGS staff are all in foul moods because of the January cold. Pete suggests they take the show on location to Florida in order to perk everyone up. But Jack wants to see Nancy and so changes the location to Boston. This makes everyone else even more miserable and so Liz invents a fake NBC executive that she can blame all their grievances on. Tracy begins arguing with a tour guide playing John Hancock. Nancy is resistant to change but Jack makes his feelings clear.
The Good: The story was fine in theory. Jack’s desires dump a boat load of resentment on Liz’ desk and so she finds a way to divert their anger. Jack and Nancy play their roles just fine and it will be interesting to see if it actually goes anywhere because she seems less of a comedy figure than either Celeste or Elisa.
The Bad: Otherwise I felt all the attempts at comedy fell flat.
The TGS staff all got their jokes in but there is nothing witty about people just announcing random grievances and insults. Then they all attack an innocent Snitterman but there is no payoff or consequence to their actions.
Kenneth and Cerie pretending to be a couple buying a house should be easy comedy. But instead of having them fake act for a minute or two we get them both sounding stupidly implausible which kills much of the humour. Then Kenneth points out why he was able to attract a woman so much prettier than him. That would never happen in real life, loads of average men have beautiful girlfriends. I find that kind of writing irritating because there are so many jokes being left “on the table” and not used.
Even dear old Tracy gets a dumb plot. There was no real setup for him randomly assuming his old racial rage and venting it at a walking tour leader. It seemed particularly out of place after his brief obsession with Thomas Jefferson (at the end of season one) though I suppose that could explain his unusual knowledge on the subject.
Comic Highlight: I guess I smiled at Tracy having zero tolerance for hecklers and just attacking the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (verbally) because one man in the Cleveland audience told him he sucked.
The Bottom Line: A fairly pointless episode for everyone except Jack.
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