From the very beginning Jack starts making one liners about Lemon and her new role as a TV star. He says she is going to be "a big-hipped Kelly Ripa", to which she agrees. I love how the entire episode they constantly make fun of what Tina Fey/Liz Lemon looks like and she doesn't seem to mind at all. Her confidence in real life transfers to her character in the show and really allows her to laugh at herself and be "normal".
It is this "normal" style that Lemon has in the show that is completely lost in the process of her going from writer to TV star. She begins to act like Jenna's character, becoming an uncontrollable multi-personality drama queen. She changed her hair style, clothing, and stopped wearing glasses all because Jack said it would be best to do if she was going to be working in front of the camera. Her visit to to get shady lasik eye surgery from the always insane doctor that works in the network building was classic. When the doctor says he has the cure for Liz Lemon's problems, but the network told him "he can't have sex with his patients". It was awkward and funny at the same time, as 30 Rock usually is.
Frank's character is put in charge by Lemon to take over her duties while she focuses on the first episode of the Dealbreakers talk show. In the beginning he is his normal creepy self saying that his first task as the new Liz Lemon is to take down the firewall that prohibits the writing crew from looking at porn. As time goes on though Frank gets massive stress doing Lemon's seemingly never ending job and even turns down a night out with the boys at Chuck E. Cheese's "single-divorced Hispanic mother night". By the end Frank is having a mental breakdown, starting to act and dress like Lemon and in the process we discover the crazy hair that he hides under his constantly changing trucker-hats.
Tracy's character in this episode is classic. Ever since he was in his nitrous induced hallucination (from the crazy doctor) in the previous episode, he has wanted a baby girl. He handcuffs Lemon to a bookshelf to force her tell his wife for him. She obliges and Tracy's wife is completely against the idea because he is already never around. She reminds him he missed Tracy Jr's birthday party last week to which he says there was a better birthday party down street that he went to. After the discussion Lemon asked Tracy to take the handcuffs off her but instead he calls her a racist and his wife calls her a cracker. It is subtle jokes like that which make 30 Rock the odd but great show that it is.
Tracy's wife gives into having a baby girl if Tracy is able to get an EGOT, something she thinks he has no chance of accomplishing. An EGOT is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award winner. After enlisting the help of every music genre to come together as one orchestra, he can't seem to come up with "the greatest song ever made". Tracy figured if you had a mariachi band, hip hop, R&B, jazz, country and whatever the hell music Jenna was performing, that you could make the best song ever. It didn't work out so he went to EGOT winner Whoopie Goldberg's house to seek advice from her. She tells him it must come from heart, not from the checkbook. This spurs Tracy to create a love song for his wife, but not before trying to steal Whoopie's Grammy and Emmy award, to which she calls him a colored man. It was again awkward but funny and something 30 Rock can pull off. Tracy's song from the heart works on his wife and she agrees to have a baby girl for him as long as he continues trying to be an EGOT.
By the end of the episode, Lemon figured out she will never stop being a dual-personality psycho without giving up on the Dealbreakers talk show. She quits the show before it ever begins, which is a good thing if she really looked like that on HD. Her return to writing is greeted with much enthusiasm by Frank, who was about to go nuts. Luckily for Lemon, Jack sold the opening credits to a Hispanic telenovela, meaning everytime a TV appears on the show, the credits of Dealbreakers will as well. As Liz appears in the credits, she achieved her dream of being on TV and didn't have to turn into a full-time Jenna in the process.
Rating: 8/10, it wasn't the funniest 30 Rock ever, but had some of the greatest one liners this season.
Excellent and thorough re-cap, Chris! You managed to hang on to the storyline in spite of all the hilarious digressions. BTW, Jenna was scatting.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see a veteran's take on the show; I'm a newbie and although I felt a little lost, I feel like I had a good handle on what actually happened (after reading your recap). I didn't realize there were some past issues with Tracy (regarding his daughter issues), but I guess that is to be expected, and I'll have to watch prior episodes.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job recapping this, Chris! I personally found myself laughing out loud when Tracy wanted a daughter & his wife was using the possibility of having a baby as a reward like it was no big deal.
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