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“Making a new friend sure ‘ain’t easy” on 30 Rock

- Season 4, Episode 5 - "The Problem Solvers"

30-ROCK-The-Problem-Solvers s04e05

Considering how I once felt about both of them, it’s surprising that I actually am enjoying the team of Tracy and Jenna. Actually, considering how Jenna once felt about Tracy, it’s surprising that they’re enjoying one another. But I suppose you do what you must when faced with a common enemy: a new star on your show.

This is actually a very clever idea that 30 Rock is employing. As it’s appeared to me up to this point, the show is adding a cast member by utilizing the need fictional “TGS with Tracy Jordan” has for a new cast member. I don’t know if cast expansion has ever been more natural — well, in a general sense. But adding a street-performing robot?

The one current plot area that I’ve never been on board with is this whole “Dealbreaker” thing, which I found stupid from the first time that Liz gave advice on that talk show. It just wasn’t funny, and I didn’t really enjoy who she was pretending to be when dispensing her “sage wisdom.” Unfortunately it seems to have stuck, but at least there’s always plenty of Jack and Kenneth to keep me smiling.

What’s going on with TGS itself? Am I wrong, or has the show that brings all of these characters together not put on an episode in a while? We used to see skits being rehearsed, props, sets, writing, whatever. Now, save for some line readings (which was more about practicing dropping a Canadian accent), there isn’t much left to the sketch show. Did they just get so consumed with everything else that they’ve run out of time?

Lots of good stuff tonight:

  • The Chinese knockoff of Liz’s book: “dealbreaker; the book for you man no good” by lesbian yellow sour fruit
  • Kenneth’s welcome song, as quoted in this post’s title
  • Jack renaming new actor Jack “Danny” (Cheyenne Jackson)
  • Jack moving the candle over at dinner with Liz (and then Liz setting herself on fire at dinner with her agent)
  • Tracy’s contractually obligated plugs for “Wade Boggs’ Carpet World”
  • Not good as much as puzzling: Jack uses a Mac? No way.
  • Danny offering to get Kenneth something to eat, and Kenneth malfunctioning. It went a little too far for me in the end, with Kenneth’s evil eyes, but it was still pretty funny. Kenneth’s entire world was crumbling before he reversed things.

And the quotes were a-flowing:

“He looks like all the guy’s in my magazines.” – The Janitor, on Danny

“Alright hosers: I want all 12 of us fighting for every meter on all three downs. And we’re gonna make this a Boxing Day the Prime Minister will never forget.” – Danny, in his Canadian football movie

“I feel about as useless as a mom’s college degree.” – Kenneth, on his problem with Danny

“Do I look okay?” – Liz
“That’s exactly how you look.” – Cerie

“The future is like a Japanese game show; you have no idea what’s going on.” – Tracy

“‘Cause after all, what’s a problem but an opportunity disguised as a stripper having a seizure on your boat?” – Tracy, during his and Jenna’s closing advertisement for “Problem Solvers”

Photo Credit: NBC

Categories: | 30 Rock | Episode Reviews | General | TV Shows |

9 Responses to ““Making a new friend sure ‘ain’t easy” on 30 Rock”

November 15, 2009 at 7:11 AM

You forgot to mention the most important part: we finally learned that Kenneth has been alive forever, which explains so much.

Jack’s had the iMac on his desk for quite a while now. I assume it’s because the back of it is so pretty, and that’s the angle we always see. I doubt he actually ever uses it or even knows how—that’s what Jonathan is for.

Why isn’t Bob writing this? What have you done with him?

November 15, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Those Kenneth diversions always freak me out. Un-dead: weird. Hill people: much better!

We could say that either, a) I never noticed before, or b) I voiced my incredulousness as soon as I was given the platform. :) Even if he doesn’t know how to use it, however, what corporation would allow Macs in their offices?

We don’t want to talk about all of that “What about Bob” nonsense, now do we….

November 15, 2009 at 6:31 PM

*bangs on back of locked closet door*

November 15, 2009 at 8:41 PM

Actually, although few businesses are all-Mac, quite a few “allow end users to deploy Macs as their work systems” these days. There’s really nothing to be incredulous about. They can boot Mac OS X, Windows and Linux on their new chipsets, so there’s little drawback.

Even if GE didn’t allow it, Jack is the Head of East Coast and Microwave Oven Programming. He could demand to have a VIC-20 or Commodore 64, and it would be supported and networked.

November 15, 2009 at 9:32 PM

Three things:

1) “Incredulous” because I’m vehemently anti Mac
2) I could be mistaken, but I don’t think all of Reuter’s trader tools are compatible with Macs just yet – Jack would have all of the basic ones on his computer
3) Jack, Mr. Right-Wing Conservative would have an artsy, liberal, tree-hugging Mac?

November 15, 2009 at 11:08 PM

I’m sorry if you have an emotional attachment to your computer or OS which affects your enjoyment of television, but it really matters very little these days, less so as more and more gets pushed to the cloud.

I am unfamiliar with the applications to which you refer, and Google didn’t offer any system requirements for them that Windows XP/Vista running on a Mac can’t handle. In the rare event that that is true, Jack has people to do that for him.

Remember, Macs are also for rich elitist snobs who don’t know any better, while cheap PC boxen are what the Wal-Mart crowd buys. I maintain my original point that Jack only has the iMac because it looks good on his desk, just as his bathroom door is built to look like a wall.

November 15, 2009 at 11:23 PM

Okay, I really was just stating my surprise at it. However, I have no emotional attachment to my computer, nor does it affect my enjoyment of the show. I was just originally saying how unbelievable it was to me that Jack would have a Mac. “Incredulous” was just the word I went with in the comment (with a smiley).

Reuters Thomson makes live stock quote applications which are basic for most people working in finance, or executives of large corporations who are affected by the shifts in different market sectors. Somewhere, somehow, Jack would have a live Reuters feed streaming directly to him; it’s not something his assistant could/would do for him, nor is it something that watching MSNBC on silent would help with (not real-time). I think most of their applications are not yet supported by Mac.

November 16, 2009 at 1:41 AM

It’s cool, I was just surprised you wrote “vehement.”

That’s the gist I got from the Reuters website, but as I wrote above, I think the iMac running Windows could do everything, as there’s little hardware differentiation nowadays. The specifications I found were things like “Intel 933 Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 4 MB Video, LAN card – 16 bit ISA or PCI, Windows 2000-XP, Microsoft Excel 97-XP, IE 6,” none of which should be a problem. Unless there specifically incompatible with Macs for some reason.

November 16, 2009 at 10:28 AM

I was thinking of saying “adamant,” but felt it would lose some in translation. ;)

I’d only think there would be incompatibility with Macs because there are no trading desks that use them … if 99.99% of your customers are on PCs, is it worth the R&D to make it compatible? I don’t know, maybe. As opposed to the iPod, which would have crashed and burned had it not started running on Windows.

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