In so many sitcoms, there are multiple storylines going on at once. In many of these shows, one plot is clearly more prominent and usually much more funny than the others. 30 Rock is one of those shows (and Modern Family also comes to mind) that is able to juggle many different stories and keep them all funny. The best shows even find ways to have all the stories tie together in the end. 30 Rock certainly didn’t do that in this week’s episode, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the outing.
This week marked the return of Floyd, Liz’s ex-boyfriend played by Jason Sudeikis. Floyd has always been the “one that got away” for Liz. They were a perfect match, but they broke up because Floyd had to move to Cleveland. Poor Liz thought that they were going to have a chance to reunite, but Floyd was in town to get married on the Today show (in a very fun NBC tie-in). Liz’s relationship tragedy often translates to laughs for the audience, and this story was no exception. It promises to continue delivering laughs as Liz agreed to be in the wedding party.
Elsewhere, Jack and Danny got into a prank war with the TGS writers. Did the writers really think that they could outmaneuver Jack? Even after discovering that he was part of a secret society and had to leave a room whenever someone said the secret words. Convincing the writing team that there was a Cloverfield monster in the building would have been good enough, but the game was raised to a whole other level when Jack and Danny ended the prank war by seducing Frank’s mom.
Finally, an episode of 30 Rock really couldn’t be complete without some craziness from Tracy and Jenna. This week, after being hilariously stalled by Kenneth for an entire day (and listening to him read his manuscript out loud, including all the spaces), they both had the page stuck in their subconscious. You know what that means: sex dreams, or freaky Kenmares, as Tracy called them. Luckily Tracy and Jenna had a sensible solution: Elm Street it!
Again, I thought it was a good episode and I’m looking forward to watching Liz ruin Floyd’s wedding, because I can’t imagine that she won’t find a way, intentional or not.
Quotes:
“As much as I want to, I can’t slap the brat out of them” – Pete, on Jenna and Tracy
“You’ll never be a Silver Panther.” – Jack
“I don’t care! I’ll start my own group. Rejection from society is what created the X-men!” – Liz
“Glistening black and white skin, it looked like a closeup of a killer whale being born!” – Tracy, on his sex dream about Kenneth
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Mar 26, 2010 @ 12:30 EST5EDT
Heh. Floyd’s last name was “Debarber”.
I liked this episode, but not as much as the one 2 weeks ago. However, I still found it disappointing that Jack and the new character so easily outsmarted the writers. I had hoped it might end in a draw or brains overcoming looks, either way, I wanted to see the pranksters pull out one more prank before admitting defeat. Finally, didn’t they have matching caps last time?