Quick Take: 30 Rock, “Idiots Are People Three!”
“I’m fighting a losing battle.” - Liz Lemon
Review: 30 Rock, “Idiots Are People Three!”
(S0603) If NBC’s comedies were a struggling family, it would look something like this: Up All Night is, quite appropriately, the giggly newborn. Its infectious infant charm is hard to ignore, but it needs some bringing up before being able to make it on its own in the world. Community is the somewhat-outcast youth, clever beyond its years with potential for greatness, yet largely overlooked and misunderstood. The Office, by contrast, is far past its prime, looming ever nearer to pure senility. 30 Rock, too, has also outgrown its energetic youth, but is taking its emergence into middle-age in stride, having returned after an extended break between seasons without skipping a beat.
The first few episodes have seen Liz (Tina Fey) and Jack (Alec Baldwin) struggling with the same dynamic that they’ve established over the past five seasons. Liz’s new boyfriend Criss (James Marsden) is everything Jack has conditioned her to avoid – right down to his name – and so she’s trying to keep them apart. Jack has intervened, however, and given him a cheque to jumpstart his hotdog truck, prompting a confrontation between the three of them, plus the Jack and warrior princess Liz that exist in Liz’s mind.
Tracy Jordan, much like his real-world counterpart Tracy Morgan, is once again under fire for some unsavoury remarks about the homosexual community. When Liz tries to play it off like an “idiot’s” move, Tracy forms his own movement of self-proclaimed morons, and with the help of Denise Richards, lashes back against Liz and NBC.
30 Rock is never short of guest-stars – either willing to make fun of themselves with highly exaggerated personas, or playing memorable recurring roles. Will Arnett, reprising his role as Jack’s gay, cold-pizza-loving nemesis Devon Banks, is leading the gay-rights community stirred up by Tracy, using it as leverage over Jack in order to further his kids’ education.
Kelsey Grammer, too, continues 30 Rock’s ability to utilize guest-stars properly, by playing himself trying to be James Bond trying to be Austin Powers. Jenna and the mysteriously ageless Kenneth have called in Kelsey for his cleaner-style abilities in erasing all evidence of them breaking into the storeroom and breaking the fluorescent light bulbs which caused Pete to pass out.
Somehow, all the mayhem gets resolved mostly thanks to Liz. Her ability to see parts of what’s going on – a gift amidst so much obliviousness that surrounds her – sets off a chain of resolutions after choosing to get back together with Criss against Jack’s advice. Jack is too busy to notice, however, as he is able to put the reins back on Devon by flaunting his daughter’s supremacy over the Banks babies.
And ultimately, that’s who 30 Rock is in NBC’s comedy line-up – Jack Donaghy. A man – or show – perhaps too proud of what he’s got, but resourceful enough to assert his dominance in times of uncertainty. Unfortunately, for NBC’s comedy family to succeed, they need a Jack Donaghy to pull in the reins after the wild energy of Community to help raise Up All Night, and estrange themselves entirely from Whitney.
