30 Rock – Frank turns into Liz and Liz turns into Gollum

There was a lot of great stuff in this week’s 30 Rock. Aside from excellent guest spots and cameos (including appearances from two of the ladies from The View), some of the regular characters really shined in this episode. It’s wasn’t the usual suspects, either. Kenneth was barely in the episode, Jack was mostly playing the straight man, and Jenna’s crazy was nothing compared to Liz’s. That’s right, this episode really belonged to Liz and Frank.

The running bit with Frank turning into Liz after being put in charge of TGS was brilliant. I thought it was really clever and seeing Judah Friedlander essentially dressed as Tina Fey was downright disturbing, in a really excellent way.

That wasn’t even the best part of the episode, though. There were two other moments that stood out to me as high water marks. The first came during the filming of Dealbreakers, when several characters stepped in front of the magical high definition camera. When a gag is repeated several times it has the tendency to lose impact or become less funny with each iteration. In this case, however, every instance really worked. At first it was funny when Liz got in front of it and look awful. It was still funny when Pete walked across and looked like an old man. I laughed out loud when Kenneth walked across and showed up as a Muppet. Heck, it was even still funny when Jack looked like a young handsome man through the lens of the camera.

I think my favorite moment of the night, though, came when Performer Liz and Normal Liz had a showdown in the dressing room. It was a clear homage to Lord of the Rings and Gollum, and I thought it was executed really, really well. I’ve seen many detractors say negative things about Tina Fey and her performance on the show (which I have never agreed with), but I thought this scene was really a testament to her comedic abilities.

Here are some of my favorite quotes of the night:

“You’re like a swarthy, big-hipped Kelly Ripa.” – Jack to Liz

“I’ll do the Christmas shopping this year to prove to you I can be reliable and that I can finish everything that I–” -Tracy

“You seem nervous. I could give you some for that, but you know what, I’m not supposed to have sex with my patients.” – Dr. Spaceman

“Is it me, or is Liz Lemon getting hotter?” – Tracy, on Frank acting like Liz

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Dec 03, 2009 @ 22:29 EST5EDT