30 Rock returned this week, and one thing was perfectly clear to me: Jane Krakowski must have a pretty evident baby bump. It was so obvious that she was hiding something in this episode. First it was the laughably huge handbag during all her scenes at NBC, and then there was the torture device in her Saw clone movie Take My Hand, which conveniently covered her torso. Usually I’m clueless about these things and never even notice, but these just jumped out at me in this episode for some reason.
As for the episode itself, it was fine. It certainly wasn’t a stinker, but it won’t go down as a classic either. I’m glad that Tracy is back and we can all return to some modicum of normalcy for the show. And, yes, I thought it was a little funny that Tracy was clever enough to hide in the one place that Liz wouldn’t be looking for him: her own apartment.
I think the real problem with the episode, at least in my opinion, was the lack of Jack Donaghy. This show really can’t function without Alec Baldwin. For my money, he makes this show, hands down. This week he was relegated to a small part in a Jenna-centric B plot. It just wasn’t enough. The plot itself had some laughs. I particularly enjoyed Jenna’s conversion to “writer,” and the addition of puppets to her torture porn movie.
I thought Pete’s story was bizarre in a funny kind of way. It was all a drawn out fantasy of him becoming the arm wrestling champion of the office. In reality, it was all in his head. I think it just showed how sad Pete really is.
Here are some of my favorite quotes of the night:
“Reese Witherspoon is just a likable version of me.” – Jenna, dismissively
“There was some confusion and I ended up punching the real Levar Burton.” – Liz, on a trip to the wax museum
“Of course… elegant… should vaginatorium be capitalized?” – Jack, on Jenna’s rewrites to her latest movie
“Sean Penn wanted me to go to Haiti with him, and I’m not strong enough for the pain and the human misery of a three hour plane ride with Sean Penn.” – Tracy
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Apr 15, 2011 @ 19:01 EST5EDT
I texted the number at the end for “Phil” and “Liz.” The reply for “Phil” was “You just somehow made Phil Rosenthal another five dollars. Good work.” The reply for “Liz” was “Thanks for your vote! The last person to spend 99 cents on me was when Dennis Duffy bought me a foam St. Patrick’s Day hat…for Christmas 2004. Lemon, out.”
When did you do this? I tried it around noon PDT today, and got a message undeliverable reply. (It’s not because they actually charged you a dollar right? I did it from a GV account.)
I watched the show at about 2 AM (Eastern) this morning (4/16). I don’t think I was charged anything. I think it’s just a standard text in real life.