30 Rock delivered one of the more bizarre episodes in a long time, and I loved it. From Jack and Liz turning into Batman and The Joker to Jenna and Paul “normalling,” I thought this episode was pretty brilliant. It was fun seeing Steve Buscemi’s inept private eye back on the show, but it was such a brief appearance. I found it to be a bit odd and out of place.
I’ve always enjoyed the bizarre relationship that is Jenna and Paul. This episode found them falling into the trappings of a normal relationship. It was funny watching Jenna try to process this. Striving to work happiness in a relationship into her completely abnormal life, she and Paul invented “nor malling.” For those of you unaware, normalling is the “totally sick” practice of behaving like a normal happy couple as a twisted sex game. Watching Jenna and Paul compare how many orgasms they hadn’t had was very funny. Admit it, you’re never going to look at another couple in Bed, Bath, and Beyond the same way, are you?
I love that the writers on 30 Rock this year have looked to the headlines that the stars of the show were making during the off season for plot points. First there were a couple episodes dedicated to Tracy Morgan’s controversial statements and this episode featured Jack toying with the idea of running for mayor of New York. Alec Baldwin himself toyed with the idea publicly before resigning with 30 Rock.
That potential run for mayor stemmed from Jack being mugged. I thought it was genius watching Jack turn into a heroic vigilante. Like every great superhero, though, he needed an enemy to fight. Naturally, this fell to Liz, who discovered that she could out disgust the rest of the citizens of New York City by coughing publicly, wearing horrible wigs, bad make up, and carrying around her old unwashed gym clothes. What resulted was an epic parody of The Dark Knight. Classic.
Quotes:
“Oh don’t be so dramatic. thats my thing and if you take it away from me I will kill myself and then you.” – Jenna
“New York is a selfish filth monster and eventually it gets all of us. It’s Ghostbusters 2 all over again.” – Liz
“Come on Donaghy, you’ve skied Mt. St. Helens, made eye contact with Michele Bachmann, been trapped under a boulder for 128 hours, you’re not afraid of anything!” – Jack
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Feb 16, 2012 @ 20:55 EST5EDT
The super hero parody in the episode was that of Alec Baldwin’s playing Lamont Cranston, “The Shadow” in a motion picture Movie.