This show has been so good this season. While it faltered for most of last year, it has been firing on all cylinders this season. 30 Rock usually packs three plotlines int oevery episode, and its a real treat when all three of them are as good as they are tonight.
The A-plot has the inevitable break-up of Liz and Carol, which was expected but still disappointing, not because it wasn't hilarious (anything that has Matt Damon pointing a gun at Tina Fey while she uses an old man as a body shield doesn't have humor issues) but because it means we won't be seeing Matt Damon once every few months anymore. Damon killed the part every time he was on and was absolutely hysterical in whatever they had him doing. Tonight had Liz trapped on Carol's plane and their stubbornness facing off in a way that killed their relationship. Airplane humor couldn't really be more overdone if it tried, but Tina Fey and Matt Damon are so good together and so hysterical in general that this plotline was a riot.
In the B-plot, Jack and Avery head to Canada for Valentine's Day, and Avery goes into labor, panicking them because they want their baby to be born on American soil. Regular readers of this blog will know by this point that I loathe Elizabeth Banks, but Avery Jessup is such a phenomenally well written character that I find myself regularly laughing at a woman I spend the rest of my days casually despising. She and Baldwin are faced with the same titular conflict (they, like Liz and Carol, are "too similar" which causes problems), but instead of trapped on an airplane, the two find themselves driving a mobile meth lab toward the border in a mad dash for home soil. Hijincks ensue.
The C-plot has Tracy dealing with the aftermath of EGOT-ing (apparently the Oscars already occurred in the 30 Rock universe, and Tracy did a riff on Marlon Brando's acceptance speech), which makes him respectable and therefore sought after to help out with serious causes. Tracy is insane, and thought that his newfound fame would give him leave to own guitar playing monkeys and islands and such, but by episode's end, he has decided he can actually help the world. We'll see how long that lasts.
When 30 Rock is this good, there isn't a whole lot to say except that it is a hysterical show at the top of its game. Every plotline worked tonight, and there were enough laughs to keep me busy even if they hadn't. The show, when it works this well, is a simple joy to watch.
Grade: A
Notes:
-"I never sleep on planes. I don't want to get incepted."
-"Not only is your fly open, there's a pencil sticking out of it."
-Carol's airline is called Airbike.
-"And that is sky law."
-"You're breaking the extra bone all Canadians have in their hands!"
-"We're just airplane folk now!"
-"I'm still in girlscouts. i have 9,000 badges."
-"Oh my God, where are my manners? Do you want to try meth?"
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I didn't get a couple of these jokes. The one about the extra bone in the hand and at the end how their medical care was free despite their not being Canadian citizens.
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