30 Rock: Mama Mia
By fred | May 8, 2009
(S03E21) Sometimes it feels that the problem of this show is that they have created all those characters in the beginning, and now they’re stuck with them even though they don’t really know how to use them. Either that, of they don’t realize that what they’re doing right now with them simply isn’t really working. Tracy and Jenna are som every unique and “special” characters, there’s no question there, and I’m sure they can be part of great plots that are also lots of fun.
Unfortunately, more often than none they are trapped with awful plot lines that go nowhere and fail to deliver any laughs. This is probably true anytime they’re put together, which luckily wasn’t the case here. Still, Jenna is just re-doing what she’s done before, being her self-centered annoying self, and if they can’t find anything else/better for her to do, maybe they should just get ride of her or something…
Especially if she starts bringing down other people with her, and quite frankly I felt this is what happened this time as the whole fight during the photoshoot with Liz failed to be funny.
If I’m usually not necessarily a fan of diving into the personal lives of the characters, liking things better when they deal with TGS and the behind the scenes at NBC, which is why I wasn’t anywhere near as excited as Liz about the whole “Mama Mia” thing – also I haven’t seen the movie and still don’t really intend to, nor do I wanna play Sims for that matter – but I’m glad that this one actually turned out good.
At first I thought Jack was right not to want to push this further, and his arguments were just undeniable: “Also, I want something really juicy to whisper on her death bed.” But then, something happened.
It might be that my opinion is a little biased because I love Alan Alda, so as soon as he showed up I didn’t really care, I knew this was worth it. The truth is that, once he and Jack started arguing over politics, I couldn’t help but have The West Wing flashbacks, added to that some pretty cool lines such as “I do not understand why we’re yelling at each other, but I’m not accustomed to loosing an argument!” and it was a win. So much that I’m glad he’ll be back to turn Jack into Locke…
As for Tracy and his “son” that was a nice plot, including the inability of Liz (or everyone else) to tell the age of black people, with an actually nicer resolution that what I would have thought.
Still, my favorite quote this week would probably be this one: “If I have learned anything from my SIMS family: When a child doesn’t see his father enough he starts to jump up and down, and then his mood level with drop, until he pees himself!”
What did everybody else think?
