My first impression of 30 Rock is one word: whimsical. Not extraordinarily funny, but not displeasing to watch... simply whimsical. I chuckled a few times for the ironic gestures and plot twists, but I was not blown away as many of my friends had led me to believe I would be.
From this episode I've gathered that the main players are:
Liz Lemon: played by Tina Fey, Liz is a writer for a production company; a mediocre beauty with a lot of heart and more talent on paper than in front of a camera.
Jack: played by Alec Baldwin, Jack is a businessman, the company's producer.
Tracy Jordan: (played by Tracy Morgan- subtle irony!?) I could not figure out what Tracy's role on the show was. It's probably something I would need to view prior episodes to understand. However, he seems to be the loveable-despite-not-wanting-to, mistake-making-but-learning-lessons-in-a-roundabout-way-without-actually-learning-lessons character.
Will Arnett: I can't recall his character's name, but he seems to be the antagonist.
Three main plot lines surfaced in this particular episode:
1) Liz's "need" to look more presentable for the debut of her new show called Dealbreakers ultimately changes how she acts and who she is; before long, the other writers and Jack want the "old Liz" back.
2) Tracy feels incomplete without a "baby girl", a daughter, and wants to have another child with his wife. She feels that he is irresponsible and refuses him until he can prove it. He decides the best way to do this is to become further absorbed by his career (irony) by attempting to "EGOT"- that is, to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award. His wife complies.
3)The character played by Judah Friedlander (I was happy to see he was on this show) is given responsibility for the writing team and essentially takes over Liz's job while she is working on Dealbreakers. He at first underestimates the work load, but he begins feeling the stress of the job and starts picking up Liz's idiosyncrasies, even down to the similar mousy hair and black cardigan.
Overall, I liked the episode. The subtle irony infused in the plot makes me want to watch more (Tracy locked Liz to the bookshelf; he and his wife are discussing her going to the hairdresser; Liz said "Can we please 'undid' these handcuffs?"; Tracy calls her a "racist", even though it was a play on what Tracy and his wife were talking about) . I feel that I need to go back and watch some other 30 Rock episodes to gauge context a little more; right now I feel lost as to who some characters are, and that makes for a difficult analysis besides surface issues.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
For a newbie, you figured out most of the main issues (yay), but definitely you need to do more research (i.e., watch more episodes and see TWoP). Will Arnett, who plays Jack's boss, Devin, is not a main character, but every time he's on, we see something weird in his office, so that becomes a game. This time it was a photo of Obama on the beach.
ReplyDeleteUsing the term "whimsical" to describe 30 Rock makes a certain amount of sense, but "subtle irony"? Not so much.
Like you I am a first time viewer as well. I have to agree I thought it was a good episode but its not the amazing show everyone tells me about, but its probably due to only seeing one episode. I feel that like you with more episodes under my belt I can grow to apprciate this humorous show.
ReplyDeleteWhimsical: what a good word to describe this show. It seems to be all over the place at times, but I think that is meant to be intentional. That's what makes it so good. I felt a little confused as well because I am a 30 Rock virgin, but for the most part we can figure out who is who. Tracy Morgan's character is the most peculiar to figure out, not just his role, but his personality as well seems to be kooky and odd, yet hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI think the irony is much more blatant than subtle, but I do like your choice of description so far as "whimsical" goes.
ReplyDeleteThe handcuff and "undid - racist" joke was a bit of a social commentary to me and it seems they were mocking the usage of the word and its connotations. I found it hilarious and hope the rest of the shows infuse this kind of commentary as it's something I agree with and goes with the flow of consensus. The writers are literally showing you how absurd certain things can be!