30 ROCK

S05E18
"Plan B"  (C+)

          Liz Lemon walks into Jack's office, motivated by a food-related crisis.  Jack has a cute euphemism for authoritative behavior and a woefully inappropriate acronym for his new cable channel.  Stereotypes are used for joke fodder, which I don't mind, provided the jokes are actually funny.  In the midst of all this, there is one good joke, and it belongs to Tracy Morgan.  All in all, it was a pretty mehctacular cold open.





          Tracy Jordan's absence from TGS (prompted by Tracy Morgan's real-life health problems) has put the show into a state of "forced hiatus", which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a prelude to cancellation.  As Liz Lemon scrambles to find a shred of optimism in her cast/crew, she finds everyone contemplating the inevitable end of the show and their return to regular work.  Frank will go back to stand-up, Pete will resume substitute teaching (where it will hopefully turn out like "Dead Poets Society", but in a good way), Jenna has a predictably narcissistic and unfunny business venture, Sue has a gig as a Dutch police psychic waiting for her, Toofer has the security a Harvard degree affords, and Kenneth has "bird internet" up his sleeve, whatever the fuck that is supposed to be.  The "bird internet" joke is not even remotely funny, but in case you actually did find it humorous, you're in for a treat.  They'll go back to this particular well two more times before the episode is over.  I was glad, however, to see the return of Simon (Josh Fadem, a talented and criminally underused UCB alum), Liz's incompetent agent who specializes in canine actors.


          Meanwhile, Jack has a sit-down with Kabletown head Hank Hooper (Ken Howard), the jovial family-man tycoon who seems more interested in Jack's baby than BABY, the choice demographic of Black Asian Bisexual Youths.  Hank is absolutely livid with Jack over the TWINK channel's lack of profitability, but is apparently incapable of adopting a hostile tone.  This meeting sets up the return of Devin Banks (Will Arnett), Jack's gay nemesis whose presence has always bolstered the episodes he is featured in.


          Banks, however, is retired from the cutthroat business of television, and is living as a "house husband", caring for the triplets he has with his "shiny black dancer" husband, Cashmere.  But this is short-lived, as he still wears a suit underneath his house-husband sweatsuit.  Banks senses Jack's depseration, and in an instant he is back to his old, cunning ways, using his infant children to curry favor with Hooper.


          Liz, after a failed audition for a reality singing competion writing gig (which features a cameo by Aaron Sorkin, which was nice, despite the fact that spoofing his signature walk-and-talk sequences has been done to death) is dropped by her agent, leading to a fairly funny nightmare sequence in which she envisions the death of the written word.  This was the high point of the episode for me.


          Banks' plan to get promoted over Jack almost goes off without a hitch, but the love of his children overpowers his greed and ambition, and he decides not to take the overseas position he has been offered.  This struck me as convenient and quite lazily written, but whatever.  You've gotta end the episode somehow.


          But then comes the non-surprise surprise ending, where we discover that Tracy is not, in fact, in Africa doing god's work.  He's somewhere in the delivery radius of a Manhattan pizza establishment, which is discovered when Kenneth recognizes the pizza box Liz is holding from his video chats with Tracy.  Really?


Potent Quotables

• "I'm doing god's work in Africa.  Just yesterday I kicked two naked people out of a garden."
• TRANSFORMERS 5 - PLANET of the EARTH: written by no one.
• "It's a toilet....or a woman.  It's whatever you need it to be."
• "I have a degree in theater tech with a minor in movement.  Why did my parents let me do that?"
• "I was trapped in a world of wet wipes and rectal thermometers.  Then the babies came, and life changed."

Tags: 30 Rock, Meh, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracey Morgan, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, NBC Thursday, Cornish Game Hen.