“Cougars”
November 29th, 2007
It’s been awhile since we’ve spent time on Liz Lemon’s love life on 30 Rock – ever since Floyd from Cleveland, her lack of dating prospects has been an accepted character trait as opposed to a storyline. This week, perhaps, represents the equivalent to last year’s “The Head and the Hair”. It involves Liz dating outside of her comfort zone, and considering that her comfort zone is a meatball sub and DVR’s Top Chef I’d say there’s plenty of comic material here.
This episode certainly identified that, although in a somewhat less subtle fashion than the aforementioned season one episode (Which I liked quite a bit). Liz doesn’t exactly fit the cougar lifestyle, although I don’t think anyone would deny Tina Fey’s sexy librarian charms and so the storyline has value. The problem was that, well, it was pretty much exactly the same storyline redone again: right down to the end of episode revelation, even.
But, Operation Little League Freedom might have made up for it.
Liz’s short fling with the 20-year old coffee boy was certainly worthwhile, as it did provide some rather great comedy. The storyline didn’t do anything different than “The Head and the Hair” – Liz was initially unsure, gained courage by talking ot Jack about it, and then eventually it was revealed that he had a crippling flaw. Last season, this was the fact that he was Liz’s cousin; this time around, Jamie was suffering from an Oedipal desire to date someone shockingly similar to his mother Man, and she even bought him Bioshock: that’s a bummer.
The storyline provided a lot of smart one-liners, specific to its cougar scenario, that will be listed below. It also featured two largely uninteresting subplots featuring Jenna combating Liz’s success by picking up a DS-playing, Heely wearing teenager, and Frank deciding that he’s gay for Jamie. Neither really connected, to be honest, and seemed like an excuse to use their characters.
However, let’s discuss for a second the fact that 30 Rock came to the table with what it does best: sharp and succinct B-Stories that are cohesive and kind of awesome. There was nothing subtle about this one: Tracy is coaching an inner-city Baseball team as part of his community service (for hitting a police horse with his motorcycle), and Jack decides that he needs some help with giving the kids the right role model.
And then they pull down a statue of Jefferson Davis with ropes. And then they hang a “Fun Times Accomplished” Banner. And then Jack uses Tracy as a scapegoat, and Kenneth takes control and is informed by Jack to stay the course. And then they fix the team’s crummy play with a troop surge, mainly Dot Com and Grizz. And do you know what? It was never overplayed: it was done with a straight face, but never with any sort of subversive political message. It was, in the end, just the right balance, and kept the episode moving at a quick pace.
The show has been running on all cylinders recently, and this is another example of that: the show is totally in its wheelhouse at this stage, and even though they plagiarized themselves the jokes were more than good enough to make it worth it. We’re to a point where Fey and Co. have been able to craft characters and scenarios that are, well, just plain funny. And do you know what? That’s pretty ill.
Cultural Quotables
- “Animal customers? That’s ridiculous” – Tracy on Liz’s question about what makes an animal-only strip club.
- “You can’t be gay for one person…unless you’re a lady, and you meet Ellen” – Liz
- “He looks like Zac Efron…that’s a thing, right?” – Liz
- “Practice? meetings? What is this, a marriage?” – Tracy
- “I’m 37, please don’t make me go to Brooklyn!” – Liz
- “Where did you two meet, Amber Alert” – Jack on seeing Liz and Jamie together
- “I’m not against fun, I went up on my roof the other day!” – Liz
- “Betrayal: What Really Happened With My Baseball Team, Tragedy at Knuckle Beach?” – Tracy’s tell-all book about Jack Donaghy.
- “One-Armed Mermaid that’s part unicorn with big foot” – The title of Frank’s Painting he made for Jamie
- “One Word: Surge.” – Jack; “That’s TWO WORDS!” – Tracy
Cultural Learnings 