Meanwhile, Jack's mother is visiting for Christmas, and she's sure to disapprove of his impending (unmarried) fatherhood, and his fiancee to boot. He goes on the offensive and invites his father, Colleen's shameful sex secret, to come too; maybe this year he can come out on top. Liz points out what a bad idea this all is, as she's only attending the dinner to avoid her own family's drama.
Of course, in the long run, all he gets is everyone mad at him. And, for the first time in his 50 years, both his mother and father are yelling at him. He loves it; who knew?!
As soon as Tracy gets to the shelter, he realizes Kenneth was right: these women and children don't need more depressing stories. They just want to laugh at Tracy, in various and assorted fat suits, falling down stairs and hose-vomiting in his suppressed movie The Chunks 2.(Embarrassing admission here: I've never seen Sullivan's Travels, but even I know this is the reference here.)
Meanwhile, Jenna's not coping well with her breakup from Paul, the Jenna Maroney impersonator she's been dating recently. Nobody else really understood Jenna like Paul (their sweetly twisted relationship was always hilarious and touching). It hits Jenna especially hard at Christmas, because there's a celebrity New Year's Eve party, and they could have had the best couple costume ever. They visit briefly, and it turns out they had the same idea, so they go ahead and put the plan into action:
 |
| "You dress as Natalie Portman from the movie Black Swan and I dress as former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Lynn Swann! We're two black swans!" |
As an episode of 30 Rock, I rate this 7/10: the main players and guest stars get almost all the screentime, but I'd love to see the writer's room and show staff too. They don't even put on a show this week.
As a Christmas episode, I rate this 6/10. The sentimental theory of the ending is stronger than the actual sentiment achieved, in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment