The only difficult thing about watching "30 ROCK," truly, is the rapid-fire succession of hilariously acerbic one-liners, a machine-gun rattle of jokes delivered with surgical timing and execution that doesn't allow for casual viewing. Each 22-minute burst of side-splitting ensemble comedy requires undivided attention to truly absorb as intended, but as far as complaints about a show go, it's safe to say that intellectual attentiveness is not exactly a weakness.
The title of the second episode of Season 5, “When It Rains, It Pours,” finds our beloved and hopelessly quirky Liz Lemon experiencing an unfamiliar wave of male attention now that she's making strides in her relationship with Matt Damon's recurring character Carol (as far as awkward confessionals and role-swap spooning can qualify as "strides," of course). She discovers that Richie, one of the nerdy show editors - played by the inimitable Paul Giamatti in a guest turn - has taken a simple exchange of sloppy charm and turned it into a fictional office romance that everyone knows about.
Mercifully, we saw very little of the Snooki-tanned narcissist that is Jenna. Instead we're given much more fertile comedic soil as Kenneth the page continues his re-immersion into the TGS world, unable to stay away but officially a persona non grata for the time being. Meanwhile, Tracy finds himself in a "Cash Cab" episode, wherein the only way to get to the hospital in time to witness the birth of his child (and save his relationship with his fed-up wife) is to answer all of the questions correctly. Shockingly, his ass-backwards deductive memory logic comes through, and he answers every question correctly. He gets his free ride to the hospital, but still nearly misses the birth of his daughter due to a door-lock inspired spat between him and the "Cash Cab" host.
As fans by now are aware, Jack and Avery are having a baby. After Liz plants a seed of neurosis by reminding him that he'll be an old dad, Jack realizes he'll be seventy when his son graduates prep school - so he does what any self-inflated upper management sociopath would do - he makes a series of videos for his unborn, full of fatherly advice for every possible situation in life including: “I attended Harvard Business school where I was voted ‘Most’”, “After I’m gone, your mother may meet someone else, I want her to be happy so…his death must appear to be accidental”, “The secret to a strong healthy set of hair is dove…blood,” and so on.
As he prepares to show his son how to properly execute a backflip, Kenneth sneezes from behind the curtains. He was cleaning up when Jack entered the office, trapping him. It was just like the times he hid in his mother’s closet and listened to her and her boyfriend take “grunting naps,” Kenneth explained. After a bit of hard-handed fatherly advice, it becomes clear that our favorite page will be returning to the halls of TGS. In our excitement, it was easy to miss Avery's call announcing that she and Jack are actually having a girl.
Not all is as it seems in the budding faux-love between Richie and Liz, despite the clearly heartfelt mix CD of Civil War songs (“It’s very authentic so, don’t play it around your black friends.”). It turns out that Richie has been spreading the rumors that he and Liz are sleeping together, in the hopes that his grotesque assistant editor will finally take notice of him. Relieved that the situation isn't nearly as creepy as it originally seemed, Liz agrees to stage a dramatic breakup that will paint Richie as the ladies' man he's so clearly not, and draw Donna's attention. Oddly, it works.
It's a rarity that a sitcom can possess not only the incredible caliber of writers it takes to produce such consistently fantastic comedy, but also the cohesive timing and excellence of onscreen talent that makes "30 Rock" so uniquely awesome. And if there's any question as to the validity of potency in every minute of the show, look no further than this week's collection of one-liner quotes for evidence:
Tracy: "I don't get why people like brunch. What's the benefit of combining break dancing and lunch?"
Tracy: "Why's that baby covered with goop?"
Dr. Spaceman: "Because everything about this is disgusting."
Tracy: "Centennial is a hundred years, because centipeding means having sex with a hundred women."
Frank: "You know, if you wanted to cheat on Carol with an Italian dude who smells like cigarettes, I've made it very clear I'd flip over my futon for you. Not
cool!"
Jack: "...and then I attended Harvard Business School, where I was voted, Most. I once hit a stand up triple off Fidel Castro. I was the first person ever to say, I
need a vacation from this vacation. The song "Your so vain" was in fact written...by me."
Tracy: "If I were a real werewolf I'd wear baggy clothes so my nice clothes wouldn't get all torn up."
Liz: "You comin' downstairs?"
Jack: "And stand outside in a crowd like some Italian? I don't think so."
Dot Com: "Also we took Tracy's cell phone, his wallet..."
Tracy: "And my mood ring! And I don't know how I feel about that."
Tracy: "Well, I'm embarrassed to say I've missed the birth of both of my sons... for very legitimate reasons."
Dot Com: "Cooking a French bread pizza, and forgot."
