Liz Lemon is getting married and she doesn’t want to make a big deal about it, at least she doesn’t think she does, and the results are pretty spectacular.
Liz has a chance encounter with her old flame Dennis who now has a kid through adoption since he is married. The idiot that is Dennis was considered more adoption worthy than Liz because he got a ring and it is driving her crazy. Liz’s lack of getting pregnant and her single status clearly keeping her from the adoption route causes her to decide to get married to Chris; ASAP. Liz’s counter culture nature has her wanting to write off the whole wedding process as lame, but as they get closer to the actual deed she slowly gets the urge to embrace her inner princess.
The episode could have easily gone with the over the top wedding route and the world of 30 Rock could have just as easily filled that with hilarity, and they eventually do, but Liz fighting the feeling made for a much better episode filled with a bunch of odd and weird bits of humor that worked wonderfully. We had some excellent bits with Liz making fun of everything about weddings, some excellent flashbacks to Liz’s past, and just some stellar weird Liz character moments.
Tracy also had a great episode as a visit to Dr. Spaceman shows that his life expectancy is far longer than he ever expected. Having expected to die young, we learn Tracy’s wild behavior has been a byproduct of living his life with reckless abandon. So Tracy decides to live life safe and plan for his future and Morgan does a fantastic job of playing things sad and straight. The episode also drops in a couple of brilliant moments, none probably better than Alec Baldwin as Harriet Tubman.
Things culminate in a fitting wedding ceremony at the court house, Liz in her Princess Leia costume, Jack in a fresh tux as their witness, and Tony Bennett singing. The ceremony isn’t the centerpiece, but they jam a ton of silliness into it and, like I mentioned, the episode is all the better for it. The writing is as sharp as ever here and I couldn’t keep up with the one liners on more than one occasion.
Jenna’s storyline, which involved Jack buying her out of enslavement to a guy who bought her with Surge points, is more of a motivator for Jack than anything, but they squeeze a ton of humor out of her brief screen time. Jack’s run of depreciating factors for Jenna was too hilarious and fast to keep up, but I was rolling. We also got a couple of reappearances by some classic characters in Dr. Spaceman and Dennis and the final season feels a little more complete with them having now made their appearances.
One of the sharpest written episodes of 30 Rock in sometime, Liz’s wedding episode couldn’t have been better executed. They held strong to Liz’s well established character and were able to make her get “girlie” without betraying her in the slightest. There was an endless string of one liners throughout the episode and none of them were callbacks or retreads. The show is still capable of delivering original and hilarious content and its episodes like this that really make you wish it wasn’t going off air in just a few short weeks.
Odds and Ends:
-“Hopefully no relation.”
-Black Dennis, amazing!
-Hitler: The Boy Who Dreamed of Stars.
-“I love popsicles!”
-“OJ where are you?” “Wait, you’re alive, and who did I kill?”
-“Put I remembered to stock up on 7-Layer Dip.”
-Well that’s a depressing flashback.
-“I remember when Bravo used to show Operas.”
-“I will tell her, or it.”
-“We are registered at the Popcorn Palace.”
-Dr. Spaceman!
-“Has almost put me all the way through medical school.”
-Hodgman is quite creepy as this so called slave master.
-“Daddy, why are you doing this?” Too many ailments to list.
-“Deli? Save it for the honeymoon.”
-I love this chapel clerk.
-Great music cue for the eye rolls.
-“She said she would let it slide of I sat on her hand.”
-“I coined the term, ‘You wish pal!’”
-“Or the time I got a sleeve of Starburst with all pink.”
-Harriet Tubman was white?
-“Eat a corn on the cob and make it sexy.” I guess that is sexy.
-The turnaround into the tux might be one of the best visual gags 30 Rock as ever done.
-“I’m a princess!”
-Tony Bennett!
-“And a pair you can do something with.”
