30 Rock has been on such a roll lately that it was bound to hit a bump, and it ran into a proverbial boulder this week. I can usually tell how good an episode is based on how many times I have to rewind my DVR to transcribe one of the show's brilliant punchlines. Suffice it to say I watched the latest episode, "Sun Tea," in real time.
As part of NBC's
Green Week campaign, eco-friendly messages were inserted into the script. No question it's a great cause, but it's bad for comedy. ("Fluorescent light bulbs last 10 times as long and use 1/4 of the power" isn't exactly a knee-slapper.) Even a return cameo from
Al Gore didn't help, as his only good lines were either ruined in the network's promo or repeated from his 2007 appearance on the show ("Quiet, a whale is in trouble!" was funny the first time, but pointing out that it's being recycled doesn't keep it from feeling stale.)
Even beyond the politically correct/comically incorrect content, "Sun Tea" was weak. The main story line concerned Liz's building going condo and her attempts to take over her upstairs neighbor's apartment to create a duplex (isn't this one of those "elitist, East Coast, intellectual" problems Jack Donaghy might point out doesn't connect with "real Americans"?). Liz moved in with the guy (played by
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip vet
Nathan Corddry) and tried everything to scare him off—drama-queen antics (per Jenna), an alleged African-American boyfriend (per Tracy), but nothing worked until... she peed in a vase in front of him. Ew.
Liz got the idea from Frank (
Judah Friedlander), who has been saving his urine in jars and using it to grow a flower garden on 30 Rock's terrace. Or, as Jack unwittingly put it when he was trying to get Kenneth to smell his azaleas, they'd been "sprinkled with morning dew." Double ew.
In another senseless subplot, Jack and Tracy considered getting vasectomies—Jack because of the mostly off-screen battle between Don Geiss' children for control of the company and Tracy because he couldn't tell strip-club stories in front of his son (
Bobb'e J. Thompson). While this brought a welcome return visit fromt quack-tastic Dr. Leo Spaceman (
Chris Parnell), Jack and Tracy's changes of heart—inspired by an acrostic and a half-hearted
Cosby Show hallucination—left too many loose ends untied. Suddenly, Jack wants to become a father and Tracy wants to have a daughter. Huh?
It seems for "Sun Tea"—like with Manhattan real estate or check-in at an Italian airport/sex party, "there are no rules." (Okay, so I did write down those lines, but I didn't have to pause my DVR to do it.)
Did you find "Sun Tea" distasteful?