Passing judgment on individual episodes of a long-standing and beloved television show like 30 Rock can already feel reductive, but when the episode in question is but the first half of a “to be continued” narrative, the grade is even more conditional. Last week, I gave “Idiots Are People Two!” fairly high marks, mostly on the strength of the Liz-Jack storyline. Their relationship is the most important one on 30 Rock, so when you’ve got a strong Liz-Jack plot, it usually means you’re in good shape.
But let’s face it: Tracy’s ripped-from-the-headlines homophobic rant was the real “point” of the episode. Odd, then, that neither “Idiots Are People Two!” nor tonight’s follow-up, inevitably titled “Idiots Are People Three!”, really tackles the issue of Real Tracy’s slurs in a head-on way. As I pointed out in my recap, Fake Tracy’s diatribe was considerably milder than Real Tracy’s. I gave 30 Rock a pass on this front, doubting how useful (or funny) it would have been if Fake Tracy had said things as vile as Real Tracy. Still, the way that 30 Rock has dealt with Morgan’s rant feels unusually squeamish.
Most of the time, 30 Rock is perfectly content being self-conscious, but there are occasional moments when the meta thing becomes uncomfortable. Last season’s “TGS Hates Women,” which waded into the Jezebel vs. Jon Stewart debacle, felt this way, and so do both “Idiots” episodes. While I don’t necessarily believe it’s Tina Fey’s or 30 Rock’s job to explain Tracy Morgan’s actions, I do think it’s interesting that his misbehavior is summarily dismissed as the ravings of an idiot. This might be an accurate assessment, but it also seems like an easy out. Plus, I’m surprised the show didn’t mine the material a bit more; I half-expected Fake Tracy to make a weak argument about how he’s a comedian and he’s simply trying to push the envelope, and so on. To paraphrase, “I’m not angry, 30 Rock, just disappointed.”
But enough with the serious talk. The best part of “Idiots Are People Three!” is that it marks the return of Devon Banks. Along with Thomas from Downton Abbey, that pointy-faced guy on Revenge, and Andy Cohen, Devon is one of my favorite gay TV villains. Devon turns up in Jack’s office with more incriminating footage of Tracy’s stand-up act, chock full of jokes about Mexicans, Asians, and women. (One last thing on this subject and then I promise I’ll stop: maybe this was the show’s delicate way of saying, “Hey, Tracy says terrible things about everyone, not just gay people!” Maybe?) Predictably, Devon is using the footage to blackmail Jack, but the twist is that, as a Brooklyn house-husband, he wants Jack to get his three “gaybies” into the prestigious St. Matthew’s School.
Jack swallows his pride and, in a brief but very funny scene, introduces Devon to Douglas, a WASPy board member at St. Matthew’s. It’s always fun to see Jack in his element—in this case, a dark, clubby restaurant filled with other powerful alpha males. But it’s even more enjoyable to see Jack in his new role as a proud father. While some things about Jack, like his unapologetic elitism, will never change, it warms my heart to hear him boasting about Liddy’s potty training.
Speaking of change, Liz also decides that she’s an idiot for thinking about dumping Criss just because Jack disapproves. We’ve seen the push-pull between Jack and Liz many times by now, and we’ve also seen Liz get into many petty fights with many different boyfriends. Given how overly familiar Liz’s scenario is, I’m glad that she decides to do something different for once and opts to give it a go with Criss. My one real grievance with 30 Rock is the romantic torture that Liz is repeatedly subjected to—I still shudder when I think about her break-up with Carol last year—so I hope Criss sticks around. If nothing else, I’d like to see what the writers do with his character. At the moment, he mostly feels like a remainder bin of Liz’s exes, but there’s some potential there. In the end, Jack gives Criss a temporary approval anyway, a sign that Jack and Liz are moving forward, together. Awww, how sweet.
While all this is going on, we’ve got the continued craziness of the Jenna-Kenneth-Kelsey plot, which is just about as willfully absurd as 30 Rock gets. In order to distract the TGS audience as they wheel Pete back to his office, Kelsey stages a mandatory, free one-man play about Abraham Lincoln. Like I said last week, I like it when 30 Rock gets aggressively weird, but I don’t know that such a loopy plot really needed to be drawn out over two weeks. It does feel as those the writers are running a bit low on ideas and are, more or less, just fucking around at this point to see what they can get away with. They pull it off this time, mostly because Kelsey Grammer is so great at doing the fake gravitas thing. It's too bad he doesn't stick to comedy.
Grade: B