Dear Tina,
As promised, I came home from work early this afternoon and snuggled up to last night’s episode of 30 Rock. For me, it’s the small things in life. I can get as much enjoyment out of a night out with friends as I can an afternoon organizing my closet. Some people might think that’s weird; I think it makes me easy going. Just don’t try and help me organize–that makes me not easy going. So yes the past 30 minutes have been a delight. Tonight’s episode, “Verna,” introduces Jenna’s mom as the money hungry and mainpulative matriarch of Jenna’s childhood. A family that as far as we know only consists of this mother, Verna, and a sister. From the pilot episode: “You mean this eye? Ok. This eye, it doesn’t open all the way because when I was little, my sister peed in it!” Verna was played by Jan Hooks, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, and fun fact! the voice of Abu’s wife, Manjula, on The Simpsons. Onward.
So before we get to Verna, let us discuss the B story that involved Liz and Frank dealing with the aftermath of giving up their stress relievers, junk food and smoking respectively. The episode began with Liz dreaming she was married to Jack and giving birth to the mascot for “Cheesy Blasters,” a cartoon cat named Meat Cat. Brilliant. She awakes at her desk with a Cheesy Blaster melted to her face. Later, Frank reveals that the night before, he left his Sith Lord cloak too close to his mom’s shrine to Italian Jesus and the candles started a fire so he needs a place to stay temporarily. This line reminded me of the time my dad criticized art that depicts Jesus as white, when based on where he was born, he probably looked more like Sadaam Hussein. My dad drops opinion bombs like this frequently and you just kind of have to hope only family is around to hear them. So Liz, who recently purchased the apartment above her own, offers Frank a room Chez Lemon. During their first night together, Liz discovers Frank smoking and yells at him for doing something so disgusting and unhealthy. To which Frank retorts that it is no different than her scarfing down a bag of Cornholes (think Bugels)–“Manufactured in a facility that also processes food.” Frank takes no issue with either vice, resolving that one day he’ll get “one of those throat radios” and Liz will be buried in a piano crate. But she wouldn’t be Liz Lemon if she didn’t vow to improve herself at least every three and half episodes. Fast forward to the real gem of the story when Liz installs a hidden camera in her living room to prove Frank was still smoking, only to discover she herself is a sleep eater. We learned two important things in this scene. 1. Liz wears night spanx. And so does Lutz. Also, high five on continuity as once again Liz wore socks to bed. I even rewound to make sure. Tina your no bare feet clause is as ironclad as the no shirt clause at gay pride parades. 2. In night vision you are a blonde. I think it’s a nice color on you. But I guess your skin would have to be green. Based on the night vision footage and multiple Diff’rent Strokes references, this story line may have been able to stand on its own as the central plot but then we wouldn’t have had Verna who came wearing feather earrings she made from dead birds in her neighborhood.
Based on Jenna’s displays of over the top distress, we learn pretty quickly that Verna has not been the greatest mother figure. Examples of this include Verna using an Oxycontin prescription bottle as ID at the security desk downstairs and previously hitting Jenna up for money to pay her boyfriend’s medical bills when he broke his tailbone off in a cage match. Jenna turns to Jack, the poster boy for dysfunctional parent-child relationships (or was that Mackenzie Phillips?), for advice on how to stand up to her mother’s manipulations. After Jack’s “Just Say No” seminar, Jenna meets her mom at a diner only to discover Verna came to apologize and repay her debts. A sweet sentiment that Jenna is naturally fooled by but Jack Donaghy and I have watched enough sitcoms to know that you never trust a new character that sounds like a hick. Before we learn Verna’s true intentions, she throws a surprise birthday party for Jenna and publicly apologizes for missing the mother-daughter pagent where she and Jenna were supposed to perform a duet. In an attempt to let bygones be bygones, Jenna joins Verna in a rendition of “Do That to Me One More Time” by Captain and Tennille. An uncomfortable song choice for a mother and daughter as you might guess from the title. Also, I hate to point it out but technically not an original joke. In an episode of Arrested Development, Michael and Maeby (uncle and niece) make the Bluth office Christmas party a touch more incestuous when they do a karaoke duet of “Afternoon Delight.” After all the run around, we finally discover what Verna is after. She wants to star on a reality show about her relationship with her daughter, promising a show that will have “laughter, tears, topless arguments, infections caused by jazuzzi water!” The payoff at the end of the episode is not promotional footage of this new show, or even a peak at Verna’s tattoo, a mermaid doing it with Captain Morgan, but evidence that under that hard, Republican exterior, Jack wants to protect the people he never even thought to consider his friends. He gets Verna to drop the reality show idea by promising her the money she is after if she adheres to four visits per year and treats Jenna with respect. And in the meantime, Jack lets Jenna believe that her mom has really changed and that all upcoming quality time isn’t attached to a $3,000 paycheck. Just when you want to write 30 Rock off as a sketch show in a sitcom’s time slot, it offers a touch of depth to its characters. For the record, I never want to write 30 Rock off as anything but brilliant so I’m not a part of this group I speak of.
Finally, although we only had sprinklings of Tracy last night, while watching the hidden camera footage of Liz sleep eating, Tracy said it best:
Ok I dont mean to be the black guy at the movies but you better move girl!
30 Rock Quote of the Day:
Jenna: I’m sure she’s down there. Sitting on a curb, chain smoking and waiting for me to come out; just like the day I was born.
Dear Tina 