30 Rock – Salma Hayek does the Macarena

(Season 3, Episode 7 – “Senor Macho Solo”)

I feel like it’s been a while, and it was good to have 30 Rock back. The season of stunt casting continued this week with Salma Hayek starting her guest starring stint, as well as an appearance by Peter Dinklage (who I loved in Elf and Nip/Tuck). Add in a Janis Joplin biopic, a medical scare, and Liz being Liz and … it all added up to a subpar episode. Bummer.

Someday I would like to be rich enough to buy a shirt made out of money to go with a shiny new pair of gold shoes. It’s never gonna happen, but a boy can dream….

This episode featured Liz’s baby craziness getting the best of her. She started dating Peter Dinklage’s character, Stuart LeGrange, after meeting him on the street where she “got his attention” by rubbing his head. The sad truth was that she mistook him for a child. This ended up ruining the relationship as Liz kept mistaking him for a child. This whole plotline fell a little flat for me. I think there were too many storylines going on this week and none of them were able to get developed enough to really be funny. I feel like we’ve seen Liz sabotage so many relationships before that it’s starting to get a little stale.

Jack was afraid that he had testicular cancer which led to a funny moment between himself and his mother’s nurse, Elisa, played by the aforementioned Hayek. Jack ended up visiting her family’s party (where she was doing the Macarena — you have to love that). I don’t understand how this led to Jack declaring his love for her. Again, an underdeveloped plot line. Am I asking for too much? I mean this is just a 30 minute comedy, but can you really build a relationship in two or three scenes?

Elsewhere Tracy was trying to spend as much cash as he could to avoid tempting his wife to divorce him and take half the money. I think this brief storyline may have been the funniest in the episode. Between Tracy buying network time for a Benny Hill tribute and he and his wife making love on Jack’s desk after signing their “post-nup” this was a pretty funny diversion.

I also found the Jenna plot funny. She spent the episode obsessed with the Janis Joplin biopic that she was determined to star in. After forcing her way into the role, she discovered that the competing movie (starring Julia Roberts) had all the music rights. This all lead to Jenna singing the hilarious “Take Another Little Chunk of my Lung,” as written by Jack Donaghy.

The great thing about 30 Rock is that even when the episode is slightly disappointing, there are always great quotes:

• “Look at us and our biological clocks: you’re going baby crazy and I keep getting turned on by car accidents.” – Jenna to Liz
• “I like aggressive women with a nerdy vibe.” – Stuart LeGrange, regarding Liz
• “Take a lesson from Janis Joplin and show some self control.” – Jenna
• “She’ll have a cup of hot water with a chicken bone in it and a bowl of salted ice cubes.” – Jack, ordering dinner for his date
• “More embarrassing than your CD collection? I didn’t know Michael Buble had so many albums.” – Elisa to Jack
• “Thank you for telling me what I already know. You should work for the Huffington Post.” – Jack
• “A Blaffair to Rememblack” – the title of Tracy’s remake of An Affair to Remember.
• “Can two people fall in love over a benign gonad cyst?” – Jack

Were you a little let down with this episode too? Did I miss your favorite quote?

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 08, 2009 @ 22:25 EST5EDT