TV Review: 30 Rock – Apollo, Apollo
Posted by Jim Rohner (jim@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 26, 2009
30 Rock, NBC, Airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30c
Episode: “Apollo, Apollo” (Season 3, Episode 16)
Synopsis: Turning 50, Jack hopes to recapture the joy he felt as a 10-year old that got him so excited he threw up. When Dennis (Dean Winters) shows back up in Liz’s life to make amends for being a sexaholic, one of his confessions strains Liz’s friendship with Jenna. In order to help Tracy fulfill a childhood dream, Pete (Scott Adsit) has to fake a trip to space inside the studio.
Review: Dennis Duffy is the kind of character you love to hate and since 30 Rock is chock full of characters that are all essentially reprehensible, it goes without saying that his appearances on the show are always entertaining. His ignorance and pig-headedness has spawned some classic verbal sparring with Liz and his sex addiction (self-diagnosed through WebMD, by the way) produces some gems. His apology, for example: “Former sex partner, I’m sorry that my disease has made you a victim of my sexual charisma. I’m sorry that I’ve ruined you for other men.”
Dennis doesn’t spend much time on screen though; he really just acts as a bridge to connect us to the conflict between Liz and Jenna brought on because Dennis and Jenna had sex in the past when they were both “really upset about Hurricane Katrina.” Let me just give a big thank you to the writers for finally giving Jenna a humorous thread that doesn’t revolve around a feud with Tracy. Initially, Liz and Jenna are united in sisterhood against Dennis (”Let’s give him a piece of our minds,” says Liz. “Let’s stab him,” says Jenna), but as Liz is wont to do, she finds herself feeling vengeful. Maybe it’s because Jenna and Dennis had sex in Liz’s bed. (”Ugh, come on you guys, I eat in there”). This ultimately leads to Liz allowing Jenna’s Peter Pan flight harness to break during a rehearsal, which causes her, overcome with guilt, to make it up to Jenna the only way she knows how: by allowing Jenna to tell the writers about her only acting gig in Chicago as a caller to an “urban dating phoneline.” Frank immediately finds the commercial on YouTube, which, if you didn’t see for yourself, will be done no justice by my mere mortal words of explanation. Suffice it to say it is gut-bustingly hilarious to see Liz, a.k.a. Bijou, with a Billie Jean King haircut saying she’s anxious for your call.
Tracy’s thread is sort of funny, sort of not, but Grizz at least makes an appearance with some speaking parts and some funny moments. Tracy’s dreams of space travel are spawned from aspirations I’m sure we’ve all had at some point in our lives – escaping the slums and killing an Ewok – and though the ways in which Pete goes about creating the illusion of space travel are pretty half-assed – they blindfold Tracy so as to avoid “space madness,” then fly him around the city in a helicopter and bring him back to the studio now decorated as a space shuttle – they fit in perfectly with the child-like and oblivious persona that is Tracy Jordan.
Perhaps the funniest gag of the show though, is brought about when Jack openly inquires what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of Kenneth. Well, luckily we get to see it, and from Kenneth’s P.O.V., the world is filled with singing puppets. The gag continues through the show when it later gives us the P.O.V. of Tracy – picture when John Malkovich went inside his own head in Being John Malkovich, but with Tracy Jordan heads – and the P.O.V. of Jack Donaghy – everything has a price tag, including Kenneth ($7, by the way).
Despite being wealthy and successful, Jack mourns the loss of childhood joy that he once had and currently sees within Kenneth and he pulls the plug on his 50th birthday party after Adam West – yes, THE Adam West – falsely introduces him as “Jake Denehy.” He makes it his quest to find the one thing that got him so excited as a 10-year old boy that he threw up and tries to do so by attempting to figure out what was in a box shown in some old home footage his mother gave him. After calling the IT department (”if I learned anything from watching 24, you’re going to want to zoom in and enhance”) he calls two people to his office under the guise of a job interview to help him figure out what was in the present: Jimmy, the guy who bought him the gift 40 years ago, and a deaf woman, who reads Jack’s 5th grade lips. Turns out, his 10-year old self was screaming, “Apollo, Apollo,” though why he wanted something space-centric so bad is not really explained. He drops $7000 on a vintage toy Apollo shuttle but ultimately finds his happiness again when watching Bijou’s commercial. He laughs so hard, he vomits, leading him to later inquire of Liz, “what would I do without you Lemon?”
Grade: B. Pretty good for the most part, it just didn’t feel like an A episode to me. Your thoughts?
Favorite Quote: Not a quote, just some of the items on Jack’s 5th grade list of things he wanted to do by the time he was 50: “Live in a house with stairs, beat up a Russian, hit mom with a car.”
Read More: 30 Rock Recaps
Did anyone else see this week’s episode? Your thoughts?
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