Killing an Ewok

The only thing on TV Thursday night that could soothe my soul after the loss of the Memphis Tigers was a new episode of 30 Rock. Sadly, it wasn’t their best effort. Jack is planning his 50th birthday party, Tracey wants to go to space and Liz’s degenerate ex-boyfriend Dennis rears his head again.

After seeing some of his childhood home movies of his birthday, Jack is inspired to celebrate his success. After an offhand comment by Kenneth, Jack’s happy birthday suddenly becomes dour and reflective.

Dennis, now claiming to be a sex addict, has been calling all his former partners claiming he needs to make amends. Because of this Liz discovers that Jenna and Dennis also had sex. Liz confronts Jenna and the two bond. They decide to give Dennis a piece of their minds, which he turns against them. The next day, Jenna is doing a sketch suspended on a high wire. Liz neglects to tell her about a clip on her wire harness and Jenna is injured. Despite their best intentions, Dennis has driven a wedge between the old friends.

At Jack’s birthday party, its clear that the only people who came are business associates and strangers. Feeling depressed and alone, Jack decides to invigorate his birthday by finding out what was the birthday present that made him so excited in his childhood home video. After getting a deaf person to decode his words, he discovers that the toy that made him so happy is replication of the Apollo moon lander.

Jack decides to placate Tracey’s dreams of space travel. The only way to do so is to fake a spaceship flight using the TV studio. Tracey falls for the elaborate trick hook, line and sinker.

Though it was funny in general, the show felt sloppy this week. 30 Rock usually tries to tie things up at the end, but this one just ended on a gag about Liz’s early acting job as a model for a phone sex commercial. Its hilarious, but it just didn’t wrap the episode up properly. Although 30 Rock is still the king of network comedy, this episode showed some chinks in the armor.