30 Rock “The Tuxedo Begins” Review

This week’s episode of 30 Rock finds both Liz and Jack struggling to deal with the challenges of living in New York City.

As a viewer of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise, it was really funny to hear Liz quoting Alex McCord. I also totally believe that Liz would purchase Sonja’s toaster oven cookbook – not that I think she would ever manage to make anything from the book. Of course, my favorite Housewives reference on 30 Rock is Sherri Shepard portraying Tracy Jordan’s wife on her own reality show. Nothing beats Sherri repeatedly saying ham.

For as much as Jack pokes fun at Liz’s quirky ways, he was just as crazy as Liz this week. I’m not sure who was worse – Liz in her old lady costume or Jack walking around in a tuxedo, afraid to leave work.

I’m always a fan of a Steve Buscemi cameo appearance. Although Buscemi’s appearance was much too short, looking at his work on the special task force of “very young looking cops who infiltrated high schools” was hilarious. I also enjoyed his revelation that purchases all of his outfits at Ann Taylor Loft because the clothes fit his body and his budget. Nice.

I generally don’t care for most of the story lines involving Jenna – I’m not sure if it is the character or the writing – but I really liked her exploration of “normal-ing.” I disagree with Pete, Jenna is still depraved even when she’s participating in normal activities.

Although Dark Knight jokes have already been done on the just about all of the NBC Thursday night shows – Parks & Rec, Community and The Office – I still found 30 Rock’s take on it to be novel. In particular, I found Liz’s crazy downward spiral resulting in her being the Joker pretty funny.

Observations and Favorite Moments:

>”Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up. There’s nothing you can do.” Liz’s unabashed butchering of the Jay Z/Alicia Keys song, New York.

>Even Tracy realizes that there is cause for concern if Jack decides to go with one of his ideas.

Sound off below on this week’s episode of 30 Rock.