I’m not sure if anyone was dying for his reappearance, but Floyd’s back in this week’s episode of 30 Rock. Floyd brings with him one of my least favorite aspects of the show—the way it continually knocks Liz Lemon as some sort of neurotic, fat, ugly slob that no one would want to be with, which completely belies that she’s played by the same Tina Fey who just graced the covers of Esquire and Vogue. I’m sorry, writers of 30 Rock, but Liz is hot, and in reality would have no problem getting whoever she wanted. Neurosis may be causing her relationships to end, but men will put up with a lot to be with someone who looks like that.
On the other hand, Floyd tends to lead the show into interesting places that we haven’t seen before. He’s utterly unremarkable, but in the world of 30 Rock that in itself is a blessing. His return is also a bit unexpected considering that he moved across the country, but he’s back in Liz’s life by appearing with his new fiancée on television. Liz has trouble dealing with this and meets Floyd in order to sabotage things by getting him sick. She instead oddly sabotages Floyd by getting him drunk, and just as you’d expect drunken hijinks ensue. This is definitely not the strongest Floyd plot, but it’s still interesting enough, especially when revealing that Floyd is in fact willing to move for some people. That the yoga instructor he’s now with isn’t nearly as attractive as Liz makes this kind of strange, but some of the oddites we learn about their time together make things interesting nonetheless.
Floyd’s definitely the focus of, uhh, “Floyd,” but not my favorite part of the episode, which has the trio of named writers in a pranking war with Jack and the new Canadian guy. New Canadian guy seems to be getting blander by the episode (that he actually shows up in), but the Jack v. the writers plots always have a nice spark to them. Jack wins the war by threatening to sleep with their mothers, and it’s creepy, funny and perfectly in line with his character.
The episode’s third plot is about Jenna and Tracy being forced to listen to Kevin’s annoying stories while having their faces’ molded and it’s pretty mixed. Listening to Kenneth tell inane redneck stories is always entertaining, but when the pair can’t get him out of their dreams and so decide to kill him in their dreams things go downhill. The best part of this whole sequence was Pete causing the whole thing, especially considering how infrequent it can be that he or the writers get time in the show at all.
Not a great episode, but it’s still pretty good by this season’s standards, if a somewhat disappointing use of Floyd’s return. Part of it may be that at this point Liz’s relationships failing has become pretty old hat for the show since we’ve seen it time and time again. “Floyd” wasn’t exactly in that vein but it still spent most of its time dealing with Liz’s romantic past, which is territory that’s just not as fresh as it was a few seasons ago. I’d like to see her find a good man and let the show move onto something else for a while.
Stray Observations:
“Ok, universe, send me a white football player … no kickers or linemen.”
“There’s going to be a profile of me in the New York Times as filler due to declining ad sales.” – it’s funny cause it hurts.
“Silly Mr. Hornberger, always saying hate when he means love.”
“That’s why I get all of my views from Dick Cheney’s website, DickViews.com.”
“My guess is this is the work of Frank, the black one and *sting* Lutz.” – I’m glad to see that the pranksmen’s reputation precedes them.
“I’m no stranger to the art of jappery.”
-Joke or no, I completely agree that the silver panther is the most handsome animal.
-They may be a bit more folksy, but really there’s little to differentiate Kenneth’s stories from Grandpa Simpson’s.
“Friend and former intercourse companion.”
“Jack messed with the wrong fat losers.”