30 Rock Review: "Christmas Attack Zone"
Dan Forcella at .This was a really fun and almost heartwarming holiday - oh, sorry, Jack, I mean Christmas - episode of 30 Rock.
Like the title state, "Christmas Attack Zone" was mainly focused on Jack's plan to attack his own mother on December 25.
Like I said last week, I enjoy stories about Jack's father issues more than those about his mother issues because I cannot stand Colleen Donaghy. But at least she did come through with one line this week, wanting the scholarship at Jack's graduation to go to "the other boy!"
The entire A plot turned out great, in spite of Colleen, mostly because there was a minimal amount of Liz complaining - and a lot of great one liners by Alan Alda.
Milton Greene was just on fire this week, with everything from the cover of his new book to mentioning that his son's name is Spiderman because he lets his kids name themselves.
Although Liz was relegated to mostly background noise this week, what she did bring to the table was great. She mostly was talking about The Mentalist, so much so that one time she referred to herself as "The Menta-Liz." Being a TV fan, I enjoy how much television that Liz Lemon actually watches. I'd love to see someone go back and count how many different shows Liz has mentioned over the years.Both the B and C stories were also good, although Jenna's really only brought anything at the very end when she and Paul actually dressed up as "two black swans." Seeing her singing as Lynn Swann during the final montage made up for the uninteresting stuff earlier in half hour.
Tracy's story was great because of the contrast it created for the character. We've seen Tracy try to be serious before, but for this extended period of time it was great to see. I mean, who wouldn't love a Tracy Jordan that only made movies about the Holocaust, Georgia O'Keefe... or both? The realization that comedy is also necessary was obvious, but still a nice way to bring out some ridiculous gags from the Klump-esque characters from Tracy's new movie.
And the final montage they went on throughout the end of the episode was just great. "O Holy Night" playing while the 30 Rock cast does absolutely nutty things? Can't get much funnier than that. We had the two black swans singing, the Chucnks vometing profusely, Liz boarding a bus and sitting next to a guy with a parrot on his shoulder, and Jack smiling as his parents scream and yell at him. Just fantastic.
Follow this link to checkout our favorite 30 Rock quotes from the episode.
Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.