TV Review: ’30 Rock’ Episode: ‘The Ones’

The cast looks off into the stands, are you picking your nose up there?

Well men have no fear for you may have thought Salma Hayek would never return to 30 Rock after she left Jack earlier this season to go to some far off distant land for whatever reason was needed to have her exit since she’s a big name celebrity and she can’t stick around a TV show for very long. But now is a time for rejoicing my fellows for she is back on this week’s episode and in the first scene we see Jack looking for engagement rings for his beloved Latina with Liz in tow and there’s a great bit where she drops a ring down a vent and Jack must explain that this is not the woman he is marrying and shows the jeweler a picture of Salma and he takes him right away into the real show room.

But there is a bit of a hitch as Salma admits to Liz that she can’t marry jack because of some deep dark secret and she wants Liz to be the one to tell Jack what it’s all about. There’s some pretty interesting discoveries throughout the episode with this story line and I especially liked the part where Salma had to dramatically explain herself while wearing a shirt that said “What the Frak† on it and we all pretty much know what it’s leading up to but I will allow you all to find it out for yourselves. This does follow in the great tradition of celebrity guest stars on 30 Rock and how they are hilariously used and twisted about in this world that Tina Fey has crafted for them. And you can trust me in the fact that you will not be disappointed in what you are given in the way of story line for Miss Hayek.

Now with the rest of the episode we see Tracy trying to find the perfect anniversary gift for his wife which he gets down to either diamond bedazzled jacket that says “Hot Bitch† across the back or a slanket. I barely knew what a slanket was before this episode and upon finding out I don’t think I’d ever want to use one. For those not in the know it’s basically a blanket that has arm holes in it so you don’t have to release any bodily heat if you want to get something from the fridge or something. I will admit that I can be quite the lazy man on more than one occasion but that is going over the top just a little bit. Luckily for Tracy all he has to do is ask his wife what she wants and unfortunately for Tracy what his wife wants is a gift very few men would ever be willing to do.

Then we have Jenna who becomes so enamored with a brawny paramedic that actually likes her show and isn’t gay that she abuses the use of the emergency line, as well as someone’s deathly allergy to strawberries, just so she can reconnect with him. There is a really funny part where Pete asks her a question that tests whether people are psychopaths, which I had actually heard years ago, and Jenna doesn’t come off very well with her answer. The question basically involves whether you would be willing to murder your own father just in the hopes that someone you had meant at a funeral and liked would then come to this funeral so you could reconnect, sound familiar? Luckily no one ends up super hurt, or in a coffin, and there’s a great joke where Jenna is tricked by The Pranksmen, which is Twofer, Pete, and all the rest of the writers who do pranks and where kick ass fedoras. All in all a good episode that falls right in line with proving that 30 Rock still has the balls to be the funniest show on TV.