TV Review: ’30 Rock’ Episode: ‘The Natural Order’

I’d like to start off my review of 30 Rock by saying how happy I am to see the character of Jonathan back as Jack’s assistant. Maulik Pancholy as Jonathan is a brilliantly loopy person who fits very well into the mold of 30 Rock as a man in so much awe of another man he’s grown and odd love for him and after he was fired a few weeks ago because of cutbacks it’s good to see Jack couldn’t live without him as I’m sure it’s the same the other way around. You should also check Maulik out in the show Weeds where he plays another somewhat gay man and is pretty funny in that as well. So, anyway, what we’ve got here is your typical, classically perfectly hilarious episode of 30 Rock with all the just right blunders you would hope the characters to fall into.

First off we have Liz scorning Tracy so badly for never showing up on time and there is a great bit where a handful of people changed his clocks so much he couldn’t tell you what time it was if he has a sundial strapped to his back. So now Liz is informed that Tracy has two options and they both don’t sound particularly good for anybody. Now Tracy has decided to do the work that he is actually paid to do but the price might be too heavy for Liz to handle. Let’s just say it involves a great bit of slapstickiness with a water cooler and, of course, a good old fashioned jaunt to a strip club to go see some naked daughters and moms!

We also have another return of Jack’s mom who has brought a lover with her even though this day apparently marks the anniversary of when Jack’s dad left them and never came back. She of course could care less since it turns out the man disappeared so often it was no shocker to see him show up one night and be all antsy to go see Some Like it Hot. Being the good boy that he is, Jack hires a private eye to find out some dirt on the guy. I won’t say what is found out but its fairly simple and when the big confrontation does occur the explanation is what you probably would’ve guessed it would have been anyway so don’t expect any great shocks from this subplot.

Even the later shocker we get you could pretty much gather from what somebody had said earlier. The one good part here is that we get a good little scene with Steve Buscemi returning as the private detective he played last season and he’s got some good lines and you really can’t tell that he now has a glass eye after that car accident he was in.

The truly best bits in this episode come from Jenna who stands up for a gibbons monkey that Tracy had brought into replace him and they actually found the monkey showed up on time and didn’t bite any of the dancers. She even goes as far as naming it Little Jenna and everyone warns her that it’s unnatural to keep a monkey that way and dress him in cute little outfits that of course Jenna is stupid enough to put the monkey in, even though he does look adorable.

But, low and behold, Jenna pushes the monkey too far and puts it into so many situations that would provoke anger from a monkey that the results are less than what you would want happen with a monkey wrapped around your neck. It’s good to see that this show can still run an efficient episode and the comedy seems so seamlessly perfect it’s surprising to watch how they never seem to fail in making their episodes gut wrenchingly amusing to watch. I mean what can you say about a show that can make a spot on Quantum Leap reference?