30 rock
jack meets dennis (6/21)

Continuing tonight is the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning sitcom following the fortunes of long-suffering TV comedy writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). In tonight’s show, Jack decides that Liz needs a mentor after he discovers that she is back with her ex-boyfriend; Tracy is concerned that he may be losing his edge and Jenna takes dramatic steps to preserve her youth.

Liz’s love life has taken a step back this week: she is back with Dennis (Dean Winters, ‘Law & Order: SVU’, ‘CSI: Miami’), an immature ex-boyfriend who sells pagers and enjoys acting the fool in public. Jenna is not impressed at her friend’s choice of man, but Liz defends him. “Dennis is a good guy,” she insists. “Not really,” replies Jenna. Regardless, Liz remains convinced that being with Dennis is a good thing – besides, nobody else has asked her out.

When Jack meets Liz’s sorry excuse for a boyfriend, he decides that he needs to do something about his employee’s “mediocre” life and offers to become her mentor. “I see potential in you,” he explains. After she refuses her boss’s help, he introduces her to one of his previous projects, who tells her: “I used to be a lot like you. Dressed poorly, bad posture, walked around with lettuce in my hair...” Eventually Liz comes round to the idea and allows Jack the chance to give her a lifestyle makeover. “Lemon,” proclaims Jack, “this is the first day of the rest of your life.” The first task he sets his new protegée is to break up with Dennis. Will she manage to ditch the safe bet?

Tracy, meanwhile, is having his own crisis. Having spotted himself in a gossip magazine, he is horrified to see that he has been decribed as ‘normal’ and decides that this outrage cannot continue. “If I’m normal, I’m boring,” he explains. “And if I’m boring, I’m not a movie star. If I’m not a movie star, I’m poor – and poor people can’t afford to pay back the $75,000 in cash they owe Quincy Jones!” When an elderly member of an NBC tour party observes that Tracy seems like a normal guy, Tracy decides that enough is enough. But his solution to the problem – a huge facial tattoo –is not very well received...

Jenna is also having image problems. Thrown when Jack asks her how old she is, she becomes convinced that people think she is past her sell-by date. “When someone asks an actress how old she is, it’s a more statement than question,” she complains to Liz. To remedy the situation, Jenna decides that a few cosmetic procedures are needed. When Liz comes into Jenna’s dressing room, she is horrified to see her friend’s red, blistered face and asks her what happened. “Just getting more rest, drinking more water,” says Jenna airily. “Really?” replies Liz. “This water – did someone boil it first and throw it in your face?”

With Jenna disfigured, Tracy tattooed and fallback option Josh bruised and battered after an altercation with an angry Elizabeth Taylor, Liz has more on her plate than just a mediocre love life – the show goes live in just half an hour. “These people cannot be on television!” declares Jack, before enquiring about Liz’s non-existent contingency plan. Perhaps Liz’s new mentor has a solution for that problem too...