Rosemary's Baby

After seeing SeinfeldVision, I was fairly convinced no episode of 30 Rock's second season could improve on that kind of self-referential madness. How wrong I was: Rosemary's Baby is the standout of the show's second year, not to mention Alec Baldwin's golden ticket to receiving the Emmy Award he lost in 2007.

The episode kicks off with Liz attending a book-signing by Rosemary Howard (Carrie Fisher), a has-been comedy writer who greets Liz's offer to do some stuff for TGS with wild enthusiasm, although her racy ideas quickly clash with NBC standards and Jack's policy (even if he agreed to air a sketch about dog penises), leading to Liz's decision to quit and create a new show with Rosemary (a decision she regrets fast enough). Another problem tormenting Jack is Tracy's tendency to do the exact opposite of what people tell him (in this case: don't dogfight), an inconvenience he believes can be solved with therapy. Also, Jenna causes a mess with Kenneth, which almost degenerates into a trivia contest with the page's most bitter rival.

The appeal of the episode lies in how the actors are willing to make fun of themselves with all the ease in the world: Fey, of course, does that all the time, since the whole idea of the series derives from her experience at Saturday Night Live, but the major contributions come from Fisher and Baldwin: the former, a has-been in real-life as well, was Emmy-nominated for her loving deconstruction of her persona, on screen and off, culminating in the ultimate Princess Leia spoof ("Help me Liz Lemon, you're my only hope!"), beating the hell out of her equally smart cameo in Scream 3 (remember? She played an actress who didn't get the Leia part because she refused to sleep with George Lucas); the latter, almost always the funniest thing in the show, mocks his SNL impressions with a borderline mental therapy session scene where he ends up impersonating the most unexpected people (must be seen to be believed). Forget Glengarry Glen Ross or The Cooler: this is the definitive showcase of the full extent of his versatility. The well-deserved Emmy win confirms that beyond any doubt.

Like a lot of '30 Rock' episodes, there's a lot here that I enjoyed, and other things that I found just plain annoying. This show does have a tendency to move towards the dark, and I'm not a fan.

This is the episode that made me fall in love with 30 Rock and Tina Fey. Women who grew up during second wave feminism's most active period during the Sixties and Seventies always feel at least some low-level guilt for their power and success because we are the beneficiaries of all the work before us. Throughout the series, Liz Lemon is hyper-vigilant about her own guilt. When the inimitable Carrie Fisher jumps on Liz's guilt trip, Liz goes all in and takes a left turn down Calle de Crazy (otherwise known as Little Chechnya). Alec Baldwin is in top comic form, and that's saying something. So many good lines, and his mashup of Fred Sanford and To Kill a Mockingbird is the most obtuse/brilliant riff I have ever witnessed. The page-off is also amusing, but I wish it were sacrificed for more Carrie. It's weird but true that after first viewing this episode, I felt understood (ironic that the writer was a man). If art is cathartic, this episode is the orgasm that gets you there.

This is the fourth episode of the second season of 30 Rock, and it is utterly fantastic. It vastly improves from the last episode, but like the last episode, this episode features a very funny guest star. This time, the cameo appearances in the form of none other than Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher. She was hilarious and I loved how she spoofed Star Wars with her famous quote, "Help Me, Liz Lemon. I'm you're only hope!"

In this episode, "Rosemary's Baby," Liz goes to a book signing of a comedy writer from the 1960's whom she idolizes. After Rosemary was hired, no one agrees with her ideas and eventually both Liz and Rosemary are fired. Meanwhile, Jack has to stop Tracy from dogfighting and Jenna almost starts a trivia war between Kenneth and his rival.

Overall, this is an excellent episode and Carrie Fisher's cameo is one of the early highlights for this second season. One thing I've noticed and that is how the guest stars have a higher pedigree this season. But I think that is a good thing. I rate this episode 9/10.