’30 Rock’ season 7, episode 7 review: A wedding, Surge, and Tony Bennett

It takes a real talent for a show to be as meaningful and as random as “30 Rock” was on Thursday night, but Tina Fey and company managed to pull it off courtesy of a half-hour that felt like something new courtesy of Liz Lemon and Criss Cross’ wedding, but also still a love letter to folks who have been cheering these characters on since the very beginning.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of this occasion was not that Liz and Criss actually pulled off the wedding in the episode, but that they did so in a way that made them each realize that they cared about the big day far more than they were letting on. Seeing Liz wear a Princess Leia costume was a little random, but so much of the rest of it made since in between the rings, Jack Donaghy speaking at the event, and of course Liz’s own ex Dennis (along with his adopted son, which led to a pretty great “New Normal” joke) showing up and trying to ruin the whole event. Could the show have stopped here to have a genuine moment of vulnerability? Sure, but if you want that, you need to watch some other show. Maybe the tender moment was supposed to be Tony Bennett singing at the end.

Instead of sappiness, Liz’s manic wedding was juxtaposed this week with Tracy questioning his own mortality after finally realizing that he was actually not going to die anytime soon. He was in good health, which to him meant that he actually had to take some parts of his life a little bit seriously. How long did this last? About four minutes. Just when he was getting things together, he was hit by a taxi … and now that he realizes that threats to die really are everywhere no matter your health, he has now decided to go back to being lazy again. There was also a brief exchange here about how much Jenna was truly worth after a man (John Hodgman) showed up claiming he had enough points from old Surge sodas (remember them?) to claim her as a prize based on an old commercial. The moral to this story was simple: Jenna may not be worth much as a cash equivalent, but as long as she is worth more than those around her, she’s happy.

We’re not sure that “30 Rock” is as funny a show as it once was, but at the same time a decent version of this show is better than most everything else. There were some great moments in here, but as Liz said all along, this wedding was never meant to be something that we were supposed to eagerly anticipate. The true meat of the final season is coming up, and there is so much more worth getting excited about.

What did you think about Liz’s wedding: was it a hit, or a letdown? If you want to go back and watch a scene from the episode, you can do so here.

Photo: NBC