30 Rock, “Governor Dunston”: Dunston Checks In, Believability Checks Out

By John Everett

30 Rock has always lived in a cartoon version of real life, where NBC’s standards are so low they’ll put Milf Island on the air and Tina Fey just can’t seem to find a good man, but the antics in last night’s episode went too far off the deep end for me to find them very funny. At no point in “Governor Dunston” does the script make any effort to explain why and how Mitt Romney would put an inept re-segregationist governor on his ticket. The in-joke references to Tina Fey’s own experience as a Sarah Palin impressionist fell flat, and given the lack of credibility of the plot the episode started to veer off and become a chore to watch.

It didn’t help matters that the other plots were rote and uninteresting. Kenneth’s Mom and her friend Ron finally visit New York, and their over-the-top hillbillyness just made the show seem meaner and coarser than it really is. As Kenneth’s mother, Catherine O’Hara didn’t really feel legitimate, and the show largely wasted an appearance by the phenomenal Bryan Cranston as Ron.

Jenna’s lack of financial success in the music industry was a barely-there C-plot that didn’t get off the ground at all, despite a promising start in which Jenna prepares to really burn her bridges with the TGS staff based on the royalties from CD purchases, legal downloads, and sales at Blockbuster.

I suppose it was inevitable that the final run of 30 Rock would include a dud or two, but it’s still a major disappointment that with so few new episodes left, the show would uncork such a stinker as this one.

Additionally:

-Dunston’s bumbling wasn’t even that funny: he vomits, he tears his pants on a nail, etc. Yeah, his behavior seemed tailor-made for a TGS skit, but TGS really isn’t a funny show.

-I also found Liz being turned on by organization a little hard to swallow. Liz has never been particularly organized in either her real life or her job, so why would it help her and Chris?

-“You can’t do that in here! What do you think this is, Office Max?”

-When Rafalca eats an apple it either means yes, or he just wanted to eat an apple.

-Out of all the great guest stars the show has had over its run, was anyone really clamoring for the return of Matthew Broderick as Cooter Burger?

-“Let me die in the emergency room of a treatable disease. Like an American!”