ST. PATRICK'S DAY

30 Rock
Season 6 (2012)

You may have gathered from the recent dearth of posts that the various Valentine’s Day episodes I’ve been watching were leaving me rather uninspired.  While I can’t be counted among the V-Day “Hallmark holiday” haters (I could never truly hate any holiday), Valentine’s Day episodes were proving rather dull. Now we enter a new and exciting time, as the next few holidays are going to prove challenging in terms of ferreting out TV episodes.  St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Arbor Day and the rest of the spring holidays are not nearly as favored by sitcom writers, which makes the episodes that do exist rare and special.  I live for the obscure (even the semi-obscure) so this is going to be fun!

After that pep talk, my first St. Patrick’s Day post comes from a hardly obscure source, as 30 Rock is much beloved and well-known.  But I wanted to start with something I knew would be good, and 30 Rock never lets me down.  And with a main character named Jack Donaghy you just know that this show is going to deliver a solid ode to St. Patrick’s Day (actually two, as there is also Season 3’s “The Funcooker”).  

As typical of the modern, slightly schizophrenic sitcom style, we are treated to not one but three different storylines, all set in NYC on St. Patrick’s Day.  Our heroine Liz Lemon detests the holiday and plans on dressing all in orange and barricading herself in her apartment along with her boyfriend Criss in order to avoid the drunken masses.  Her plans are ruined when her douchey ex-boyfriend Dennis shows up and proceeds to drive a wedge between Liz and Criss by exposing her inability to say “I love you” (one of her evasions, as seen in flashback, is simply saying “Scooby Doo!”).

The orange-clad couple judge from their ivory apartment tower

Meanwhile Jenna and Tracy are tasked with live-hosting the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but they end up clashing on-air over who is the bigger celebrity.  Their boss Jack also finds himself at loose ends when he is beaten by a role-playing game that the writers are playing (they also stay in during St. Patrick’s day because they all have faces that invite punching).  Jack finds the difficult game, a parody of Settlers of Catan, to be a metaphor for his own stagnant career, though he eventually rallies and wins both the game and his confidence back.

After being unmasked by Dennis as being more Irish than she’d care to admit, Liz runs after Criss, braving the drunken hordes (she dons Incredible Hulk gloves, as they were the only green thing she owned).  Liz finally tells Chriss that she loves him, which is broadcast live via the parade.  The episodes ends with Jenna singing “Danny Boy,” because you can never go wrong with Jenna Maroney (aka Jane Krakowski) and her lovely singing voice.

Tracy Morgan makes for a surprisingly convincing leprechaun.  Also: hobgoblin.

Special events that inspire drinking, like St. Patrick’s Day, baseball games and the dreaded Santa Con (*shudder*) do tend to be nightmares in the city, especially on the subway.  So I can totally relate to Liz, though not to her wearing orange (that’s just wrong; I far prefer Jack’s shiny green tie in this episode).  I also loathed Settlers of Catan the one time I played it, so this episode was pretty much tailor-made for me, including even the Incredible Hulk gloves.  

If you’re looking to get in the Irish spirit this March but want to avoid the legions of “it’s a holiday so I can be a drunken asshole" assholes, you can model yourself after Liz and stay in and order Thai food.  Or follow my method: right after work go to the nearest pub in walking distance, gulp down a meal of corned beef and cabbage and get the hell out of there by 6 or 6:30.  Head home and settle in, content in the knowledge that you did your holiday pub duty while still making it home in time for brownies with green-mint icing and a viewing of Darby O’Gill and the Little People.

St. Patrick’s Day Quotient: 4

See It, Skip It, Own It?
Embrace your inner Irish: go watch this episode!