Last Night on 30 Rock: Did Queen Latifah Ruin an Otherwise Perfect Episode?
30 Rock has been on fire this season, jumping from Jack's paternal woes to Liz's harried ventures to Kabletown's stupidity with elan. But last night, Queen Latifah's guest appearance as congresswoman Regina Bookman felt odd. While the rest of the cast gave us an incredible episode, was Latifah living single as the night's missed opportunity?
Latifah played a grandstanding congresswoman who used Jack Donaghy's Kabletown testimony as an opportunity to call out NBC's racism and draw attention to herself. Halfway through a rant, she starts declaring that she forgot what she was talking about minutes ago, all while employing that bravado suited for speakers at (Nonpartisan) National Conventions. It's a funny idea. It's not so funny coming from the mouth of an actress who's flashing us congenial Cover Girl mugging and failing to reach the delirium of even an actual politician. And if we're going to hire an Oscar nominee of the past ten years to play this juicy part, why not -- say -- the always convincing Viola Davis? Latifah is all charisma and no character, and we needed the latter in this guest appearance.
Still, let's not forget the episode's perks. Jenna's "Vagitrex" prescription ("It's for dry... knees"), the insulting placards that Frank keeps posting on Liz's door ("Winona Ryder in 100 Years" was my favorite), and NBC's new verse to "We Didn't Start the Fire" ("Golden Girls, Quantum Leap, Outsourced is the new Friends!"). Fear not, 30 Rock will rip itself apart next week with its live episode and start from scratch, "just like Mickey Rourke did to me sexually." Viva Krakowski, always.
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
Oh my.. the world will end as we know it ; because Queen Latifah didn't do her best work, on some freaking show.
And let's now be perfectly clear to this..your character is now being questioned.. Mr.. Virtel.
Wow. just a testimony to the how completley boring the entertainment industry is these days.n * Yaaawn
I start to worry about our friends at 30 Rock, then they come through with a million great lines Tracy: "Jack, I was talking to Don Imus and he told the best joke..." It's never been about the plot of this show (which is just the same plot every week...crazy woman works for crazy mentor) but the outstanding lines and "bits of business". Queen Latifah wasn't funny, but then neither was Edie Falco.
wow. I found this page because I thought her performance was quite enjoyable. It only needs to be charisma at this stage of the show - 30 rock is clearly in the phase of cramming as many guest stars in with a wink & a nod to the audience, and that's all it needs to be. the whole show is full of hamming it up & overacting, why do you demand an authentic performance from a guest star?
I, like the anonymous guy before me, found this page because I thought that Queen Latifah did a great job with this role. I completely disagree with the statement that her role was centered around her believability as a character. I feel, rather, that this role was based on the parody of African-American political rhetoric and required delivery, not convincing. In that way, I believe that Latifah delivered spectacularly. Her "and if I keep talking like thiiis...." joke at the beginning was one of my favorite jokes of all time, and I was more than pleased to have Queen Latifah present it.