On the heels of Sunday’s Emmy wins for 30 Rock, including awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and lead comedy actor Alec Baldwin, the show’s stellar third season comes to DVD. The wonderfully ridiculous show is the creation of Tina Fey based loosely on her experience as head writer at Saturday Night Live for seven years.
Fey also stars as Liz Lemon, the harried head writer of TGS with Tracy Jordan, a sketch show mainly featuring the dubious talents of Tracy (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski). Constantly juggling the stresses of the job and the prima donna demands of Jenna and Tracy, Liz confides often in NBC network executive Jack Donaghy (Baldwin, in the role of his career). Awkward, TV-loving NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) rounds out the principal cast.
The third season of 30 Rock finds the show at its strongest yet, allowing the frequently absurd and unconventional humor to flourish, and giving the strong ensemble cast room to develop. Most obvious is the relationship between Jack and Liz, and it’s frequently both poignant and hilarious to see the two begrudgingly come to depend on and care for each other.
Fey’s self-deprecating characterization of Liz as a lonely woman whose main love is food (these jokes never get old) continues to work. Despite the various plotlines in season three that threaten to break her out of this rut — a season-long arc about her attempts to adopt a child, a budding romance with a guy she meets by reading his mail — it’s becoming increasingly obvious none of these life changes are going to take root. In this case, the old sitcom standby of maintaining the status quo in a character’s life actually works for 30 Rock, as the writing has stayed sharp and resisted stagnation while treading familiar ground.
Article comments
1 - Sahar
Great review! I agree that 30 Rock has yet to become boring or jumping the shark; and I would have loved to read your take on the various social criticisms of the show!