Alright! Today I'm reviewing the last of the four shows from the decade of NBC (2005-2015). And, out of The Office, Parks and Rec, and Community, I've got to say 30 Rock is my least favorite. I mean, it's still a good show, it's just never as funny as the other three.
30 Rock was created by Tina Fey, who stars as the main character, Liz Lemon, alongside Alec Baldwin, Tracey Morgan, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Krakowski. 30 Rock serves as a fun "box within a box" type experiment, a TV show about making a TV show, where the main characters are writers, actors, and executives.
In a way, that's extremely clever. The crazy sitcom situations are all mildly anchored by the "It can't be TV show fluff! They're the ones making the TV!" 30 Rock jumps those sharks all the time (In terms of weird scenarios that don't happen in real life, not the ruining the show sharks). But because it's about people who make TV, it always feels a bit more grounded. If the TV show is about those making TV, it means the show must be set in "the real world," which means that it can't be a shark, right?
Right?
Anyhow, one of 30 Rock's favorite things to do was introduce some zany, unrealistic plot by way of NBC executive Jack Donaghy or in-universe TGS star Jenna Maroney and Tracy Jordan. Those three were the driving force behind some absolutely insane plots.
The other thing that 30 Rock loved doing was constantly detailing how terrible Liz Lemon is. Nearly half of the show is endearing self-jabs at Liz Lemon, and, I imagine, Tina Fey. A lot of it is about how terrible her love life, personal life, work life, life in general is.
The final piece of the 30 Rock humor was penis. There were so many times during the show that they would randomly end previously well-written and hilarious jokes with a random line about penises and other phallic material. It happened consistently throughout the show, but did get worse towards the end of the show's life.
Like all TV shows, 30 Rock had a noticeable peak. Hit hard by the writer's strike of '09, was it? The peak seasons were 2, 3, and 7. Season 1 was pretty great, but seasons 4, 5, and 6 were all of questionable quality.
30 Rock is also abundant in great characters outside Liz Lemon. Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, for which he won several Emmies, is the MVP of the series. Several episodes (And sometimes seasons) are carried by him. He's a very charismatic, hard-ticket Republican, humanized version of a big businessman is reminiscent of politicians if they had hearts or personalities. He's the show's best character by a long shot.
The other great character is Kenneth Parcell. Kenneth is a happy-go-lucky with an unbelievable devotion to NBC for a country bumpkin who probably didn't have a TV growing up. The show walked a careful line with not jumping the shark with him as The Office did with Dwight. Like, when you take the four NBC show's "weird" characters - Dwight, Ron Swanson, Kenneth Parcell, and Abed Nadir, Kenneth stands between Dwight and Ron Swanson. See the graphic below.
30 Rock's final truly great character was Tracy Jordan, a fictionalized version of actor Tracy Morgan, the token "stupid" character of the show, joining the likes of Kevin Malone, Andy Dwyer, and Troy Barnes. Unlike them, however, the show doesn't try and pretend that they are capable of living regular human lives. Tracy's mental issues are frequently referred to throughout the show.
The supporting cast was completely underutilized, which is the primary reason it's my least favorite of the four. Unlike The Office's, Parks and Rec's, and even Community's surprisingly well utilized and well-rounded cast, 30 Rock's supporting cast of writers and assistants like Cerie, Jonathan, and Danny Baker are rarely used. At all. Sometimes they disappear for entire seasons with, like, no acknowledgment.
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| I really liked the Conan O'Brien character they created, he was fun. |
30 Rock, I felt, also failed a bit when it tried to be anything other than episodic. Plots that span several seasons, such as Avery Jessup's kidnapping by North Korea, mostly fell flat for me. On the other hand, I was very excited it never tried to overblow marriages or pregnancies. It recognized people who work on television shows are probably losers with no lives.
Another thing I applaud the show for was the fact that a large portion of the seventh season focuses on how the characters had changed and was all about future growth. It was nice that they recognized the subtle change, as I had enjoyed watching that change happen for six seasons.
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| Pretty fun. |
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