30 Rock is the premiere NBC television show that stands, along with The Office, as being one of the funniest, well-known, and well-written shows that has come out in the past ten years. 30 Rock has all of the workings of a sitcom without the artificial laughter or the constrictions of stages. I got into this show about a year ago and quickly gulped up all of the episodes on the Watch It Now Netflix and just recently the third season was released.
The show is created and produced by former-SNL cast mate, Tina Fey. I personally didn't think her star shined very much on the aforementioned late night sketch show (shoot, Saturday Night Live hasn't been good since Will Ferrell and all his crew were on), but she left it to push her television show full force and not only is her signature brand of humor there, but she also helped create some of the more remarkable characters in television.
In the third season of 30 Rock, you assume the watching duties of producer/writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) as she tries to control two famous personalities on the TGS show-loopy Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and egotistically shallow Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski)--as they make her life much more difficult than it has to be.
Along for the ride is her writing staff of "Toofer" (black Harvard grad) and Frank (smart aleck guy who wears a different witty trucker hat every day) as well as then oddly innocent NBC page, Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) and her boss, network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin).
Throughout the 22 episodes you see the embarrassing and hilarious situations that all of these characters get in through the eyes of Liz Lemon and sometimes the crazy narrative of Tracy Jordan, who's obviously insane, but makes for great television.
This season of 30 Rock is very similar to the past two except that I found the writing funnier and the characters written much better. The two people who steal this season are Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin, whose characters not only have the funniest lines, but whose performances were spot on comedically.
Baldwin takes center stage and almost has this Michael Scott (of The Office) breath about him except that he's not so oblivious. His selfish nature as well as his lack of humanity makes him a completely engrossing character, while Morgan's character is so unpredictable that you never really know where he's going with it until it's too late and you find yourself in stitches.
Tina Fey, of course, gives a great performance where her character is trying to find a relationship that works for her given her own various psychoses-mainly her overeating and dorky demeanor. The only problem I had, this season, cast-wise was that Judah Friedlander (trucker cap wearing staff writer) doesn't really do that much this season as, with past seasons, he was a much more integral part to the stories in each episode.
Along for the ride this season is a plethora of guest appearances from Steve Martin, Steve Buscemi, Chris Parnell (returning as the crazy physician character), Jennifer Aniston, Alan Alda, and the delicious Salma Hayek who plays Donaghy's principal love interest (to interesting results).
There are a lot of great episodes this season, too, such as:
Liz Lemon flying to Chicago to get out of jury duty and sitting next to "Oprah Winfrey" (long, funny story about all of that).
Jenna becoming a part of the Janis Joplin biopic and using method acting.
Tracy getting diabetes and having Kenneth try and take care of him. Liz getting blackmailed by a taxi driver after losing her phone in his cab (which contains a nude photo of her).
Tracy causes a huge panic across New York City after appearing on Larry King (hands down one of the best episodes).
Ob la dee ob la da -- it goes on...
Thank God the third season of 30 Rock just came out a few weeks ago because it's just in time for the fourth season to air (this Thursday on NBC). Whoa, that was cheap marketing--NBC should be paying me. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first two seasons of this great show, this is the one that clearly shines as it was nominated for a record 22 Emmy's and picked up quite a few of them. The writing is remarkable, the cast is fabulous, and it's a vibrant force on television that truly has to be watched as it, like Jenna Maroney, deserves your full attention.
I watched it all on Netflix, but I fully intend on buying this wonderful slice of television.
Set behind the scenes at TGS a fictional NBC sketch comedy series 30 ROCK follows showrunner Liz Lemon Tina Fey as she contends with her program's fli...More at Family Video
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