Instant Reaction: '30 Rock'

It’s a precarious time for “30 Rock” fans.

Tonight, the NBC comedy begins its third season -– do-or-die time for the critically beloved but ratings-starved series. After three seasons and an Emmy for best comedy, poor ratings performance killed Fox’s media darling, “Arrested Development.” There was the short-lived “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” and “Undeclared.” And patience wears even thinner these days: This week, CBS newcomer “The Ex-List,” the most promising of the fall comedies, according to critics, was yanked from the schedule after just four episodes and diminishing returns.

The good news is "30 Rock" is better than ever. Tina Fey’s recent “Saturday Night Live”-boosting Sarah Palin impressions do not seem to have depleted her creative juices. She’s got a whole lot more where that came from.

When last we left off, comedy writer Liz (Fey) was getting over Floyd and trying desperately to adopt a baby. This season, she charges ahead toward motherhood, first tripping over the adoption agency’s evaluator, Bev (tonight’s guest star Megan Mullally).

Liz's NBC boss Jack (Alec Baldwin), meanwhile, successfully failed his way out of Washington and returns with guns blazing, ready to take down Devon (Will Arnett), his closeted professional rival, and Kathy (Marceline Hugot), Devon’s wife and the CEO’s strange, mostly mute daughter. Devon forces him to start in the mailroom, but Jack gets a leg up -– literally -– when Kathy takes an unexpected liking to him.

Plenty of laughs ensue.

This is not the hyped-but-lukewarm season opener of last year, which was overly reliant on the power of guest star Jerry Seinfeld in a rare, unfunny cameo for the comic. Rather, the episode is a celebration of Liz’s topsy-turvy world and the kooks who populate it.

That said, the episode doesn’t exactly welcome the uninitiated. (At least “Arrested Development” opened every week with a short spiel about the family Bluth.) First-timers should know that the conflict between Jack, Devon and Kathy is more or less resolved within the half-hour. And, even if you’re not dialed in, it’s easy enough to get the idea: Kenneth is the adorable and slow NBC page, Tracy is the star of Liz’s show and outrageously misbehaved, and Jenna is the sidelined, attention-craving co-star. Etc.

But loyal fans can take comfort in knowing that Fey hasn’t blown up the show in the name of ratings –- I've never quite forgiven ABC for morphing the deliciously layered “Alias” into a spy-game-of-the-week procedural -- though higher ones would be nice.

Watch the episode now and then make a weekly appointment. 

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Tiny Fey, left, and Megan Mullally on "30 Rock." Credit: NBC

Comments

[tom albright]

After the NBC, MSNBC, Saturday Night Live and Tina Faye biased, unbalanced and prejudiced endorsement of Obama, this is one viewing household that will not be wasting another 1/2 hour of our night watching what we are SURE will be another opportunity by Tina Faye to influence the voters in favor of Obama!!! Fool us once, but not twice!!! Sad that they have to stock the guest cast list with numerous noted stars in their efforts to increase the number of viewers for this overrated, overhyped and nonentertaining show that has won more industry awards than they have viewers!!!

[Mike]

I really don't understand the knocks I hear on last season's 30 Rock Seinfeld episode. Sure, he wasn't funny, but he wasn't funny in his own show, either -- it was everybody else that was funny around him. Same went for his appearance on 30 Rock. Just the brief scene in the elevator with Kenneth would have made it all worthwhile. But Jack also killed in that episode, and Jenna too with her pizza fat, and don't forget one of Liz's best lines ever: "Four-thousand dollar ham napkin."

Anyway, the new season premiere is pretty good, but not up to the sustained brilliance of the final six or seven (ten? eleven?) episodes from last season. Everybody go watch it. Then go buy the DVDs. Then go watch it again and again and again. We can't afford to lose this show.