'30 Rock': It's back!

At last!  After a far-too-long hiatus, “30 Rock” finally returned last night. And if the season premiere wasn’t the funniest episode ever, it was nevertheless solid.

There seems to be a mini-backlash brewing against the three-time Emmy winner, with people saying the show is too insider-y for its own good.  Personally, I think the criticism is a little off.  Sure, "30 Rock" is a show about showbiz, but I’ve always thought of it more as a live-action “Simpsons,” with its cartoonish characters, comic asides and relentless nerdy allusions. 

Back to tonight’s episode....  In the opening minutes, Jack Donaghy threw down the gauntlet to Tracy, Jenna and Liz.  Struggling in the ratings, "TGS" would have to make some serious efforts to appeal to the “real America.”  Of course, Liz is skeptical of this very concept, but Jack helps clarify things: “We’ll trick those race car-loving wideloads into loving your, watching your lefty homoerotic propaganda hour yet.” 

Ouch.

Jenna is all too happy to comply and decides to "go country," recording a cheesy anthem for NBC Sports.  It’s kind of funny, but Jenna has never been my favorite part of the show. Jane Krakowski strikes me as too actress-y, even for an actress playing a very actress-y actress.  Meanwhile, Liz and Pete are secretly on the hunt for a new cast member, one who might widen the show’s limited appeal to anyone outside New York City.  (Will Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson take this role, as rumors suggest?)  With his jokes about eating lobster in St. Bart’s falling flat, Tracy decides he needs to get back to his roots. To that end, he tries to befriend a maintenance guy who lives in Brooklyn, but it goes wrong when he asks “My dear friend Moby just opened a tea house in Park Slope.  Do you know him?” It’s hilarious, but I have to admit it’s not exactly a joke that everyone will get — or think is funny. (But can't we all celebrate the fact that Tracy Morgan has finally joined Twitter?)  Finally, good old Kenneth Parcell decides to go on strike when he finds out that Jack is collecting a fat bonus while denying overtime to the pages. Jack quickly realizes that the company can’t run without the pages, and he agrees to Kenneth’s extremely modest demands — writing “I am a big old liar” on a piece of paper.

Even for “30 Rock,” this episode was very meta, which seems to be comedy’s default setting these days — “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has taken the self-reflexive trick to mind-bending levels this season. Sometimes it feels like these shows are in danger of eating their own tails, but to me, that’s part of the fun. Comedians are a self-conscious lot, and they always tend to make shows about themselves — hello, “Everybody Loves Raymond” — it’s just a matter of what kind of comedy you prefer. Do you want your comedians pretending to be an average Joe, or do you prefer a fictionalized themselves, in all their neurotic glory, a la Larry David or Liz Lemon?  I know what I prefer.

One last thing — did anyone else catch the weird “Responsibility Project” ad with Jack McBrayer?  Did anyone else think he was in character the whole time?

What did you think?  Is "30 Rock" really too insider-y? And should that even matter as long as it's funny? 

-- Meredith Blake

Related:

'30 Rock' starts its fourth season

The Emmy Awards embrace something old and something new

'Curb Your Enthusiasm's' 'Seinfeld' reunion makes sense

Photo: Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) sticks it to the man, politely 

Credit: Ali Goldstein

Comments

[Gary]

I thought it was a great episode. Tracy and Kenneth are really funny and Tina Fey is just plain enjoyable!

[elf]

Great episode all around. But not even a mention of Steve Buscemi? From the moment he said "Do you know how to kill a snake?" I knew exactly where that exchange would go and I still laughed my ass off.

And what about the handoff to Jay Leno at the very end?

[themothchase]

I was curious where the show would go in the post-Bush, post-election year era of 2009-2010. It seems the recession was at least a launching off point - a chance for several characters to reconnect with their roots (or at least the roots of what they imagine to be "real Americans"). There were some fantastically random, funny 30 Rock moments: Jenna all dolled up to sing the opening anthem to off-season tennis, Pete's wife offering to welcome Liz into their lovemaking, the Moby teahouse reference you mention, Liz's whole reenactment of the cheesy blaster ad jingle. But I couldn't help wondering: will the show find a thread to weave its way through these new waters without feeding the red/blue sectarianism that, while with us still, seems only more sad and toxic with every passing day? Maybe we should focus more on Kenneth's religious garments in a twist.

themothchase (follow me on Twitter at themothchase)

[Nico]

Yeah, that 'Responsibility Project' bit was seriously weird. It ended and I sat there silently for a minute trying to figure out what had just occurred.

[Randy]

Last night's episode was was average at best -- nowhere near the ones last season with Salma Hayek. Better work harder to reach the NASCAR-loving audience this guy is in.

[Marcus]

I agree with a lot of what was said except for one thing. I think Jane Krakowski is one of the best parts of the show. I thought her singing the NBC sports song for tennis was funny. I wish they would use her more in the episodes, because in season three some of the best episodes were the ones that she played a major role like in the episode 'The Ones."

I don't think it's too 'insider-y'. I think the show is certain type of humor that some people just wont understand. I watch this show with my dad and we laugh out loud at a lot of what happens in every episode, but my mom can watch it and not understand why things are funny. I think it depends on the type of humor level that a person has.

One thing I wish was mentioned was that Lonny Ross's character was in this episode. His character had a decent presence in the first two seasons, and only appeared in a few episodes in season three. Now in the first episode of season four his character quits and walks out. I think that was a bit of a mistake, I hope they get him to come back because I felt that his character fell through the cracks of the show and was forgotten about when he could of had some more story line. His character appeared less then some of the writers like Lutz did.

I agree that is wasn't their best episode, but they still had me laughing. In my opinion 30 Rock gets better as the season goes on. The characters have grown a lot since season one, and I think this is one of the only shows on TV that I'm still excited to turn on and watch every week.

I really liked how Alec and Tina introduced Jay Leno and Jenna's song was playing, that would be funny if that was a weekly thing.