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Characters put '30 Rock' on a roll |
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Written by Chuck Barney, McClatchy-Tribune
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Wednesday, 04 April 2007 |
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30 ROCK
6:42 p.m. Thursday
NBC
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After a brief layoff, "30 Rock" returns Thursday night with a "supersized" 48-minute episode, and not a moment too soon. Another week or more without Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy and their fellow nutjobs,and we might have had to storm the gates of NBC.
Who knew that Tina Fey's loopy sitcom would grow on us so? When "30 Rock" debuted last fall, it dwelled in the considerable shadow of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," another NBC series about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of a sketch-comedy show.
"Studio 60," after all, was fortified by a celebrated auteur (Aaron Sorkin), an eye-popping cast (Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, etc.) and an enormous clatter of media buzz. "30 Rock"? Well, it had Alec Baldwin and a few refugees from a past-its-prime "Saturday Night Live."
Funny what can happen over the course of a TV season. Now "Studio 60" is essentially toast — a victim of its own heavy-handedness. "30 Rock," meanwhile, has found its groove with a deft mix of offbeat absurdity and subtlely sly one-liners. After a shaky start, it has become the best new comedy of the season.
"30 Rock" earns that distinction largely because Fey and her team adhered to a concept that Sorkin somehow overlooked: Rather than get bogged down in the mind-numbing minutiae of the television politics, they concentrated on molding vivid characters that burst off the screen.
Oh, and they made it fall-on-the-floor hilarious.
Like the classic "Dick Van Dyke" and "Mary Tyler Moore" shows, "30 Rock" really isn't about the television industry. It's a workplace comedy about a handful of oddballs who just happen to toil in the TV industry. And what colorful oddballs they are.
Fey's Liz Lemon is an intriguing brand of geek — a caustic head writer with enough spunk and smarts to be the boss, but one who never quite mastered the social scene. Her love life is a pathetic wreck — in Thursday's episode she foolishly joins Alcoholics Anonymous just to bond with an office crush — and on the work front, she's barely holding things together.
Fey is one of the few TV females who can master the triple threat — coming across as goofy, brainy and sexy. And she was wise enough to realize that she'd be best suited to the role of straight person (a la Jerry Seinfeld) and allow her hammy playmates to stir up comedic chaos all around her.
Chief among them is Baldwin, who consistently steals scenes as blowhard network tyrant Jack Donaghy. This deep into the season, it's still a blast to watch Baldwin coolly spew venom-laced insults with a deadpan delivery full of low, breathy tones.
And on Thursday the pleasure is doubled when a young Jack clone played by Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") arrives to cross swords with the big guy. He's so determined to out-Jack Jack that their verbal sparring matches devolve into a hilarious battle of hoarse whisperers.
Never one to whisper is Tracy Morgan, who as nutty comedian Tracy Jordan is the boisterous loose-cannon counter to the humorless Jack. When the season started, it appeared as if Morgan would be asked to do little more than replicate his over-the-top "SNL" persona. But over time, he has toned things down just a bit and brought some nuance and heart to his role.
Along the way, "30 Rock" has often used Morgan's character as a prism through which to examine racial relations. Observe, for example, what happens in this latest episode when Tracy learns that — gasp! — he's a descendent of Thomas Jefferson and, according to DNA findings, he's more white than black.
Even the peripheral characters on "30 Rock" have made strong impressions. Jane Krakowski has had some giggle-inducing moments as Jenna Maroney, an actress whose vanity exceeds her talent. And let's hear it for Jack McBrayer, who as the naive, puppy-friendly nerd, Kenneth, has become a fan favorite.
Now, if only "30 Rock" had more fans. Despite its obvious quality, the show is hardly a Nielsen dynamo. But NBC executives reportedly believe that it has the potential to steadily build an audience much in the way "The Office" did. That's why the network is moving "30 Rock" into the post-"Office" time slot (beginning next week, the show will air at 9 p.m. EDT Thursdays).
Let's hope the strategy pays off because "Comedy Night Done Right" would feel oh so wrong without Fey and the gang in the mix.
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Chuck Barney:
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