30 Rock is my favorite comedy right, having supplanted The Office (now #2) very soon after its debut. That said, I have a lot of bones to pick (unlike Jerry, I know which ones!) with the show, my begrudging finger pointed squarely at the writers, and their matriarch, Tina Fey.
The following is a bit of a primer on the show and of my view of the show:
Season 1 of 30 Rock found Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) in a fairly comfortable situation. She had a great job, good friends, and was overall happy. That of course all changes when Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) becomes her new boss, essentially ruining all the fun these adult kids have been having. And to make matters worse, he throws in the artfully crazy Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), who is as unpredictable as he wants to be.
As Season 1 went on, Liz found herself in increasingly taxing situations, most of which were cause by Jack or Tracy, and many of which caused her to question the status of her own life. The more hapless she realized she was (ever-present hair lettuce, nuff said), the more she put herself into her work. By the time Floyd (Jason Sudeikis) entered the picture, she had reach a sort of critical mass1, with every facet of her life flailing out of control. But Floyd's hometown-hero good looks and perfectly perfect personality didn't just suppress Liz's intense feelings of woe, but caused them to convert into equally intense feeling of woo, which can been seen causing her to walk almost lighter then air in "Corporate Crush."
But as Liz puts time into her relationship with Floyd, her work suffers, causing a riff between her a Jack. I remember being caught off guard when, in "Hiatus," Jack tells Liz, "I know we're not on good terms right now, but we need to work together.." For a show that's so light and zippy, I found it strange that the writers would opt to illustrate tension between the show's two leads. Why make the audience feel uncomfortable? Why make waves in the spunky little world 30 Rock lives in? I don't have the answers, except for: it's compelling.
When Season 2 starts, Liz has not only broken up with her dream guy Floyd, but apparently hasn't seen or talked to any one of her "friends" at work for the entire hiatus.2 Strange, no? She's somehow tricked herself into thinking that she doesn't need anyone to be happy. It's like she's decided to work on her problems3 and use positive energy to conquer the world. It's her year4 after all, right?
Whatever this new Liz has been infected with, the other characters have caught it, too. I've dubbed Season 2 of 30 Rock, the Bizarro season. (And it's extremely fitting that the season premier was about Jerry Seinfeld, who has his own history with "bizarro".) The whole vibe of the show feels off kilter, and thus far, every major character has displayed some semblance of what I call "non-season 1 behavior." Rolls off the tongue, I know.
I think there are many factors that contribute to the weird feeling the show has now. First, most of the main characters are in new places this season. Liz has come to the conclusion that she's not happy being complacent. Jack is up for a huge promotion during a time when he can't even figure out how to sell Seinfeld to Seinfeld. Tracy has been kicked to the curb by his wife, then taken back, but under strict control. Jenna has been battling weight problems, something no one would have predicted in Season 1. Kenneth, well, Kenneth I want to strangle.
Apparently, audiences must like Kenneth a lot, because the writers are writing the character as if he's Bart Simpson. Have you noticed how ever-present Kenneth is in Season 2? For many of the episodes thus far, he's been involved in some way with every main storyline. In "Seinfeld Vision," which I will recap soon, Kenneth not only becomes Tracy's "work wife," but somehow finds time to make googly-eyes at Jerry Seinfeld.
This brings me to the second reason why 30 feels strange: natural evolution. Every show changes and mutates as the seasons go on. The writers not only find the true heart of the show, but rearrange the impact characters have on the show. Thus, Kenneth is getting a ton of screen time this season, and is the arbiter of jokes,5 while in season one he was more of tertiary character, content with being the reactor of jokes.5
The third factor, I believe, is the simple truth that Tina Fey and her worthy cohorts earned an Emmy for their first season. I think, conscious or not (though I'm sure they're thinking about it) this proof that they're doing something good has unfortunately causes them to rest on their laurels a bit. I think you can see it in the acting, and in the writing.
Take Liz's response to Jack in "Jack Gets in the Game," episode 202. Jack has asked Liz to eat a $54 steak for him, due to his heart condition, and is surprised when she has quickly eaten it all:
Jack: You at that whole thing?As contemporaries Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler would say, "Really? Really Tina Fey? Is that really the best punch line you could come up with, really!?" I really agree with them.
Liz: A dog took it. He came out of nowhere.
The punchline is lackluster at best. I mean, Joey used a similar line on Friends when he exclaimed, several different times, "A raccoon came in and..." That was funny, but it was also 1999. I didn't even really buy Tina's delivery. It's like Liz knew it was a lie, and was happy with it just being cutesy--'cause it is cutely. But a joke like that, especially one well worn6, really works when the actor sells it as the truth. Because the more Liz believes in the lie she's made up, the funnier it is for us to watch. But, in the scene, Liz doesn't care, and neither do we.
Along with theses three factors, I also think the inclusions of (long) serial storylines are adding more drama to the show, making it seem less light and airy than it was in Season 1. (There will be more about the serial elements in my analysis of each episode.)
I think 30 Rock is still a good show. And even when it's not, I can see the potential for goodness there. At the very least, the off-kilter jokes, the ones that don't quite make me laugh, serve as a case to study, to further understand how to write comedy. Because as much as I watch TV shows to laugh, cry, or generally to be entertained, I watch for research, to further understand how to write professionally, and write well: two things which are not always the same.
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1. Liz, the proud New Yorker, actually considers moving to Cleavland things are so bad.
2. Jack had his heart attack in "Hiatus," and Liz says she hasn't talked to him since. Jenna, implies she hasn't seen Liz all summer. Thats a long time not to see or talk to your best friend.
3. In "The Head and The Hair," Liz tells Grey one of the things she doesn't do is wear flip flops. In the Season 2 opener, "Seinfeld Vision," she tells Jack that over the hiatus she "wore flip flops in public."
4. Liz exclaims this several times in the season 2 opener.
5. In doing analysis, I often make up words to fit a definition. An "Arbiter of Jokes" is a character like Tracy, who is responsible for not only starting a joke, but handling the bigger jokes. A Reactor of Jokes, often Liz's role, creates comedy by their reactions to jokes.
6. "A dog came and ate it" is the unhappy child of "a dog ate my homework."
