'30 Rock' gleefully bites the hand that feeds it as Season 4 begins
As it returns for its fourth season, “30 Rock” (8:30 p.m. Central Thursday, NBC; three and a half stars) may just set a record.
Not for Emmy wins, though the show, which won its third best-comedy Emmy in September, isn’t doing too shabby in that department: It picked up a record-setting 22 nods when nominations were announced in July.
No, the record that creator and star Tina Fey appears to be going for concerns the number of real-life references and insider jokes that one half-hour comedy can make. “30 Rock,” which is set at a fictional NBC sketch comedy show, has always featured a lot of meta-jokes about its network and timely barbs about current events, but the season opener takes particularly audacious aim at boneheaded network decisions, corporate greed and celebrity stupidity.
The cast of the fictional “TGS” is told their program doesn’t connect enough with mainstream America, and comedy writer Liz Lemon (Fey) takes exception to this pronouncement. But, true to “30 Rock’s” modus operandi — which often has the comedy celebrating its chosen targets even as it ridicules them — the episode mocks Middle America as the home of junk food-loving yokels as Liz tears into her favorite new snack, artery-clogging Cheesy Blasters.
Through “TGS” cast members Tracy (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna (Jane Krakowski), “30 Rock” skewers the kind of pampered celebrities who can’t exist without assistants and who command regular folk not to look them in the eyes. These jokes are weaker, given the obviousness of the clueless-stars target, but those gibes are offset by the show’s fondness for surreal moments and by the always hilarious performance of Jack McBrayer as Kenneth the Page and the ever-amusing deadpan of Alec Baldwin as network executive Jack Donaghy.
“30 Rock’s” ratings have never set the world on fire, but just as Lemon’s awkward nerd charm allows her to say almost anything to the world-weary Donaghy, the low-rated show’s status as an awards magnet means it can get away with biting the hand that feeds it. The results may not hit the mark every time (stories about Jack, Liz and Kenneth usually work, while those concerning Tracy and Jenna are hit or miss), but there are enough pointed, smart and effective barbs to make this show a must-see comedy even as it enters its fourth season.
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