30 Rock gets ready to roll
How fickle TV fate and fortune can be. 30 Rock is back tonight for a seventh and final season, just days after Modern Family swept the comedy Emmys for the third time in as many years. 30 Rock is solid enough to warrant a return to prime-time TV tonight, but the cracks are starting to show: parent network NBC has already announced this season will be shortened to 13 episodes, from the standard 22.
How far the TV mighty have fallen. It may be hard to remember now but, in the weeks and months before Modern Family made its dazzling debut in 2009, it was 30 Rock that commanded the TV spotlight. It was never the mass audience hit or ratings juggernaut Two and a Half Men was, or even 2 Broke Girls, but 30 Rock earned industry cred and respect for its wry, sardonic take on the superficiality of the major broadcast television networks, while doubling as a witty, insightful tale of female empowerment and gender politics.
30 Rock has aged, though. It’s still witty, thanks to tart, whip smart lines like Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey), from last season, “What Bill O’Reilly erotic novel are you living in?” and “I watched, like, three MythBusters last night, so I’m pretty exhausted, if you know what I mean.” Even in its heyday, 30 Rock could be smug and selfreferential at times, but even at that it’s hard for any movie buff whose film knowledge extends past the Twilight movies not to laugh at a remark like Liz Lemon’s “Without Germans, you wouldn’t have had any of the Indiana Jones movies.”
In tonight’s opener, Lemon copes with the pressure of being Jenna’s (Jane Krakowski) maid of honour, while her boss, network honcho Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) develops a new, radical business strategy for his fourth-place network. The coming season will feature return appearances by James Marsden as Lemon’s beau and, in tonight’s opener, former SNL alum Will Forte as Jenna’s not-entirely-grounded husbandto-be.
Newly single Donaghy will juggle five relationships at once, with all the complications that implies, and 30 Rock’s producers promise closure of a kind for their leading lady once 30 Rock closes for good in January. Fans can only hope for a fitting end for a show that, in its heyday, scored an Emmy three-peat for best comedy, a feat not equalled until Modern Family went three-for-three this past weekend. Can there be such a thing as a happy ending in TV? We’ll just have to stay tuned. (NBC, Citytv – 9 p.m.)