April 20, 2012

30 Rock: Season 5


There's really not a whole lot I have to say about this fifth season of 30 Rock. The show is funny, but at this point it's probably safe to say it's reached all of its potential and, at times, grown repetitious. But one positive aspect of being a bit older and longer in the teeth is that 30 Rock is fairly self-aware at this point, and knows exactly what it is, what it can be, and what it struggles with. It's extremely consistent, I'd say, and while episodes these days rarely blow me away, they also seldom stink. The most ambitious thing the show tried here in Season 5 was a live episode. There was really no reason to do a live episode; yes, plenty of the cast and writers have previous experience with SNL, but it's not like anyone was saying, "You know, 30 Rock should really pay tribute to SNL with a live episode!" Or at least, if anyone was, I wasn't privy to it. At the same time, this season probably fell flattest during a brief stretch late in the year where Tracy Morgan was absent for some reason. Does this make Tracy Morgan the show's MVP? Perhaps; though I can imagine that a run of episodes without either Tina Fey or Alec Baldwin would also be pretty bad. So to recap, this was a funny but average season of a funny but average show. Happy Friday everyone!

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