With the UK recently only finishing season 2 of 30 Rock, who can blame me for getting a fellow IMDb user to send me season 3 as he records it off a US network? After all season 2 was not only cut short due to the writers' strike but it was also as consistently funny and creative as the first season had been. I am only human after all - it is unfair to expect me to wait another year or so until Five US decides to get hold of this. Anyway, I owe my fellow user a debt because season 3 doesn't disappoint and is as good as the previous two seasons had been. Recently I read a small bit in the paper about whether this or The Office was the better sitcom and, in my review of season 3 of The Office I stated that I thought that was the better sitcom but that 30 Rock was the better comedy. I said that and 30 Rock confirms it because, while The Office does a better job of having more in way of narrative and structure to its comedy, 30 Rock produces a lot more laughs in each very tight 20-odd minute episode.
Whether it is Kenneth seeing the world as singing, cheerful muppets, Liz's catastrophic mis-reading of situations, Jenna's selfish behaviour or Tracey's wonderfully daft opinions, each episode is rich in humour that is as creative and clever as it is fast paced and hilarious. OK there are some narrative threads that provide some structure but mostly the flow of each episode is about the jokes - the "plots" are really just there to provide enough structure to make a series. There are a couple of weaker episodes in season 3 it must be said but the way you recognise them says a lot about the quality of the show - you recognise them because there are maybe only about 3 or 4 laugh-out-loud moments in the episode as opposed to the usual 10 or so. It tells you all you need to know when an "off-day" for a show is still well worth seeing, funny and enjoyable and that is the case here in S3. It is the stronger episodes that have the best "out of nowhere, throw-away moments" that actually get the biggest laughs – season highlight for me being Liz enjoying some time at home singing about her "night cheese" – hilarious and very true to the character of Liz Lemon but yet only the first few seconds of an unrelated scene.
As was the case before, S3 has several big names guests of varying impact but as in S2, one doesn't get the feeling that this is the clamour for attention that many shows will get with cameos. Often these come because a show is flagging and this is an easy attempt to boost ratings but with 30 Rock it continues to feel like stars genuinely want to be involved and their appearance is part of the joke rather than a clumsy insert. It is telling that the episodes with special cameos are not "better" than those that "only" (!) have to rely on the main cast. Speaking of which, the main cast continue to be a very impressive bunch indeed even though there are some characters that continue to become more part of the background than they started out being – Powell's Toofer, Ross's Josh and Lutz's Lutz being the most notable but Friendlander (Frank) and Adsit (Pete) also have a little less to do than before. This is the reverse of many shows (eg The Office has opened out its cast to make more use of the supporting players to good effect) but somehow the strong material means it doesn't matter.
30 Rock is by far my favourite comedy of the moment and I cannot believe that I ignored it when it first came to the UK when I should have been singing its praises to people in the same way as I do with The Wire. Great writing, a very high number of laughs per short episodes, inspired and creative comedy and great performances. Of course the downside now is that there will be a good long wait before I get more of it.
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