In defense of 30 Rock

Posted by Dan May 9th, 2008 at 02:04pm In 30 Rock

USA Today. I can’t say I would ever go to you for reputable cultural or artistic criticism.

Case in point, this review of 30 Rock.

Were numbers the only problem, Rock fans might be able to relax. The show, after all, has already been renewed for next season. But since the strike, this once-dependable sitcom has also lost its way creatively, ditching plot and character in a desperate, scattershot search for laughs, as if its new goal were to become a live-action version of Family Guy.

Certainly, that’s the approach taken in tonight’s hectic finale. On the plus side, it does yield some funny moments from Alec Baldwin, Jack McBrayer and Matthew Broderick as a Bush official who is desperate to join the ranks of the unemployed. (Even those who dislike the administration, however, may not want to see a network sitcom go so far out of its way to mock it.)

But as often happens lately, the jokes come at the expense of our attachment to the characters and to the show’s fraying links to reality.

…

Liz doesn’t have to be sane, but when she’s as unstable as the nuts circling around her, you get a show that plays more like a barely related series of sketches than a sitcom.

It’s possible that 30 Rock is trying to learn from the failure of Studio 60, which took the efforts involved in producing comedy too seriously. But as is so often the case in life and art, one can also fail by moving too far in the other direction. If the show she’s writing doesn’t matter, then there’s nothing at risk for Liz — and no reason for us to care about Jack’s efforts to mentor her, which were once 30 Rock’s best asset.

A few things:

1. Doesn’t everyone want to see the Bush administration mocked?
2. Aren’t the show’s “fraying links to reality” what makes the show fun?
3. I feel like the Family Guy analogy isn’t apt. It’s more like The Simpsons — chock full of non sequiturs, subtle jokes that only make sense if you are really paying attention and non-verbal jokes that you only pick up on during repeated views. However, it always comes back to the main plot.
4. Boo!