Season Retrospective 30 Rock Season 5

"Those ice-cream saps will rue the day they ever tangled with the Best Friends Gang."

I have to admit something: I've never been a HUGE fan of 30 Rock.  It's always been one of those shows that I watch because of the shows that lead up to it, and occasionally, I enjoy it.  It's never been a show that makes or breaks a night of NBC's comedies for me though.  If anything, it can be a chore to get through, especially when it moved to 10 p.m. in 2011.

That said, I appreciate things about 30 Rock and from time to time, I find it to be comical.  It can depend on what the episode is focused on, but in general, I never spend time on a show that I find to be completely not worth it.  30 Rock has been replaced as the sitcom critical darling by Modern Family (a show who's sophomore season I will profile soon in this blog).  It doesn't seem to bother Tina Fey.  She continues to write the show as if it's in the top 5 in Nielsen, not near the bottom of the top 100.  She takes chances, such as pulling off a live episode that featured a cavalcade of guest stars and bits that might've been lost in the bulk of the original broadcast.

Since it's inception, the battle for the fictional show within the show, TGS with Tracy Jordan, has been uphill, same for its eccentric cast and crew.  Head writer Liz Lemon (Fey) seems like she should have the perfect life, but continues to struggle with the direction her life is heading.  Her show's stars, Tracy (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna (Jane Krakowski) are just as insane as ever.  And NBC executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) faces the possibility of his corporate career having peaked.

The fifth season of 30 Rock featured the fifth season of TGS, and the future of the show is still well in doubt.  NBC has been bought by Pittsburgh based Kabletown.  No longer can Liz bury her fledgling late night sketch comedy under the pile of rubble that NBC has created (both in reality, and within the series).  The future of TGS comprises an overarching storyline for the season, but it isn't the only one.  The personal lives of the characters also take sharp turns in the fifth season.

Jack starts his life with news commentator Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks) after the couple found they were pregnant in the fourth season finale.  But with the Kabletown purchase, Jack slowly realizes that his rising star might be flat, somewhat due to his mentoring of Liz.

Tracy becomes a bonafide star with his Oscar-winning performance in Hard to Watch: Based on the Novel "Stone Cold Bummer" by Manipulate.  This, coupled with his wife's latest pregnancy, sets in panic for the risque comedian.  Tracy's presence proves to be the catalyst, because when he goes AWOL following these events, the future of TGS is further cast in doubt.

But really, as it has always been, a huge part of the series centers around Liz's insecurity in life and love.  She only one thing that makes her content in her life, and that's work.  All of her relationships, whether she knows it or not, are doomed by her insecurity in herself.  Until she learns that she can be happy at work AND away from it, no man will be able to measure up.  Not that they didn't give it a valiant effort with her latest beau, pilot Carol (Matt Damon).  But in the end, their relationship couldn't withstand their personal differences.  Liz's only positive relationship with a man remains with Jack.

Where this show thrives, as it always has, was with its guest stars and the whacky characters they play.  The producers of 30 Rock have a habit of taking stars and stripping them of anything that makes them "normal" and setting them into 30 Rock's already-zany universe.  John Slattery, Alan Alda, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Will Forte, Ken Howard, etc., are all characters who's sense of logic is bent, twisted and reshaped into caricatures.  And that goes for stars portraying themselves.  30 Rock has never shied away from showing fame as "eccentric", rather than "crazy".

All in all, it was the greatest season of comedy in television history.  It wasn't the greatest season of comedy on NBC this past year.  It wasn't the greatest season of comedy for the show.  But the continuing evolution of relationships, both personal and professional, helped shape it as more of a success than a failure.

Episode to watch: Live Show (Episode 5.04)

Episode to avoid: ¡Qué Sorpresa! (Episode 5.13)

Season MVP: Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy

Season Grade: B- (there are some really good episodes in this season, most of them in the final stretch run, but as usual for me, not a whole lot of them stand out in the lexicon of comedy television)