…is “30 Rock.” Or more accurately, it’s the best thing on broadcast TV. (The best thing on TV is “The Wire,” even when it’s between seasons, as it is now.)
I never expected to like this show. I haven’t watched “Saturday Night Live” in years—decades, even—so I don’t know Tina Fey from a chair; I’m very, very picky about comedy, and in particular, I have limited patience with sitcoms and usually burn out on them after about half a season. But the show is comic genius. Alec Baldwin has been getting a lot of accolades for his performance, and deservedly so—his delivery is so spot on that nearly everything he says is hilarious—but the rest of the cast is also excellent. It’s the only sitcom that has ever sent me scurrying over to TelevisionWithoutPity to look for posts quoting lines from the episode that has just aired.
Seriously, if you’re not watching this show, you’re missing out.
(On the other hand, I recommend avoiding the heavily hyped new Paul Haggis show, “The Black Donnellys,” like the plague. Unless you enjoy watching one-dimensional, anachronistic Irish-American stereotypes stealing things and getting into fights, that is.)
It just so happens that I apparently enjoy watching one-dimensional, anachronistic Irish-American stereotypes (thought I think the Italians were even worse) stealing things and getting into fights.
I kinda dug it, I guess, but I’d still rather have seen another episode of “Studio 60″.
It’s just that Haggis apparently owns a dictionary that’s missing the words “subtle,” “nuance,” and all their variants and synonyms. But it has extra entries for “oversimplification,” “one-dimensional,” and “heavy-handed.” And “sledgehammer.”
The truth is that I’ll probably watch another episode or two to see if it improves, because I’m a sucker for the dark Irish stuff that Haggis did in “E-Z Streets,” even though I’ll never forgive him for the abomination that was “Crash.” But unless the characters emerge from the cookie cutter and the plot goes beyond outtakes from “Sleepers,” I won’t be watching beyond that.
I don’t know anything about TV—my current watching includes “The X-Files” and “Northern Exposure” on DVD—but I’ve been wondering if you ever read Last Night’s Fun and, if so, what you thought of it.
Well, I *bought* Last Night’s Fun—does that count? I’m sure I’ll ger around to reading it eventually…
I’ve never seen an episode of 30 Rock. I suppose I’ll have to watch it on DVD someday! I do love Tina Fey. (BTW, have you really never even seen “Mean Girls”? Surely you know Tina from a chair.
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I have never seen “Mean Girls,” I’m ashamed to say. Not from lack of desire, just one of the zillions of movies that I haven’t gotten around to. It’s on cable pretty often; I should make more of an effort to catch it.
And yes, if there’s ever a DVD of “30 Rock,” I highly recommend it.
On the other hand, I tried to watch the second episode of “The Black Donnellys,” but I didn’t quite make it all the way through. That’s because I looked at my feet about halfway through, and they were bare. Why were they bare? Because the show had bored my socks off.