30 Rock: Season Two

The best comedy on TV just gets better
Watching 30 ROCK during its second season was a completely exhilarating experience. It had in its rookie year quickly established itself as the funniest show on TV, but during its sophomore campaign the writing and acting got sharper and sharper with each episode. Next to ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, I honestly believe that this is the funniest American comedy series ever.

Most comedy shows, when the writers get a funny joke or idea, they massage it and call attention to it, perhaps even taking a pause to allow everyone to notice and appreciate it. Not 30 ROCK. The jokes just tumbled out and sometimes they were only there if you looked hard for them. The humor came in waves, in layers. For instance, in one episode Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is watching Celeste Cunningham (Edie Falco), with whom he has just had a passionate romantic encounter, get interviewed on a news network. The main point in the scene is that the right-wing Republican Jack is horrified to learn that his flame...

No "Sophomore Slump" here.
Season 1 of "30 Rock" was a landmark of television, if you ask me. Finally a sitcom that was original, refreshing, and, most of all, hilarious. When Season 2 began, my expectations were high. To say that my expectations were surpassed would be an understatement of grand proportions.

Whereas the plotlines and randomly vanishing characters (any one of Rachel Dratch's appearances???) in Season 1 were out of left-field in that funny-but-almost-too-random kind of way, Season 2 was a different kind of animal.

"30 Rock" season 2 came from left-field, but this time, it pulled you over there with it. In the beginning, it held onto some of the pitfalls of Season 1 (i.e., Where was Jenna half the time???), but as episodes aired, the ensemble and the writing both grew into something much greater and more entertaining than Season 1 ever reached.

Even as many shows suffocated and failed the hiatus the writer's strike brought, "30 Rock" seemed immune. In fact, I...

Didn't lose a step in S2
Despite the momentum-threatening writers strike that gave us a 3-month break between the 10th and 15th episodes, "30 Rock" suffered no sophomore slump. Many of the S2 episodes were instant classics, including "Rosemary's Baby" with Carrie Fisher as Liz Lemon's one-time comedy idol -- a once-edgy but now just whacked-out writer; the "Somebody to Love", "Secrets and Lies," "Coffee and TV" trilogy featuring Jack's doomed but oh-so-hot romance with congresswoman C.C. Cunningham (Edie Falco); and a finale that hilariously nails the attitudes of Bush-era D.C. ("Cooter"). Marvelous turns by guest-stars abound, including a reprise of Jack's mother by the astonishing Elaine Stritch; the return of Will Arnett as Jack's G.E. nemesis, Devin Banks, and of Dean Winters and Jason Sudeikis as Liz's former boyfriends, Dennis "the Beeper King" Duffy and Floyd, former G.E. attorney now relocated to "the Cleve"; Fred Armisen as a suspicious neighbor in Liz's apartment building; and Buck Henry, Anita...

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