Thursday, November 29, 2007
Rock solid
BACKSTAGE! 30 Rock, Five, 10.50pm
This is fast becoming one of our favourite shows, you know. We've even managed to coerce our flatmates into getting addicted to it as well, and that almost never happens. So the other week we thought we'd check the ratings to see if it's as popular across the nation as it is with us - bearing in mind that anyway we love is almost invariably a ratings flop - and were flabbergasted to see that not only are the ratings below par, but it's actually getting fewer viewers than the programme that follows it: A Girl's Guide to 21st Century Sex, which might just be the worst piece of television we've ever seen. It involves enlighting facts such as "anal sex is sex involving the anus", for fuck's sake. Sigh.
Anyway, we thought we'd use this page and the literal dozens of people who read it every day to sing the praises of 30 Rock, which is really hitting its stride now that it's got a handful of episodes under its belt. Show creator (and writer and star of Mean Girls, thus she can do no wrong) Tina Fey is brilliant as Liz Lemon, head writer of live sketch show The Girlie Show, which is now TGS with Tracy Jordan after her boss went behind her back and hired an unstable Hollywood star to front it. She's trying to keep the show afloat while dealing with the all-male writing team, the neurotic female lead, and her aforementioned oleaginous boss. Okay, so it doesn't sound groundbreaking, but the sparkle is in the execution - literally, in fact, because the dialogue is so polished it shines. Check out the scene from a few weeks back where Jack confronts Jenna to discover whether she's been lying about her age, if you don't believe us.
Over the past couple of episodes we've been introduced to Liz's loser boyfriend Dennis, who works at Beeper King. Liz likes Dennis because the sex is fast, and only on Saturdays, which makes her life a lot easier. Liz's love life is a constant source of amusement for everyone else, and tonight she attempts to put an end to this by breaking up with Dennis. Well-meaning but utterly self-involved Jenna tries to help by taking Liz out on the singles scene, and we're fairly confident we can predict how that will go. Meanwhile, a fight between Tracy and Toofer puts them both in sensitivity training. Watch out for a brilliantly politically incorrect gag, by the way, when Tracy mentions the TV show Black Frasier. It's a corker, even if you'll be squirming when you hear it.
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1 Comments:
30 Rock is pretty much the best thing on TV at the moment. I read that some of the recent (and best) episodes were cut slightly though! I demand a DVD release!
Rurr jurr...
By 
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5:57 pm
