So weeks of hype (I'm pretty sure I read a quote somewhere calling this the best new sitcom of the season) culminated in Wednesday's premier episode of 30 Rock, and, as my title implies, all I've gotta say is "what the fuck?" THIS is "the best" of the new?
I guess I fell for the hype, 'cause I went into it really looking forward to the show. I've already decided I can't get enough of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (god help me if the audience numbers don't pick up) and figured getting the satirical sit-com angle on the sketch comedy genre could be a lot of fun.
I don't think I could be more wrong. I was nonplussed from the very start, with an absurd argument over hot dogs and a Mary Tyler Moore'ish opening number (obviously meant to be winkingly satirical), leading to the discovery that Tina Fey's character is the head writer on a late night sketch comedy show called, ironically (?) The Girlie Show. I know they make jokes about this later, but who's buying the idea that any network's going to put a late night sketch show up called The Girlie Show? If anything, they're plopping it in the middle of the afternoon to go up against Oprah and Ellen and hope for the best.
So obviously we're in the land of the patently absurd. Okay, I can deal with that… I came for satirical, so I can stick around for the absurd. Maybe. But what follows is a descent into the obvious, the unfunny and just plain dumb (they drop plaster on her head as a punchline? Seriously?)
I remember laughing twice through the whole show… once at Alec Baldwin's incredibly cheap "5 inches but thick" joke, and once towards the end… although, since I can't remember WHY I laughed, I'm not entirely sure it counts. I found Baldwin to be the most amusing, Fey less so (painfully obvious, in most cases) and Tracy Jordan's "Tracy Morgan" character, while mildly amusing when riffing on Martin Lawrence meltdowns, was purely annoying and unfunny most of the time.
But what really hampers it, I think, is that it's trying so damn hard for satirical. The Girlie Show concept is only part of it. Tracy Morgan's mashup of Martin Lawrence and "insert name here" Jock Superstar is (as with Fey's acting) obvious and ultimately unfunny.
And while I can sympathize with the idea that they may have been saddled, by GE, with plugging the new GE Trivection Oven, any satiric punch they might have derived from making Baldwin's character the "President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming" was seriously undercut when GE went on to spam the audience with their ad for the Trivection oven 3 times in the first two commercial breaks. Sure, it's not their fault — they've got no control over the advertising, but it's emblematic to me of the serious flaw in the show… it's kinda hard to be taken seriously, taking pot shots at the network you're on, when you're stuck shilling the parent company's appliance line.
Suffice it to say, if you want to see a really entertaining, well-written, funny show about the world of sketch television… skip 30 Rock. Go over to Studio 60 on Monday nights (please!). You won't be disappointed. (Of course, it's kind of unfair to compare the two. Studio 60 is an hour long 'dramedy'—god, how I hate that word—and it's written by Aaron Sorkin. 30 Rock is a half hour sitcom and it's not—written by Aaron Sorkin, that is. But, since everyone else is comparing the two shows, how could I resist)
I guess I fell for the hype, 'cause I went into it really looking forward to the show. I've already decided I can't get enough of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (god help me if the audience numbers don't pick up) and figured getting the satirical sit-com angle on the sketch comedy genre could be a lot of fun.
I don't think I could be more wrong. I was nonplussed from the very start, with an absurd argument over hot dogs and a Mary Tyler Moore'ish opening number (obviously meant to be winkingly satirical), leading to the discovery that Tina Fey's character is the head writer on a late night sketch comedy show called, ironically (?) The Girlie Show. I know they make jokes about this later, but who's buying the idea that any network's going to put a late night sketch show up called The Girlie Show? If anything, they're plopping it in the middle of the afternoon to go up against Oprah and Ellen and hope for the best.
So obviously we're in the land of the patently absurd. Okay, I can deal with that… I came for satirical, so I can stick around for the absurd. Maybe. But what follows is a descent into the obvious, the unfunny and just plain dumb (they drop plaster on her head as a punchline? Seriously?)
I remember laughing twice through the whole show… once at Alec Baldwin's incredibly cheap "5 inches but thick" joke, and once towards the end… although, since I can't remember WHY I laughed, I'm not entirely sure it counts. I found Baldwin to be the most amusing, Fey less so (painfully obvious, in most cases) and Tracy Jordan's "Tracy Morgan" character, while mildly amusing when riffing on Martin Lawrence meltdowns, was purely annoying and unfunny most of the time.
But what really hampers it, I think, is that it's trying so damn hard for satirical. The Girlie Show concept is only part of it. Tracy Morgan's mashup of Martin Lawrence and "insert name here" Jock Superstar is (as with Fey's acting) obvious and ultimately unfunny.
And while I can sympathize with the idea that they may have been saddled, by GE, with plugging the new GE Trivection Oven, any satiric punch they might have derived from making Baldwin's character the "President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming" was seriously undercut when GE went on to spam the audience with their ad for the Trivection oven 3 times in the first two commercial breaks. Sure, it's not their fault — they've got no control over the advertising, but it's emblematic to me of the serious flaw in the show… it's kinda hard to be taken seriously, taking pot shots at the network you're on, when you're stuck shilling the parent company's appliance line.
Suffice it to say, if you want to see a really entertaining, well-written, funny show about the world of sketch television… skip 30 Rock. Go over to Studio 60 on Monday nights (please!). You won't be disappointed. (Of course, it's kind of unfair to compare the two. Studio 60 is an hour long 'dramedy'—god, how I hate that word—and it's written by Aaron Sorkin. 30 Rock is a half hour sitcom and it's not—written by Aaron Sorkin, that is. But, since everyone else is comparing the two shows, how could I resist)
Comments
I would not yet call myself a fan of Studio 60 either. The first 3 episodes were problematically unfunny (I don't care if it IS Sorkin, if you're making a show about behind the scenes of an SNL show, you have to have some laughs...I laugh more at Boston Legal). The biggest issue being the heavy handed idealistic Sorkin writing. I don't mind a little idealism in my intellectual, fast talking Sorkin dramedy; but, ease up, man. This isn't the White House.
But, the last episode (the plagiarism one) was MUCH better. I laughed a couple times, the dialogue was witty and quick, and the behind the scenes stuff was fun. I hope it continues to improve...and the ratings better, or it will be over soon.
But, I've got to say, Alec Baldwin is damn funny. He was the only one I laughed at in the premiere and the only thing I laughed at last night. But, he's worth a damn good laugh!
Q
But, come on! He was dang funny...the flash cards? "That's Rupert Murdoch. That's Heidi Klum. That's the guy sleeping with Heidi Klum."