I think you all know that I've been very concerned about 30 Rock for a while. And the good folks over at The Atlantic gave me space to synthesize exactly why the show is in the trouble that it's in. This, I think, is at the core:
Perhaps the biggest problem for 30 Rock is that the narrative conflicts established in its first season have largely been resolved. Jack is no longer the new executive dropped in from above to meddle with the show. Instead he’s Liz’s mentor and occasional co-conspirator, someone who pats her on the back with a broom when she has food poisoning in a Georgia motel, and blurbs her book with the quote “Lemon numbers among my employees.” Tracy, the unstable black superstar who joined Lemon’s show (to the consternation of the writers, producers, and other actors) in 30 Rock’s first episode, may still be a disruptive force of nature, but he’s no longer the enemy: his status as an audience draw and his willingness to present them with gold nunchucks and chinchilla coats as thank-you gifts have long since basically won them over.
There aren’t any major outstanding conflicts between the show’s core characters to resolve or develop, and the show has let some potential new directions, like sexual tension between Jack and Liz, lapse entirely. The search for a new cast member is a plotline that—for now—seems to be sticking. But it’s impossible to imagine that any new cast member will have the gale-force impact of a boat-stealing, hallucinating, pornographic video-game designing Tracy. And no new executive could possibly bring as much charm and sarcasm to the process of wreaking havoc with 30 Rock’s fictional television show as Alec Baldwin.
And while I was in the midst of fretting, reader Brian sent me this list of Tina Fey's favorite comedic moments from 30 Rock's run. It didn't make me feel any better about the prospects for 30 Rock's improvement. Five of her favorite moments are from the comparatively quite weak third season, and two of the second-season moments are from the same episode. Essentially, it suggests that Tina Fey sees the show very differently than I do. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but if she thinks the funniest bits of the show are from episodes that I think are evidence of a serious decline, it doesn't suggest that any return to the show's old sharpness is in the offing.