30 Rock's Third Season or Planes, F-Trains, and Automobiles

So we're three weeks into 30 Rock's new season, and while I still love this show, I'm feeling that so far this may be it's weakest season. Perhaps it's a result of Tina Fey having been distracted with her Sarah Palin duties on SNL during the filming of these first few episodes, but something is slightly off somewhere. One thing I've noticed is that while I'm a huge fan of the understated joke, there have been a few instances this season where the humor has been almost too subtle - I'm still trying to figure out what I'm missing about the "crazy putty" joke from last night's episode (oh wait...I think I just got it). More than that though, it almost feels as if there is too much story each week for what boils down to 20 minutes after commercials, and as a result we're ending up with episodes that just don't flow quite right.

Last night's episode is a good example, in that the main story - which was admittedly less than original - focused on Lemon's crazy friend Claire (Jennifer Aniston) falling in lust with Lemon's other crazy friend Jack. Meanwhile, Kenneth and Tracy tried filming the never-shot Night Court finale with the original stars of that series. That's a huge subplot, and one that several times threatened to overshadow the main story line of the episode. Add to that the fact that it was the second week in a row with a big-name cameo (Oprah was on last week; Steve Martin will be next) and it just feels like they might be trying a little too hard; it's no secret that the show gets high marks from critics, but usually suffers in the ratings. Ironically, the tactics they're using to draw in new viewers takes away from what makes the show great and therefore makes it harder to keep those new viewers watching anyway. I have loads of theories about why ratings shouldn't really matter anymore anyway, but that's for another day.

Everything great about this show is still in place, especially the writing. And they've done the guest-star bit several times in the past to wonderful effect (see Carrie Fischer's turn as Liz's demented mentor from season two). There just seems to be a slight problem with execution. Hopefully, now that we've put Gov. Palin behind us Tina can sharpen the focus on our view of the chaos that is Liz Lemon's life.