“I really feel like this is going to be my year,” an uncharacteristically optimistic Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) proclaims in 30 Rock's season two opener. From the Emmys to the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, 30 Rock won again for Best Comedy Series and earned Best Actress and Actor honors for Fey and costar Alec Baldwin. TV icon Tim Conway was also honored with an Emmy as Outstanding Guest Actor as Bucky Bright in “Subway Hero,” one of the strike-shortened 2007-08 season's benchmark episodes, playing a faded TV star from the 1940s and ‘50s who shatters the illusions of television-loving NBC page Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) with appalling (and unprintable) stories about “the good old days.” In this 15-episode sophomore season, things get really weird behind the scenes of The Girlie Show, the SNL-ish sketch show for which Liz oversees a motley crew of writers, as well as temperamental demanding stars—insecure diva Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and all kinds of crazy Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan)—while coping with her boss, GM CEO-in-waiting Jack Donaghy (Baldwin). 30 Rock is rarefied television, brimming with quotable dialogue, brilliantly absurd bits, edge of the frame silliness, and a bevy of stellar guest stars, including Edie Falco and Carrie Fisher. Making welcome returns this season are Will Arnett as Jack's corporate rival Devon Banks, Chris Parnell as unethical Dr. Spaceman, Elaine Stritch as Jack's emasculating mother, and Dean Winters as Dennis Duffy, Liz's sleazy former boyfriend and New York's unlikeliest hero. But the real muffin top on this two-disc set are the awesome bonus features, which include audio commentary, a revelatory table read of the season finale “Cooter,” a benefit live performance of the episode “Secrets and Lies” (complete with an improvised commercial), a panel discussion with cast and creators, and a backstage look at Fey's Saturday Night Live homecoming host stint. Highly recommended. (D. Liebenson)
30 Rock: Season 2
Universal, 2 discs, 320 min., not rated, DVD: $39.98 Volume 24, Issue 2
30 Rock: Season 2
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