30 Rock - Season 3

Lots of renewal news coming out. Castle, Chuck, and Dollhouse are all coming back, the latter two with slashed budgets. Less excitingly, Scrubs will also return, although with some or all of the main cast in reduced roles and possibly a different format. I sort of wish they just let that one end.

Anyway, 30 Rock is another show getting another year despite less than stellar ratings, although it's actually improving year to year, so maybe people are catching on. I didn't until this January either, but since I have it's become one of my favorite current comedies. It doesn't have the infectious characters or comedic peak of NBC's other Thursday night heavy hitter, but it's probably laugh out loud funny more often. It struck me a few weeks ago how much I appreciate Tracy Morgan's character. Early on he was more of a catalyst for a lot of the major conflicts as he disrupted the balance of a show that was struggling until he got there. He said a lot of outrageous and ridiculous things, and I liked him quite a bit. Lately, he causes problems occasionally, but he's less in the forefront. Still, he's always there with something amazingly dumb yet poignant to say that just makes me feel better.

I also really like how the protagonist role is sort of shared by both Fey and Baldwin. If you have to pick one person you're rooting for it's probably the head writer struggling to manage a ridiculous crew along with a pathetic love life over the successful CEO, but the combination of great writing and Alec's performance makes you love him just as much anyway. They're both very flawed people, but they're a lot of fun to watch. The rest of the cast rounds out everything really well, and you rarely go a few seconds without someone else getting a good line or moment. It's just a really tight, really funny show. I can't wait for more.