Season 5 of 30 Rock feels like a breath of fresh air for the show after the relatively drama-heavy Season 4. This season switches to a far more lighthearted tone that allows for some of the funniest moments in the whole show.
30 Rock's fifth season starts off where the fourth season left off. Liz is dating her ideal boyfriend, Jack's girlfriend Avery is pregnant, and Kenneth has been fired. Of course, Liz goes through a breakup at some point and Kenneth gets his job back, so most of the season focuses around Kenneth working his way back up the ranks and Jack's relationship with Avery. I think Avery's a great character, and all of her romantic moments with Jack perfectly toe the line between comedy and drama, from Jack accidentally marrying Liz, to her kidnapping by North Korea near the end of the season. The final few episodes also deal with Tracy leaving TGS and hiding in "Africa" as a build-up for the 100th episode.
Season 5's greatest strength, however, is definitely in the comedy, as this is easily one of the funniest seasons in the whole show. Unlike Season 4, 30 Rock is definitely not holding back here, the humor is incredibly fast-paced, the surrealness is cranked up to eleven, and pretty much every character has something great to do. But despite all of this humor, I find that the aforementioned plot threads still have the development they needed. After five seasons, it finally feels like 30 Rock perfectly nailed the balance of plot and comedy that they were striving for. My only real gripes with the season were a few individual episodes. Firstly, I hate the Queen Of Jordan episodes. I think Angie's an annoying character and it was easily the weakest part of the season. Second, I found myself disappointed with the 100th episode. After all that buildup, the episode itself didn't feel much funnier than the episodes before and after it.
Still, Season 5 had a lot of really funny and outstanding episodes, but these were some of my favorites:
Live Show: There were two live shows in 30 Rock and this one, while probably the weaker of the two, was still an incredibly creative, funny, and heartwarming homage to SNL.
Reaganing: This was one of those nearly perfect Rube Goldberg-esque 30 Rock episodes that just fired on all scenarios. Jack grounds the episode with this storyline about solving everyone's problems, but Tracy's commercial subplot and Jenna's alliance with Kelsey Grammar adds tons of hilarity.
Brooklyn Without Limits: In this episode, we finally get to see Tracy's EGOT-winning exploitation film "Hard To Watch", and it's hysterical in how manipulative and depressing it is. John Slattery's guest star appearance is also hilarious and shockingly relevant at times.
Chain Reaction Of Mental Anguish: I mean, the reason why this episode is so funny is right there in the name. It's so funny to watch pretty much the entire cast cause each other to go through "mental anguish", but even if you're not a fan of the angst, this episode also has an off brand Mechagodzilla fight.
Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning: I'm not a fan of the Queen Of Jordan storylines, but seeing Tracy struggle to stay clean for the reality TV show is so funny, and it's packed with tons of satire on the genre itself. I also love Jack's disastrous attempt at shooting preemptive natural disaster benefits.
Double Edged Sword: This episode's an odd one, as it's one of the darkest and most plot-heavy episode in the show, with Tracy getting an EGOT, Liz dealing with her craziest breakup yet, and Avery finally giving birth. Still, this episode does a great job of imbuing these otherwise grounded plots with as much absurdity as humanly possible.
Overall, Season 5 was easily the best season since the second, pretty much perfectly the combination of fast-paced comedy and charming character arcs that I love so much about the show. Not everything worked, but it's still one of the most successful seasons of the bunch for me.
5/5 Stars
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