30 Rock (Season 7)

At this point, it might seem confusing why 30 Rock is one of my favorite comedies ever. Sure, the humor is great, but the show has a lot of flaws and weaker seasons. However, 30 Rock also has one of the greatest final seasons ever, a final season so amazing that it manages to bring up the quality of the whole show.

Season 7 starts with a five-episode-long arc about the 2012 election. It's a weird choice, for sure, but it's also a lot of fun at times, and manages to stay just vague enough to be politically relevant today. Once this arc ends, however, the rest of the season focuses pretty much entirely on saying goodbye, and it's where the season becomes amazing. Liz gets married, Jack's mother dies, Hazel is written out (thank goodness!), and Liz finally adopts a kid! It all builds up to one of my favorite finales ever, one that perfectly balances satisfying character resolution, great humor, and even some earned emotional beats. I especially love how, even with all of the cast, the final few episodes boils down to the relationship between Jack and Liz, which has always been the heart of the series.

Despite all of the plot resolution, Season 7 makes sure to stay incredibly funny and well-written throughout. From Tracy's film company, to Jack's final battles with Devon Banks and Kaylie Hooper, to the Tracy-esque Governor Dunston, this season has some of the funniest subplots in the whole show. My only major gripe with this final season is that it's not very long, but I think the 13-episode-length allows for a razor sharp level of focus for its second half, to the point where only one episode really feels weak, that being Aunt Phatso vs Jack Donaghy. The rest of the season is perfectly paced and manages to keep an incredibly high level of quality that only gets better as it goes on.

There are a lot of top-notch episodes here, but most of the notable ones are in the second half:

Mazel Tov, Dummies: Liz and Criss's wedding is incredibly heartwarming and sweet, and a great start for the phenomenal second half of this final season. But the main reason I love this episode is because of Liz Lemon pulling off the greatest eye roll of all time.

My Whole Life Is Thunder: This may be the single funniest funeral service of all time. With Jack's mother dead, her funeral is one of the best sequences in the show, from Jack's insanely long speech, to Jenna and Paul's surprise marriage, to a surprise Muppet appearance, yet the show manages to make sure that the emotional impact of Colleen's death is still felt.

Game Over: Jack's rivalries have always been a great source of comedy, so what better way to end the show than have him face off against all of his rivals at the same exact time, culminating in a frantic flurry of double-crossing madness. This is easily the season's funniest episode.

A Goon's Deed In A Weary World: If My Whole Life Is Thunder isn't the show's most emotional episode, then this definitely is. The Willy Wonka parody is awesome and ends Kenneth's arc perfectly with him taking over for Jack. But the real highlight is Liz sacrificing TGS to finally adopt her two twins, who look oddly like Tracy and Jenna. Never did I expect 30 Rock to give me all of the feels.

Hogcock!/Last Lunch: This is pretty much the perfect finale. Despite the focus on Jack and Liz's relationship which ground the episode, everyone gets a satisfying and heartwarming sendoff, from Tracy returning to the strip club from the pilot, to Jenna's "Rural Juror" song, to Lutz ruining his last lunch, it's just perfect. I love how the finale is uncompromising, emphasizing that you don't know if these characters will keep in touch, but the time jump shows that even though the cast is in new stages of their life, they still manage to stay connected. Not to mention the hilarious St Elsewhere gag in the final scene.

Overall, 30 Rock's final season is easily the best part of the show. It manages to balance some of the funniest humor in the show while resolving all of the plot threads, minor storylines, and character arcs in a satisfying and surprisingly emotional manner. It makes the whole series better knowing that it all leads to this.

5/5 Stars

My ranking of 30 Rock's seasons are:

1. Season 7: One of the best final seasons ever, especially in its second half. Season 7 manages to be just as funny as the rest of the show while also wringing out some genuine emotion.
2. Season 2: Pretty much all of 30 Rock's most iconic episodes are 
3. Season 5: Season 5 was underrated. There's a nice blend of fantastic and lighthearted comedy with genuinely fun and compelling dramatic storylines, and the whole 100th episode story arc was great!
4. Season 3: Easily the most consistently solid season of 30 Rock. There's a whole bunch of top-notch classics and utter duds, both in equal balance. The finale sucks though. 
5. Season 4: The opening and ending arcs are fantastic, but the middle drags and I just don't think this season does the best job at balancing out its comedic and dramatic elements.
6. Season 6: Season 6 doesn't necessarily do much wrong and it has its fantastic, it's just the most inconsistent season of the series and it introduces easily the show's most annoying character in Hazel.
7. Season 1: It took a while for 30 Rock to really find its groove, but it's still fascinating to watch the show's manic style of humor slowly develop over the course of the season. Emphasis on slowly.

And my ranking of 30 Rock's season finales are:

1. Hogcock!/Last Lunch: Still one of my favorite series finales ever. It's perfectly 30 Rock, toeing the line between emotional and satisfying, and subversive and hilarious. Nothing is played too seriously, yet everything feels sincere.
2. I Do Do: I Do Do is a parody of soap-y sitcom finales, to the point where it feels like it's directed towards me specifically. I love it anyway. I Do Do is not only hilarious but a genuinely shocking and twisty way to end Season 4.
3. Cooter: Despite possibly not having been intended to be the finale, Cooter was a great way to end the season. It's satisfying, funny, and keeps things light even within the actual plot. It's also just a genuinely great episode on its own merits.
4. What Will Happen To The Gang Next Year?: I'm a bit split on this finale. It's definitely satisfying, resolving the season, and some of its plot points are neat, but it also tries to be I Do Do without doing what it did nearly as well.
5. Respawn: Despite its low-key nature, I really like Respawn. It's uproariously funny, perfectly encapsulates the show, and it has the most brilliantly bizarre cliffhanger in any TV show ever.
6. Hiatus: This is as basic of a season finale as possible. Everything gets tied up in a super neat bow, and while still an entertaining episode, Hiatus doesn't really surprise.
7. Kidney Now!: How was this the season finale again? The main storyline is completely dropped next season, the sole "cliffhanger"  is so subtle it's easy to miss, and an entire third of it is a musical number. It's a fine episode just an awful way to end a season.

And my favorite episode is Hogcock!/Last Lunch