TV Junkie

On this, the day that I mourn the down-grading of my cable to "basic" status, I must admit that I have had somewhat of a love affair with my television. This is common among most winter dwellers; as temperatures drop, so do the chances of me leaving the house after dark (or at all.)

But thankfully, there are a few good things on that idiot box and one of the funniest new shows I've seen lately is 30 Rock, on NBC. And luckily the network picked the show up for a full season. A miracle, if you ask me, considering the way that major networks handle shows of this nature (i.e. Arrested Development.) If you haven't seen it yet, you're in luck. NBC posts the most current episodes on its web site for watching in their entirety.

I have to admit that I don't find most comediennes to be very funny (Margaret Cho and Sarah Silverman ranking among the worst), but Tina Fey is astounding with her marginally-believable story lines and clean, witty jokes. The under-worked and under-appreciated Tracy Morgan plays a scarier version of himself, Jack McBrayer is dead-on with is portrayal of Kenneth the NBC page, and Judah "Why Doesn't That Guy Do More Work" Friedlander also plays a small part as a writer for "The Girlie Show," the fictitious sketch-comedy show within the show. The third major player behind Morgan and Fey is Alec Baldwin who just recently received a Golden Globe for his role in the series, which I hope would leave the network execs feeling comfortable with their decision to proceed with the show.

I'm telling you, watch this series.