The Ten Best 30 ROCK Episodes of Season Four

[TMC]

https://jacksonupperco.com/2025/04/2...f-season-four/

The fourth season of 30 Rock is a good collection of a great series, offering a handful of strong half hours but at a lower overall baseline of quality and without the ingenuity or excitement of better years, including those directly surrounding it. Although it’s more adept than its predecessor at engaging the series’ situation in story via the literal behind-the-scenes-of-a-TV-show premise — utilizing more plots set backstage at the SNL-like TGS about the making of a variety show — it’s not as adept at providing the kind of imaginative, off-the-wall, sketch-like comedic notions that mirror the cultural and creative ethos of Saturday Night Live, which reflects the series’ identity on more fundamental but equally situation-affirming terms. Thus, this year reveals the basic reliability of 30 Rock‘s traditional MTM-esque construct and, to its ongoing credit, the awesome durability of these hilarious characters who uphold the entire apparatus. (Well, that’s true for the regulars at least — new additions like Cheyenne Jackson’s Danny are vague and therefore unhelpful.)