30 Rock Season 2 [DVD]

All 15 episodes of the high-caliber US comedy series are set in the offices of an American TV network. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is head script-writer for comedy sketch show 'The Girlie Show', who has to use all her political skills to keep her eccentric new star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and arrogant, new-ideas boss Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) in check, while she tries to keep the ship from sinking.

Episodes comprise: 'Seinfeld Vision', 'Jack Gets In The Game', 'The Collection', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'Green, 'Somebody to Love', 'Cougars', 'Secrets and Lies, 'Ludachristmas', 'Episode 210', 'Milf Island', 'Subway Hero', 'Succession', 'Sandwich Day' and 'Cooter'. Reality quickly intrudes on the hapless Liz, but for Tina Fey and 30 Rock, the year couldn't be better.

Nominated for 17 Emmys, the series repeated for Outstanding Comedy Series and earned Outstanding Actress and Actor honors for Fey and co-star Alec Baldwin as GM CEO-in-waiting Jack Donaghy. TV icon Tim Conway was also honored as Outstanding Guest Actor as Bucky Bright in "Subway Hero"--just one of the strike-shortened season's benchmark episodes--as a faded TV star from the 1940s and '50s who shatters the illusions of television-loving NBC page Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) with appalling (and unprintable) stories about "the good old days." If you're going to make a television show, Bucky tells him, "things are going to get weird.

And from one of Kenneth's lame parties that turns dark and twisted to the "Page Off" between Kenneth and his nemesis ( Human Giant's Paul Scheer) things get really weird behind the scenes of TGS, the SNL-ish sketch show where Liz oversees a motley crew of writers and her temperamental, demanding stars, insecure diva Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and all kinds of crazy Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan).

30 Rock is rarefied television, each episode brimming with quotable dialogue ("Never go with a hippie to a second location"), brilliantly absurd bits (Tracy Jordan's novelty hit, "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah," the TV series "MILF Island," Liz's Cathy moment), and the edge of the frame silliness that rewards close attention ("Anne Heche Leaves Husband for Pony," reads a network news scroll in the episode, "Somebody to Love"). Stellar guest stars rise to the occasion. Edie Falco was an Emmy nominee for her recurring role as "C.C.", the liberal Democratic Congresswoman who becomes conservative Republican Jack's "hippie-dippy mama," as was Carrie Fisher as former Laugh-In writer Rosemary in the instant classic episode, "Rosemary's Baby." It's this episode that features Tracy's therapy session during which Jack channels Fred Sanford and J.J. from Good Times.

Making welcome returns this season are Will Arnett as Jack's corporate rival, Devon Banks, Chris Parnell as unethical Dr. Spaceman, Elaine Stritch as Jack's castrating mother, and Dean Winters as Dennis Duffy, Liz's sleazy former boyfriend and New York's unlikeliest hero. Most sitcoms are as bad for you as the off-brand Mexican Cheetos that Liz gorges herself on, and as Jenna tells Liz at one point, employing "a weak metaphor," you deserve a good meal. 30 Rock is a feast.

Donald Liebenson Stills from 30 Rock Season 2 (click for larger image). Synopsis After taking home the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, 30 Rock returned for its sophomore season with an even sharper satirical toolset, skewering everything from reality television (hello, Milf Island) to the suit & tie shenanigans of its own network. Set behind the scenes at The Girlie Show, a fictional sketch comedy series, 30 Rock follows showrunner Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) as she contends with her program's flighty stars, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), and runs interference between network exec Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and her own unruly writing staff. This season starts off as TGS returns from summer hiatus, and gets straight to the hilarious disasters; over the course of 15 episodes, Liz tries (and fails) to buy a condo, Jack has a scandalous love affair with a liberal, and Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), the excitable page, accidentally throws an alcohol-soaked rager.

This collection contains every moment from the delightfully absurd and highly quotable 2007-2008 season, featuring guest appearances from Jerry Seinfeld, Edie Falco, and David Schwimmer.