Minor spoilers ahead.
The last stretch of "30 Rock" went much slower than I expected, maybe because I was so cognizant of the ending approaching, and maybe because these episodes were not the show at its best. The biggest changes were some new additions. Liz Lemon finally got a steady boyfriend in the form of Criss (James Marsden), and a new page named Hazel (Kristen Schaal) joins the crew, eventually becoming Kenneth's girlfriend. Criss is fine, if unreasonably good looking for a hot dog seller, but I'm not a fan of Hazel. In fact, I'm glad that I was familiar with Schaal from other things like "The Daily Show" before I ever saw her in "30 Rock."
Season six was mostly on par with the previous ones. I didn't mind the status quo of Jack waiting for Avery to come back from North Korea, while trying to ignore an attraction to her mother Diana, played by Mary Steenburgen. Liz was generally happier and more mature, Kenneth continued to move through different jobs, and we got another excellent live show. Yes, the one with Jon Hamm in blackface, which may have resulted in the funniest moment in the entire series. It was the first half of season seven that really felt like it was coming apart at the seams. There was a crummy two parter centering around the 2012 presidential election, Jack trying to tank NBC to get Kabletown to sell it, and the Hazel storyline really got out of hand. The last couple of episodes were pretty strong, giving everybody their happy endings and saying all the big goodbyes, but by then I was ready for "30 Rock" to be over.
I don't want to be too harsh. "30 Rock" maintained an impressive level of quality all the way through its seven season run. The density of jokes really ramped up in the later years, to the point where I was constantly having to backtrack to listen to dialogue multiple times to catch all the wordplay. The show finally let Liz Lemon grow up, even though she'll always be terrible. I love that the writers let characters hit some major milestones, with weddings, funerals, promotions, and divorces. Tracy ended up being the most stable character on the show. However, despite "30 Rock" spending so much time winding up loose ends, the actual ending felt so rushed and frantic that I wasn't able to enjoy it. The characters were never designed for anything too heartfelt, unlike say the "Parks and Rec" gang, but I was hoping for a little more sentiment over self-aware winking. Every "happy ending" had to be subverted or thrown into doubt - except for Kenneth's, which got a great punchline at least.
The "one time" pandemic reunion special that was aired in 2020 as part of NBC's upfront presentation actually made me feel a little better, even though much of it was shameless self-promotion. While checking in on the cast in pandemic times, more of the minor characters got definitive endings, like Pete, Lutz, Sue and Jonathan. Also, Jack McBrayer in a dress is so weirdly convincing, I wonder if Hazel would have worked better if she'd been played by McBrayer.
In any case, I'm glad "30 Rock" ended when it did, and that I finished the whole series. When the show was great it was great, and worth powering through the tougher episodes to see. There were some missteps here and there, but it's clear why network sitcoms were never quite the same after "30 Rock." I recognize the dialogue rhythms and the joke construction of so many subsequent shows as having been influenced by Tina Fey and her collaborators. And good grief, some of their lines about capitalism and Bill Cosby turned out to be prescient.
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