I don't know if this term goes beyond TV, but a lot of times, shows are referred to as having a "sophomore slump", especially when a show has a killer first season and a somewhat lackluster second season, whether it be by comparison or in absolute terms. The second seasons of Veronica Mars and LOST were relatively weaker (neither was awful, though LOST's second season is arguably its weakest, but the first seasons of both shows were incredible), while the second season of Heroes was pretty bad, and its good first season made it look all the weaker (let's not even go into the third season). 30 Rock's second season was an improvement on the first, and excepting a few post-strike episodes, the sophomore season was better than the first in nearly every way. Unfortunately, it seems that the now-completed third season is the show's slump year. The picture above epitomizes my main complaint, but there are others as well.
Guest stars galore is the best way to describe Season 3. 30 Rock has always featured some big name guest stars, and they have almost always been able to add a great deal to the show, but they have always supplemented the main cast. The story was still about Liz, Jack, Tracey, and the cast and crew of TGS. Carrie Fisher was a reflection of Liz. Matthew Broderick was a bizarre sidekick for Jack. And Eileen Strich helps explain Jack's mannerisms. This year, however, the purpose of the guest stars seemed to be to get ratings. I don't ever remember a huge marketing push for guest stars in the past, but this year, entire episodes centered around the guests. The second episode of the season, "Believe in the Stars" was entirely centered around a appearance from Oprah Winfrey (which was pretty brief), while the episode "Gavin Volure" was named after Steve Martin's character, who wasn't that funny (sorry, Steve).
Another big problem was the way the characters segregated into various factions; Liz and Jack became the focus of the episodes' A stories, while Jenna, Kenneth, and Tracey were given the B and C stories. Pete, Frank, Toofer, Cerie, Grizz, and DotCom were barely in half the episodes this year, and when they did show up, their roles were minimal at best. Part of the reason was that the role of TGS was greatly diminished this year. Instead, the show focused on Liz and Jack's relationships and the absolute craziness of Tracey, Jenna, and Kenneth.
The season was by no means awful, and there were plenty of funny episodes, but most of them were less than the sums of their parts. The best episodes were great because of various jokes, not because of the episodes themselves. This is an unfortunate departure from the previous seasons, which not only had great jokes, but the episodes transcended the jokes to become incredible wholes that satisfied for the combinations of jokes and stories. The episodes just didn't come together that well this year, nor did the recurring storylines. Jenna's story about her Janis Joplin knock-off film was relegated to B stories and didn't get mentioned nearly enough, while Liz's quest for a baby, which began in last year's finale, seemed to finish in the season premiere (which is strange, because the episode suggested that the story would run throughout the season).
Speaking of finales, I found this year's finale, "Kidney Now!" to be extremely bland. The two previous finales were both incredible, and last year's featured one of the funniest things I've ever seen (gay bomb!). This year, however, I just didn't dig it. I wasn't really that invested in the "Jack's real father" story, and I didn't like the charity joke. This year has done a lot of sitcom cliche parodies that have wandered dangerously into becoming the things they try to parody, and I didn't find the charity drive too funny. Hopefully next year will get back to form.
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