12 Most Rewatchable TV Shows Of All Time

6. 30 Rock

30 Rock Liz Lemon Jack
NBC

30 Rock never quite seems to get the attention it deserves. While contemporaries like Community, The Office, and Parks and Rec are continuously lauded and mourned, there's not as much conversation centred on Tina Fey's comedy - a shame, because it's the most rewatchable of the bunch.

It shares the smarts of those shows, but where it stands apart is in its approach to joke-telling, becoming like a Gatling gun that fires off gags at such a ridiculous pace it's impossible to catch them all.

One calculation, from the Atlantic, had the show making 7.44 jokes per minute. Others suggest it's closer to 10. Either way, it's an insane amount, and comes in all kinds of ways: sight-gags, pop-culture references, character jokes, jokes that serve the plot, jokes that are paying off the setup from a few minutes ago, foreshadowing, callbacks and so on.

With a joke every eight seconds or so, you've really got to be paying attention, and while you're laughing at one gag you can easily miss the next couple, meaning you're always likely to spot something new on rewatch. And even if you don't, the jokes you've already spotted remain hilarious.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.