TV tonight: '30 Rock,' 'Last Resort,' 'Elementary'

30 Rock
NBC, 8 ET/PT

What sitcom won the most best-comedy Emmys in the century's first decade? With three in a row from 2007 to 2009, 30 Rock, which begins its seventh and last season tonight. The string, of course, ended when the decade did — which, considering the increasingly dreary absurdity of the last few seasons, might not have been a bad time for the show to end as well. Still, it's leaving now, so we'll leave that lament for another day.

Last Resort
ABC, 8 ET/PT

Two of fall's most promising new series, Last Resort and Elementary, face the always-tricky second-episode test tonight —and Resort only barely passes. Written by co-creator Karl Gajdusek, tonight's episode compounds the dangers facing the submarine crew, from an expanding conspiracy back in Washington to new players on the island. To work as a series, the show may indeed need to raise its stakes. But tonight's outing also raises the level of melodrama to unsustainable levels, from Robert Patrick's scenery-chewing performance as the imprisoned Chief of Boat to a not-even-remotely believable speech that poor Scott Speedman is asked to deliver in the middle of a gunfight. Bring the water back down from a boil, please.

Elementary
CBS, 10 ET/PT

For its second episode, Elementary follows another common new series path: tweaking its cast. To that end, the show is adding a new detective played by Jon Michael Hill, who was so outstanding on the much-missed Detroit 1-8-7 and who adds another element of diversity to the cast. We also meet Watson's ex-boyfriend, a recurring role played by Bill Heck.