Loved 30 Rock? This cracker new comedy is the 2026 equivalent

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins ★★★★

This crackerjack American sitcom knows exactly what it wants to do. Fancy a daft vintage television advert from a fast-food giant featuring the title character, Tracy Morgan’s disgraced former gridiron superstar? You’ll have to wait all of 32 seconds for that. The jokes start early in this mockumentary, and they never stop: absurd reasoning, ludicrous digs, cutaways to past embarrassments, and pop-culture punchlines all populate The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. It is a genuinely funny concoction.

Not surprisingly, the show has some major 30 Rock heritage, both in terms of structure and silliness and the people involved. Reggie Dinkins creators Robert Carlock and Sam Means were both part of 30 Rock writing staff, with the former serving as showrunner alongside creator Tina Fey, who is present here as a non-writing executive producer. On screen, Morgan was a livewire as 30 Rock’s cheerfully unpredictable comic superstar Tracy Jordan, creating a surreal persona that he now puts back on like a second skin.

Reggie, like Tracy Jordan, is prone to saying ridiculous but somehow logical things – “books are brain movies” is an early favourite. But what Reggie lacks is self-confidence. The NFL running back’s stellar career ended in scandal two decades prior, when Reggie managed to accidentally confess on live television that he illegally bet on himself and his team to win games. He’s a pariah in his hometown, New York, where he played for the Jets, and has developed a fixation with daytime television.

This is rich thematic fodder for Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe), the Academy Award-winning British documentarian that Reggie has hired to redeem his image. The initial problem is that Reggie wants a laudatory puff piece – with an action movie finale – while Arthur is a scrupulous observer who will cut no corners. But Carlock and Means are not particularly interested in conflict, as the show soon reveals that Arthur is also hiding from his own scandal. Reggie and Arthur have to help each other.

As rapid-fire as the gags are, this is a gentle comedy (unless you’re Jared Leto). Reggie is still safely wealthy, for example, because his diligent agent and ex-wife Monica (Erika Alexander) protects him, and Monica in turn gets on well with Reggie’s younger influencer fiance, Brina (Precious Way). Reggie and Monica’s son, Carmelo (Jalyn Hall), is a kind-hearted teenager. Reggie’s former teammate and basement tenant, Rusty (Bobby Moynihan), is absolutely a doofus, but he’s basically a teddy bear dedicated to Reggie.

The adversaries here are the character’s respective internal fears and protective delusions. Reggie wants to redeem his reputation, if only for Carmelo’s sake, while Arthur is trying to recover from his professional nadir, lest he has to keep teaching at the University of Maryland’s Centre for Documentary, Anime and Pornography. The 21-minute episodes skilfully skip through an A and B plot, finding enjoyable combinations of characters even as Reggie and Arthur make some tentative progress.

No one can play a Tracy Jordan/Reggie Dinkins role like Tracy Morgan, given that he essentially patented the performance style, but former Harry Potter star Radcliffe is a terrific foil, leaning into Arthur’s British reserve and professional pride. Radcliffe looks so happy to be in a livewire comedy, even as Arthur gently explains documentary filmmaking ethics. The show isn’t quite the comic masterpiece that 30 Rock was, but it expertly hits such a welcome 2026 sweet spot. Hopefully The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins runs for many years.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins airs 11.10pm Wednesdays on Seven and 7plus.

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