OK, so I gave it another chance.
Harriet still isn’t funny (or all that talented from what I can see), the back-stories are lame and uninspired, Matt’s “brilliant writing” is far from brilliant…or close to writing as the absolutely horrible show-within-a-show demonstrates.
Indeed, the series feels like a heavily watered-down version of The West Wing, dammit.
On the other hand, 30 Rock is much better than it has a right to be.