Welcome to The Rock!
Speaking of brand-new dishwashers, how great is it to have "30 Rock" (9:30 p.m. Thursdays on NBC), the pride and joy of General Electric, back on our TV screens?
Last week's episode was particularly brilliant. GE chairman Don Geiss (Rip Torn) told Jack (Alec Baldwin) he'd chosen Jack as his successor instead of Geiss' new son-in-law Devon Banks (Will Arnett), a closeted gay man who was only marrying into the family to get the GE job. After Jack flinched from Lemon's congratulatory hug ("Hugging. So ethnic."), he explained that the board still had to approve him, but it was just a formality. "Geiss has stacked the board of directors with the most reliable collection of sycophantic yes men this side of an Al Franken book signing. His golf cronies, his army buddies, various unemployable family members, and his hunting dogs."
As usual, Alec Baldwin is fantastic, but what's remarkable is how quickly "30 Rock" has evolved into a true ensemble effort, with Jack, Liz, Kenneth, Tracy, Jenna and Frank all bringing different elements to the table. The contrast between Jack's smooth confidence and Liz's messy confusion (How great was that "Cathy" cartoon parody the week before?) and Tracy's utter delusion makes this show so entertaining and unpredictable from week to week, it makes most sitcoms feel utterly one-note by comparison.
That said, "30 Rock" isn't so completely farcical that it feels removed from real life, thanks to characters who are firmly rooted in reality. It often strikes me how well the show incorporates the ludicrous roller-coaster ride of "Arrested Development" but keeps all of the insanity tied down to earth with relatable, well-drawn characters and situations.
Take Liz Lemon, a character who, like most of us, alternately strives to be a better, more honorable, more down-to-earth person and gets diverted by her own shallow, petty urges. She knows who she is and occasionally tries to assert that her rather mundane desires and limitations are perfectly acceptable -- until someone shames her for them, and then she goes back into the closet and hides. Lemon embodies the nasty maze of conflicting desires and embarrassments common to single women in their mid- to late 30s: She wants a husband, sure, but she doesn't want anyone to be the boss of her. She wants to get ahead at work, yes, but she also wants to skip work and watch a rented movie in bed with a box of Chinese takeout on her lap. She wouldn't mind having a baby, true, as long as it wouldn't mind eating Chinese takeout in bed all day. The beauty of Tina Fey is that she can make all of these conflicting desires and weaknesses show through, without sugaring it all up with coyness and giggling and sad-doggy eyes like, say ... Jennifer Aniston!
OK, bear with me. I've always loved Jennifer Aniston. But a whole generation of sitcom actresses appears to have tailored their comedic shenanigans after hers, thereby making Aniston herself seem like the great big over-sweetened frappuccino of the sitcom world. All that "Oh gosh!"-ing, the forced dimples, the frantic physical comedy, the exaggerated "I'm so sad!" face. You know, maybe part of it is that, when Aniston appears on "Oprah" and "Oprah's Big Give" her exaggerated aw-shucks-iness reminds me of Tom Cruise. Remember when Tom Cruise went from lovable, goofy kid to scary robot star who'd clearly been reading his own press for decades? (And now he's transformed Lil' Katie into a shiny, faux-aristocratic, Posh-Spicy robot as well.)
The point is, Liz Lemon is her own (slightly sad yet resilient) woman. That's why, when Jack tells Liz that she's his first choice to fill his position ("head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming"), she protests and says she's not remotely executive material. Then Jack writes down what her starting salary would be, and it's so obscene that Liz takes one look and slaps him in the face, then marches into the writer's room and yells, "Suck it, monkeys! I'm going corporate!"
Now there's a rallying cry for the times if I've ever heard one.
Next week: Showtime's "This American Life" is back, while "Battlestar Galactica" gets uglier than a Lifetime movie of the week!
About the writer
Heather Havrilesky is Salon's TV critic. She also maintains the rabbit blog. You can find more of her columns in the I Like To Watch directory.
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