You ever come home and realize you’ve had your sweater on backwards all day? Maybe you find a post-it or a price sticker in your hair and you don’t know how long it’s been there. Maybe it’s the kind of day where you could eat a whole pizza by yourself.
If you’ve ever been there, I’d like to introduce you to Liz Lemon.
Liz Lemon, or rather, Tina Fey, is the star of the critically-acclaimed cult hit 30 Rock, now heading into its sixth season on NBC. The head writer of a sketch comedy show, Liz is in the midst of a constant battle to keep the stars from self-destructing, to keep her writers in line and to try to grow as a person with the help of her mentor (and boss) Jack Donaghey, played by Alec Baldwin. Bent on becoming as successful in her personal life as she is at work, she’s constantly getting hit hard as reality comes crashing down on her expectations.
Like the time that she hires her childhood hero Rosemary Howard as a guest writer and discovers she’s turned into a burned-out, unsalvageable alcoholic. The role is played with brilliant comedic precision by Carrie Fisher, who in her last scene shouts after a fleeing Liz, “Help me Liz Lemon! You’re my only hope!”
Or the time she tries to save her show from budget cuts. After exhausting more traditional means of negotiation and misreading some advice, she accidentally gets herself suspended for sexual harassment.
And that time she met that really handsome guy who really liked her? Turns out they’re third cousins.
She just can’t get a break, this Liz Lemon.
But she never gives up. She has an indomitable stubborn streak that endears her to the audience even as it gets her in trouble. You get the feeling that, at least at work, she could solve any problem if you gave her a box of donuts and got out of her way.
And with so many actors on the show playing characters based on themselves or people they know, 30 Rock does self-referential humor at its finest.
Liz: Speaking of TV ideas, would you buy a show about a girl television writer trying to have it all in the city… and also she’s a vampire, I guess?
Jack: I like the end part.
30 Rock is now in syndication on Comedy Central and available on Netflix Instant.