A Statement About Liz Lemon

I didn't "get" Sex and the City.  And I gave it a damn good try.  I watched the first season, and have probably seen a season's worth of reruns on TBS (I know they're watered down, but the idea is there) and I just... don't get it.  It might be my age, it might be that I don't live in a city (although I have, several times over the past few years), it might be that I would rather buy 15 DVDs than spend $300 on a pair of shoes.  But I digress.

The biggest problem I have with Sex and the City is that none of those women represented ME.  I know there was a brainy/cynical one and a romantic one, and I probably fall somewhere between the two.  But I never looked at any of them and saw myself.  I could relate to their problems occasionally, but that was about it.

Which is why I nominate Liz Lemon as my female representative to the Pop Culture Congress.  Liz Lemon, 3o Rock's own Mary Tyler Moore (although I have to confess, I don't know what that means) is ME.  And that's all there is to it.

First of all, Liz Lemon is gloriously weak.  Weak in ways that I (and girls like me) are weak.  She eats.  Constantly.  In fact, there is a rather spectacular cutaway in the season 2 episode called "Sandwich Day" in which she flips over a table, screeching "WHERE'S MY MAC AND CHEESE??" when the male writers under her employ have presumably stolen it and eaten it for themselves. (For those curious, I have that Mac and Cheese moment about once a week).  

Liz steps in to save her staff from the Head Honcho, Jack Donaghy, on a regular basis.  But when she herself makes a rather large error in judgement, she is happy enough to let her entire staff be questioned and accused and to turn on each other before finally confessing to Jack.  Of course, he knew it was her the whole time.

Another thing that makes Liz Lemon stand apart the complete lack of romance in her life.  This is not to say that she does not have boyfriends, or that she doesn't have sex (we know it usually involves being bribed with food and Uno foreplay).  Liz does not base her life around finding a romantic love interest.  When Floyd, the season 1 boyfriend, elected to stay in Cleveland without her, Liz returned for season 2, not depressed and bedridden, but ready for action (with the exception of the whole wedding-dress-buying incident).  30 Rock is not about Liz finding a boyfriend or love or any of that.  It's about Liz, her crazy job, and trying to live her life around it.

This is further emphasized by the 4 males immediately surrounding Liz on a regular basis, all of whom have zero romantic prospects with our heroine.  Nor, it should be mentioned, do they want them.  Jack is her boss and wants to help "better" her life and self-esteem; Pete is her loser producer who moves in with her after his wife finds out he didn't have a vasectomy; Tracy is the insane (actually insane) star of her show; and Kenneth is the quasi-adolescent NBC page who follows her around like a puppy hungry not for Liz herself but for the opportunities her presence can bring.

The final reason Liz Lemon is my kind of character is that she is absolutely, without question, unhesitatingly nerdy.  This is a girl who has no time to pay attention to what she's wearing (as Jack often points out).  Star Wars references abound (especially when Jenna, the other star of Liz's show, tries to tell her that "Men don't like girls who watch Star TREK," "WARS!!" Liz corrects vehemently.)  Liz is also the fearless propagator of exclamations like "Nerds!" and "Blerg!" and "Monsters!" and, on several occasions, tells people they can "eat my poo."

In long, I adore Liz Lemon.  On the television landscape she is the character who represents me, the way I think, and the way I do things.  Enough said.

A Statement About the New Look

Cheers to Lady Liberty for our sexy makeover!

A Statement About Why I Am Not Sure About Fringe

Full disclosure:  I would follow JJ Abrams to the ends of the earth.  Felicity, Alias, and Lost are among my favorite shows (the latter two I watch on a regular basis in their entireties).  I severely dislike Tom Cruise and went opening weekend to see M:I3.  I am a Star Wars fan for life, but I will be there opening weekend for Star Trek  in May.

But I am not sure about Fringe.

It's not the plot that I am concerned about.  Something about the X-Files meets Alias theme tells me that this could go on for a while, and with a mythology that is at once intriguing and a bit more accessible than say, Lost or Alias.

I am not concerned at all about the characters, although it is strange that for once the female character is the least compelling of them all.  It is not like an Abrams heroine to play second banana to anyone, much less two men.  But there can be no question that the good doctor and his son are the bread that makes the sandwich.

It's not even the unlikely Boston locale that unsettles me.  I mean, seriously?  THAT much supernatural activity in that state?  Hell, in that part of the country?  At least Alias held to its main conceit and sent Sydney Bristow all over the world.  The least they could do is send the operatives all over the country.

No, it is not any one of these things that makes me hesitate to fully embrace and obsess over Fringe.  It is all of them put together.  There is something not quite right, something not quite gelling, that gives me serious pause.  It might be that the main actress, Anna Torv, is not grabbing me, a rare thing in an Abrams find (the man is pretty much batting 1.000 on finding gorgeous, compelling new talent with actual talent).  Because the actress is not grabbing me, the actor is, and Joshua Jackson is the best part of the show.  And the girl is not even matching him.  Which might be the point... she is the serious government type, and he is the sarcastic know-it-all with no loyalties.  Maybe.  But I don't like it.  And even Sydney Bristow with her two dead fiances and rogue mother and dead friends had a sense of humor.  There is something off about Fringe, and I cannot quite put my finger on it.

And so, I remain skeptical.

A Statement About Mad Men and How Much it Kicks Ass

Mad Men is pretty effing excellent.

Let's just put that out there for a moment.  I watched the first episode well over a year ago when the initial critical praise just ramping up.  I have to confess that at first I didn't "get" it, and so tried to ignore the growing cult buzz.  However, after the continued hype and the whole Emmy win, it became increasingly apparent that I was missing something.  

So I bought the first season on iTunes, and ohmygoodness.  Stephen King was right when he wrote in a recent Entertainment Weekly column that Mad Men is a soap opera wrapped in nostalgia and style, but it is also much, much more than that.  It is a studied look at relationships and the expectations we have for eachother.  The marriage of Don and Betty Draper is one of superficial happiness (all of Betty's friends take time to comment about the apparent perfection of her husband) and deeply wrought undercurrents (after 6+ years of marriage, Betty still does not know the specifics of Don's past, starting with the fact that his name is not Don Draper).

All of this domestic turmoil landscaped by Don's advertising firm, Sterling Cooper, the literal source of manipulative advertising and false polish for the products people are trying to sell.  

The show might border on ordinary if not for the extreme flair and style with which it is presented.  For better or worse, we are transported back to an era where smoking is cool, a scotch at 10 in the morning is perfectly acceptable, and kids are left at home asleep at night with no babysitter.  The writing is excellent, the acting is subtle and effective, and it's just a great show.  

Plus, Don Draper is hot.

A Statement About 30 Rock

I have been meaning to write this particular post for a while, but it's even more relevent today, so here we go.

30 Rock is excellent.  I don't say that with a single reservation, or with an ounce of exaggeration.  Tina Fey has created a show that is both smart and ridiculous (my favorite kind) and with a cast that is absolutely to die for.

The key to the excellence has to be a complete knowledge and respect for the people she wants watching this show.  For example, what should have been a routine product placement of Verizon products in season 2, the writers take on their selling-out dead on when Fey's Liz Lemon, after extolling the virtues of the network, looks straight into the camera and says "Can we have our money now?"

And then there is Liz Lemon herself.  Never before has there been such a female character on television, and she could not be more relatable even in her exagerrated neurosis.  Liz is socially awkward, a Star Wars dork, an emotional eater (see:  Cheese curls, a $57 steak, and a meatball sub with extra bread.)  Liz is not desperate for a man to come along and make her a complete person-- she already is.  But that doesn't keep her from wanting the companionship anyway (see: Dennis Duffy). 

Even the shortened second season (oh... the Writer's Strike seems so long ago, doesn't it?) the material is fresh and outrageous and smart as hell.  Why aren't you watching?