Yo, Robert Bianco, Stop Picking on “30 Rock”!

Perhaps I’m glad that I’ll maybe, just maybe, have the last say about 30 Rock, and politely disagree with Robert Bianco’s recent review of the show. OK, that’s ridiculous. I won’t have the last say, but at least I can respond to Bianco’s false USA Today-y opinion that 30 Rock is woefully on the decline. First, as a T.V. viewer and fan of 30 Rock, I think it’s a shame that the show is ending early, and I look forward to its return next season. So, with that said, I’ll begin my letter.

By CC Staff

Dear Mr. Bianco:

What is wrong with you?

1) Demographics:

You are terribly presumptuous in thinking that the show only appeals to a younger audience (20s and 30s age range). The demographic is wider than you would think — haven’t you noticed the subtle ways they’ve advertised baby diapers, baby toys, etc.? Obviously appealing to the baby demographic, which you failed to consider when writing your critique.

My ol’ granny lives in a nasty retirement home. It smells like urine, but that’s not the point. My ol’ granny watches 30 Rock all the time. Perhaps that’s anecdotal, but I’ve been over there many times, and enjoyed an episode out in the main area with a bunch of other old peeps. They all laughed, just like my infant cousins laugh at the show. We all know (that means you), that when my granny and my infant cousins laugh at something, it’s universally funny.

2) Tina/Liz and Reality/Fiction critique:

OK, I won’t even go into that fact that this whole dichotomy is tiresome, and that you, Mr. Bianco, could learn a few things if you read literary theory and thought about the problematic divide between “reality” and “fiction.” I won’t go into that here, but I will raise a point about your comments about the show’s inability to hang onto reality.

At one point you write: “But as often happens lately, the jokes come at the expense of our attachment to the characters and to the show’s fraying links to reality.” Huh? What’s this mean? You devolve into a silly attack against Tina/Liz, and it makes me wonder if you harbor jealousy with the fact that (a) Tina Fey is probably WAY funnier than you could ever WISH to be and (b) you have some lame-o script for a sitcom wadded up in your tiny little office at USA TODAY.

3) Liz’s “sudden instability:”

When was Liz Lemon SANE? When? If memory serves me (and I have superb memory recall when it comes to 30 Rock), in one of the previous episodes Liz was drunk at a lunch meeting with super powerful big-wigs of the company. Have you seen her ex? Again, have you SEEN her ex? You suggest that Liz Lemon is more unstable in the last episode than in the other ones. That might suggest a bit of sexism, which Fey is poking fun at…if that’s the case, you’re a jerk, man. Besides, she wasn’t even pregnant, so there!

4) Decline in Ratings (according to Bianco) = Decline in Quality of Show

The decline in ratings might not be a result of the decline in the quality of content, but related to the fact that it’s intelligent humor. Ever considered that, Mr. Bianco? With that said, I’m aghast by the fact that you failed to acknowledge that much of this episode was a bitter and sarcastic critique of the Bush Administration. That strand of the story had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with pulling at our attachment(s) to the characters in “reality.” Of course, Fey is pushing viewers to think about the nonsense of a very real reality (the political spin that we’re currently drowning in, gasping for that last breath of air as I write this, before we’re all flushed down Bushy’s toilet of darkness), and that part was entirely detached from the real characters of TV Land. That was the only funny part? Come on! You sum it up in one tiny paragraph, and so flippantly.

Your overall assertion that Liz doesn’t give a damn about the show is punchy, based upon a few stringed together critiques. And how could you suggest that its tenure is similar to Studio 60? Are you serious? Are you really serious? Your comparing a drama to a sitcom! That’s why your conclusion is so utterly fallacious, and I can only determine that you take yourself too seriously and are projecting it onto a show.

Love,

C. Ryder

P.S. Studio 60 should have been given a chance – you’re just as wrong about that, too.