30 Rock 5 Reasons Liz Lemon Is Our Hero (& 5 Not So Much)

30 Rock: 5 Reasons Liz Lemon Is Our Hero (& 5 Not So Much)

Tina Fey’s 30 Rock offers up Liz Lemon, who’s just as complicated and messy as the show itself. She’s a lovable, relatable hero, but not always.

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Lorne Michaels’ 30 Rock offers up a protagonist just as complicated and messy as the show itself–messy being used as a compliment, here. The chaos of Liz Lemon is portrayed brilliantly by Tina Fey, who pitches her disarray and ridiculousness to a level of mastery.

Fey is known for creating and playing female characters which open up conversation around the representation of women in media. Liz Lemon is a perfect example of this. This does not, however, mean she’s perfect–in fact, that’s the point. Liz garners our approval just as much as she makes us cringe, often in ways that exist outside of normative ideas of women. Here are five times Liz was our hero, and five she was flawed.

10 Hero: The Picture In Her Office

It’s a small detail, but one that speaks volumes. Hanging just on the inside wall of Liz’s office is a framed picture of fried food, specifically chicken and french fries, smothered in various condiments and partially eaten. This immediately sets the tone of what kind of person Liz is, and cuts her apart from polite society’s ideas of women. She has ferocious appetite, and she doesn’t hide that.

9 Not A Hero: Confuses Black People

The show will sometimes casually comment on Liz’s ignorance when it comes to race relations. Liz will be walking across the set at work and refer to a black man as the wrong name, to which he once replied disdainfully, “that’s the other black guy”. She then does the same thing later in the same episode. The casual nature of how these interactions happen emulates how commonly and mindlessly they happen in real life.

8 Hero: She Doesn’t Care What Jack Thinks

Jack criticizes Liz from day one. He comments on her weight, he teases her about her clothing choices, and he makes digs about his assumptions regarding her personal life. The most Liz will do in response to this is make a face–the very kind of face that Jack likely finds repulsive.

When it comes to criticism, Liz often acts like a teenaged boy, disregarding other people’s opinions with a lazy, noncommittal shrug. It’s humorous in style and unconventional in practice.

7 Not A Hero: She Puts Up With Dennis

Dennis embodies all of Liz’s most unfortunate traits. It’s entertaining watching her interact with him, as it allows the audience to meditate on what Liz thinks about herself and how she reckons with her flaws.

Liz doesn’t recognize that this is what’s going on exactly. She knows she shouldn’t like him, but finds herself drawn to him despite her better judgment, unable to figure out why. It’s a relief when she does finally leave him, but worrying up until that point.

6 Hero: She Prioritizes Her Work

Liz is interested in finding connections with people, despite how she often portrays herself, but the most important thing to her is her job. Every once in awhile she considers that maybe she could try and put other things first, but as soon as the idea comes somewhat close to reality she immediately banishes it. Liz will not give up her career for the sake of anybody else, no matter how people judge her for it.

5 Not A Hero: Tries To Blame Kenneth

Jack reads in the newspaper that someone in the company bad-mouthed him. He is determined to find out who it is and enlists Liz’s help. Now, he knows it was her the entire time, but is only trying to get her to admit it. Liz fights until the end pretending that it wasn’t her, going so far as to let Kenneth take the fall for it.

She only admits it once Jack has conned her into feeling terrible, not because she wanted to protect Kenneth, who didn’t do anything wrong.

4 Hero: She Lets Her Staff Be Themselves

Liz leads a team of misfits over in the writing room. Everyone who works for her has a unique personality, each stranger than the next. Much of the time they don’t even seem to be working but are instead engaged in a non-work related debate or inexplicably just watching TV together.

Despite all of this, Liz still garners their respect and they get the work done that she needs them to. She is hard-handed when she has to be but mostly ends up not needing to be because the staff likely appreciates that she doesn’t over-manage them.

3 Not A Hero: Her Work

While the show made by Tina Fey is remarkable, the show run by Liz Lemon pales in comparison. That is to say, it’s hilariously inferior to anything considered remotely decent television.

This is a point of some comedic moments in the show, such as when Liz will refer to what she does as making “art”, and then the camera cuts to an episode of her show in which the characters are talking about farts. If there’s one thing that doesn’t impress, it’s that actual content Liz creates at 30 Rock.

2 Hero: She’s Socially Awkward

Liz is a mess socially. If Jack needs her to impress while at a meeting, odds are she will make the situation uncomfortable. If she encounters a person she finds attractive, she forgets she is a grown woman with no reason to feel intimidated, and immediately mumbles and makes a fool of herself. It’s painful, but it’s also why fans love her. Everybody acts like an idiot sometimes, many of us more than we’d like–and so does Liz.

1 Not A Hero: Mistakes A Girl For Oprah

Liz once again generalizes people of color. While on a plane she takes drugs that Jack gave her and ends up assuming that the girl sitting next to her is Oprah. It’s another comment, on the show’s part, of white people’s ignorance and offensive behavior toward people of color, and it’s pretty uncomfortable how often Liz does it.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/30-rock-why-fans-love-vs-hate-liz-lemon-tina-fey/

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