I’ve been under the impression that I ought to give 30 Rock a chance for a while now.  Typically (or at least in theory) I like Tina Fey, so it had that going for it.  On the other hand, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan usually make me want to barf, so it was kind of a toss up.  Now that I’ve made it through season 1, I have mixed feelings.  There is a lot of problematic material here.  I think that we’re supposed to interpret this as “ironic” or “tongue-in-cheek” a lot of the time, but mostly the running gags come off as distasteful.  Stick with me through some clips and concerns, and I promise to try to look on the bright side at the end.

First there is the idea that Liz Lemon is an unattractive, pathetic spinster despite the fact that Tina Fey is gorgeous, intelligent, and successful (all of which seem to translate into Liz as well). Take the following clip from “The Baby Show” where crazy Liz can’t control her baby cravings and steals a baby instinctively.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  Cerie the sexy secretary,  Jenna the ditz, Jack the misogynist, and running jokes about how gross sex workers/persons with disabilities/gay men are, as well as my attempt to look for the silver lining after the jump.

Next up is the constant objectification of Cerie, the hot intern, as emphasized in the episode “Jack the Writer.”

When Liz confronts her and encourages her to dress a little more professionally (like, with a bra and stuff), she assumes that it must be because Liz has body issues and is uncomfortable being around someone so much more attractive than her.

Jenna, the original star of the show within the show, is a ditz who uses her sexuality to get things (which always backfires), and is also consistently disrespected by her coworkers.  In the clip below from “Up All Night,” Jenna feels the need to justify herself to one of the writers who is the cruelest to her, despite the fact that she is a beautiful and successful woman, and he is slobby, rude, and lazy.

Jack’s love/hate relationship with his soon-to-be ex-wife (played by the fantastic Ms. Isabella Rossellini) is saturated with misogyny… (This is another sparkling storyline in the episode “Up All Night.”)

…and then treated with a helping of disdain for sex workers. After Liz rescues Tracy from drunken Jack and “Sophie’s Choice,” they leave her passed out next to some trash cans in the street. Jack explains that its okay because that’s “better than where I found her.”

The pilot episode kicked off with a business meeting in a strip club, so we shouldn’t really be shocked at this point that sex work is just part of the gag.

I couldn’t find any clips of Jenna’s brush with royalty, but the jokes at the expense of prince Gerhardt, a royal product of incest, are a prime theme in the episode “Black Tie.”  Gerhardt has a miniature hand, paralyzed legs, pointy teeth, an unusual laugh, eyebrows that fall off, an inability to metabolize alcohol (which kills him on his 25th birthday), and a crush on Jenna.  She considers it the “role of a lifetime” to pretend to love him back because it might make her dream of becoming a princess come true.

In the episode “Fireworks,” Jack uses his page Kenneth to take advantage of his slutty gay rival, Devon Banks, by sending Kenneth to dance for Devon (who has made several overt passes at Kenneth, including slipping into a “more comfortable” cutoff robe) in order to make him late for an important meeting.  Devon comes across as predatory throughout the episode, and Kenneth as naive and pathetic.

So, where are the feminist themes?  Where is the empowerment?  Where is the sisterhood, Tina?  I have to admit that I expected more from Ms. Fey.  Maybe we’re supposed to laugh at the shallow, stupid and cruel men that surround Liz Lemon, after all, they come across just as bad as the women in the show.  Maybe we’re supposed to see the irony of a beautiful and intelligent woman being disrespected regularly by unattractive and stupid men who have more power than her.  Maybe we’re supposed to feel the pain of the double standards that pit woman against woman in the business world.

Although I really can’t say that I like the show, for reasons unexplained I plan to give season 2 a shot (and probably season 3 after that out of the desperate need a graduate student has to procrastinate).  I’m trying to see the benefit and success of a woman writing and producing a sitcom that is equally watched by men and women, and that has made it into its fourth season on network tv, because even if it’s not perfect the exposure must be good.  And people seem to like the show.

So what are your thoughts about 30 Rock?  Am I missing something, or do you find it problematic as well?