30 Rock: "Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whiskey" Review

Sitting down to write a review and feeling like you don't have a lot to say is never a good sign. Perhaps it's because the past two episodes were so absurd and so much fun that tonight feels so incredibly lackluster. For whatever the reason "Alexis Goodlooking and the Case of the Missing Whiskey" was remarkable only for how underwhelming it was -- not only did I hardly break a smile watching it, but I found myself frequently bored, and, at the end, feeling like I would have been happier spending the half-hour crocheting or, I don't know, organizing my sock drawer.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit and I know that's a pretty harsh way to begin a review, but "Alexis Goodlooking"was terribly disappointing. What makes it especially so is what seems like a plethora of missed opportunities. First of all, Susan Sarandon was back tonight for the first time since "Queen of Jordan" last season, playing Frank Rossitano's high school teacher cum girlfriend, Lynn. Personally, I loved their creepy semi-pedophiliac , or "adultophobe" as Lynn calls it, romance, and thought that Sarandon's previous appearance was fantastic. Indeed, I have been anxious to see her return to the show, especially as Frank mentioned their relationship back in the horrendous Valentine's Day special. So when she popped up from her hiding spot under Liz's desk tonight I was excited. Really excited.

Unfortunately, their romance failed to yield much in the way of humor, or even general entertainment tonight, and in fact, we scarcely even saw Susan Sarandon. Indeed, the best part of their storyline actually turned out to be Patti LuPone, who reappeared in her role as Frank's overbearing, force-feeding Italian mother. And we learned that Frank has an Oedipus complex, but we kind of already knew that, didn't we? It seems an odd decision to me: you have both Patti LuPone and Susan Sarandon appearing in an episode, and not only do you underutilize them individually, but you hardly give them any screen time together? Furthermore, Liz often seemed pretty superfluous to the action here (indeed, to the whole episode), which seemed another strange decision to me.

On that point, Season Six overall has been an off season for Liz Lemon -- she seems to either be forced from the center, relegated to playing an exaggerated version of the character we grew to love in the first five seasons, or stuck in an incredibly boring story line with new, and incredibly boring, boyfriend, Criss. We also haven't gotten a lot of Jack-Liz office time, which, until now has been a cornerstone of the show -- and the series suffers for these changes.