TV-Reviewed

The guest stars keep on rolling out. This week Steve Martin plays what seems to be a more developed version of the character he played in Tina’s last film Baby Mama. While many revere Steve Martin for a collective career, in recent years I have found him to become as exhausting as the appearances of other similarly aged actors like Caine, Hoffman, Walken, Murray, Freeman, Nicholson. This continues to be true, but his character did offer a deeper examination of what I feel to be one of the most fun and engaging aspects of the show: a surreal take on the conservative mega-elite of the corporate world.

The episode opens with a bizarre dinner party, a Twin Peaks worthy interpretation of a think tank: Jack (business), Liz (creative), John McEnroe and several other unique personalities. Gavin appears and claims that he is so rich and crazy he refuses to leave a massive estate. Gavin takes an immediate liking to the neurotic Liz and a doomed courtship begins. Elsewhere Tracy has ordered life-like sex dolls of himself which becomes convenient when he becomes convinced his children are out to kill him like a repeat of the Menendez Brothers case. Kenneth also has some joke about Confederate Hillbilly money.

Steve Martin as Gavin Volure, Tina Fey as Liz Lemon

It is quickly revealed that Gavin is not in fact an eccentric shut in, but on house arrest with several other white collar criminals; Gavin for fraud – he created and marketed a business that never had a real function, goal or purpose other than to dupe investors. This comes after he lures the adorable Liz Lemon in by revealing his quirks limit him from sexual encounters and that he cannot offer her anything other than TV watching, snacking on foods and other asexual hermit traits we have come to know and love about Lemon herself.

Technically this episode is one that worked to all of its strong points, except for the criminal lack of Jane Krakowski, yet again. Tracy’s unbalanced mind warps his kids concerns that he is too rich to love and care for them is turned into him running in fear at the sight of them and setting traps to catch them trying to kill him. Liz plays adorable nerdlinger and Jack deals with white-collar business politics. If only the stunt casting would stop and the focus could return to the other talented actors in the cast, and possibly even be about the actual goings on of the series.

Seriously, at this point its been so long since The Girlie Show was an actual relevant element of the plot that I wonder how the series, if it were real, could have possibly been crafted and maintained enough to remain on the air. It seems the series is more concerned with Liz’s downtime (not that I’d ever refuse a single frame of what they offered me) than the supposed 80 hours she puts in a week on TGS. If the work that prevented her from having a baby just weeks ago is around, shouldn’t she not be jetting off to Chicago, to Steve Martin, to upcoming High School Reunion????

Rating: 7