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Studio 60
Review
9/25/06 episode
Pilot, 9/18/06
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Studio 60: Review
Saturday 11.25.2006
alice ttlg || 09:45 PM
The problem with this show is...there are so *many* problems. First, it's not funny. And it's not fun. And it's being way too serious when it's about making a television show. It should be fun and it should be funny and sometimes it should be serious. But Sorkin's got it backwards, it's like he's trying to remake West Wing but doing even that badly.
He used to be able to do Republican/Christian/Conservative characters so that you could see the person instead of the label, so that you could understand the person *and* understand why they were a Republican/Christian/Conservative/whatever. He could take an Anne Coulter and make you not only like her but *respect* her.
But Harriet is just sad because he achieves none of those things with her, she is the caricature of Anne Coulter, he not only doesn't make us like her, we can't even respect her. Instead he's got Matt, the liberal, explaining to her how to be a Christian and that's just wrong.
The two-part Nevada thing hit all the wrong notes, even John Goodman couldn't save it, him asking Simon about his hair was just sooooo painful to watch. And so predictable, there were plenty of times West Wing was predictable but I still enjoyed getting to the predictable end, I had fun during the ride. This was predictable and boring, there was nothing fun about the ride. Even Jack's rant at the end, what should have been a wonderful ending scene, sounded so wrong out of his mouth, out of the character, he's not the President of the US, he's head of a network and it was just so wrong.
In Sports Night, he took the characters seriously but understood that the sports show wasn't, in the great scheme of the world, the most important thing. He understood that what was most important was the people, doing their jobs each day and trying to live their lives and make them better. In West Wing, it was serious and that was right because it was the White House, it really was about saving the world and making it all better and the job was the most important thing in the great scheme of the world. And he also made it fun and funny too, showed people who cared passionately even when they completely disagreed with each other and made us like and respect *both* sides.
But here he's taking it all too seriously, and he's not having fun or making it funny either. It's a TV show. It may be important within the characters' lives but it's still about a TV show - a comedy show at that and none of the skits or jokes are funny! The lines are off the mark, I hear them and I think, oh, that's smart, that's witty but...it doesn't make me smile, much less laugh at anything, there's just no spark there. The characters are cold and without heart, instead of people doing or showing, it's always someone telling someone else. Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet came the closest to being real but even they fell short of the mark.
So it's all just sad, it breaks my heart, I watch the show and I'm depressed by the end because it's just not there. I keep hoping it will get cancelled so I don't have to give up on it first.
Studio 60: 9/25/06 episode
Saturday 09.30.2006
alice ttlg || 09:56 PM
I adore Amanda Peet! She does deadpan comedy brilliantly! And she's hooked me into this show, no matter how the rest of goes (and it still goes great with Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry), it's worth watching just for her!
Studio 60: Pilot, 9/18/06
Tuesday 09.19.2006
alice ttlg || 09:20 PM
Not bad at all, not bad at all. Started off slow but ended up very good. Matthew Perry has finally found a role that fits his looks and his semi-Chandler, semi-curmudgeon, semi-real life drug problem personality and he and Bradley Whitford are excellent together, they play off each other very nicely. Whitford puts his Deputy Chief of Staff attitude to good use and throws in a bit of tired, ex-bad boy. Amanda Peet is surprisingly good as the network exec in charge (or whatever she is) and Steven Weber uses his Wings Casanova background in a softly sleazy way that rings true.
It struck me as a sort of Aaron Sorkin/Tommy Schlamme semi-autobiography but it works well. I'm not sure how it will go over long term, caring a about a bunch of people running a network tv show is not the same as caring about the people running the country or the same as caring about the has-beens, also-rans and on-the-way-ups at a third or fourth rate cable sports show, but the beginning was good.
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