Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land!
After I watch this week’s episode of House— downloading now… 17 minutes remaining— I believe my TV watching is over until 2007 (unless Neil Patrick Harris shows up one more time in December). That is, if you can call what I watch TV. I don’t really watch TV proper at all anymore (not even on TiVo, frowny face), I download everything the next day and watch it on das PowerBook. Ergo House.
Anyway, yeah. Lost is over until February (fuckers!), Heroes is on hiatus, House is done, and South Park won’t be new until like, I don’t even know… June? 24 hasn’t even started yet… but when it does… hoo boy. So that leaves, hmmm… ah yes: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.
When the final episode of The West Wing aired last May I had mixed feelings about the show ending. On the one hand, I was sad to see it go… for the most part it was a good show. On the other hand, it had really gone downhill in recent seasons, and the story had reached its logical conclusion. So I was happy and sad.
When I heard that Aaron Sorkin was making a new show for the fall though, I was wicked excited and that more than made up for The West Wing ending. (Aaron Sorkin created The West Wing, and single-handidly wrote every episode of the first four seasons.) And when I heard that it was going to be about the behind-the-scenes of an SNL-esque show, I was even more excited. Sorkin specializes shows about exclusive environments like, well, the west wing (”The West Wing”), sports shows (”Sports Night”), and now live television comedy (”Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”).
Anyway, we’re 11 episodes in so far, and it’s been damn entertaining. Reminds me of how The West Wing used to be. Good times. It’s sort of like watching the both backstage antics at SNL and the innerworkings of a television network. Both make for great television.
Problem is, not everyone seems to share my exuberance. Apparently its rating are low, which (obviously) is bad, but the viewers that it does have are of the richy rich variety (good). And while it’s been picked up for a full season, the question is will it last past that?
One of the complaints of people who don’t like Studio 60 is that they say the show within the show isn’t funny. I.e. the sketches in the fictional “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” aren’t humorous. To those people I say, SNL isn’t funny either, why should Studio 60 be? If anything, Studio 60 not being funny adds credibility to the show.
And moreover, some of it is funny. Last week’s episode had a pretty good bit in it (a To Catch a Predator spoof, starring Santa Claus.) I laughed out loud at the premise alone, which is more than I can say I’ve done while watching SNL in the past 10 years.
(Quick aside: Why is it that we actually see the sketches at all? Back in The West Wing days you would virtually never see President Bartlet give any speeches or do anything big and presidential. The episode would invariably end just as he was taking the stage or just started kicking some ass. Perhaps it was Sorkin’s laziness, or it was just to keep the presidential mystique, but which ever it was, Studio 60 could use some of The West Wing’s restraint.)
Anyway, my problem with Studio 60 (the show show, not the show within the show) is that it’s trying to exist in two worlds simultaneously, and it’s just awkward and distracting for everyone involved and everyone watching.
You see, Studio 60 exists in this nebulous world where CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC all exist (I think ABC exists… hmm), but there’s also this other network, NBS. (One might imagine that the NBS acronym is an amalgamation of NBS and CBS, the two networks that were bidding on broadcast rights to Studio 60.) Maybe it’s the network that UPN and The WB never were… or maybe it’s a, uh, seventh network? Who knows.
Problem is, in this world you’ve got all of these pretty well known actors (Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber, Mark McKinney and others) playing other people, while co-existing in the real world with other actors playing themselves. You following me? For example, references are made to Saturday Night Live on a regular basis. This is in addition to companies, shows, and people in the real world: HBO, Fox, Conan, Letterman, Leno, Donald Trump, Desperate Housewives, Deal or No Deal, Seinfeld, the list goes on. But then, inexplicably, other well-known actors show up also not as themselves: John Goodman, Judd Hirsch, Ed Asner… and then other people do guest star as themselves: Rob Reiner, Howie Mandel, Lauren Graham, Sting, blah blah blah.
The best (worst?) example of the real world clashing with the fictionalized Studio 60 world is in an episode where Amanda Peet and Steven Weber are talking about focus groups and George Clooney is brought up (apparently he didn’t test well). Amanda Peet says something like “oh, he’s hot,” or something, at which point all I could think about is the both of them starring in “Syriana.”
With such a well-connected cast, it’s only a matter of time before there are more blatant real-world connections between characters in the show and actors in reality. And it’s just going to make me cringe.
Anyway. That’s my problem with the show. It’s not a big problem yet, and hopefully it won’t ever become one. I think the writers (err… writer?) is conscious of the problem it could become, and is actively trying to avoid it.
But hey, other than that, great show. I dig that Sorkin chose to eschew the title sequence to cram in a little more dialogue. Likewise, I appreciate the titles using the same font as The West Wing. Classy. Kind of ties the two shows together.
Now that’d be something. Studio 60 existing in the alternate reality of The West Wing? The mind boggles at the mere thought.
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