-273: 27 September 2006

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27 September 2006 - 10:30 am

Studio 60, week 2.

Let's just say that I'm glad Aaron Sorkin is writing "Studio 60," the drama about a sketch comedy show, and not "Studio 60," the sketch comedy show.

In fact, this week's show validated my one fear about "Studio 60" (the actual show): that Sorkin would be great with all the behind-the-scenes drama, but the sketch comedy would be disappointing. I had hoped he would address this by never -- or rarely -- showing the show-within-a-show, but that wasn't the case this week. Instead, we got a ten minute musical number was supposed to signal that "Studio 60" (the sketch comedy show) was back, relevant, and funnier than ever, but instead would have made me change the channel. However, the fifty minutes that preceded the cold opening of "Studio 60" (the fake one) were great. All things considered, I give the show a B+.

(Also, I'm getting a bit tired of both the actual and the fake shows being called "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.")

Posted by on 27 September 2006 at 10:22 AM

Comments

Ugh, I had such high hopes for the show, but if we see many more sketches, much less *musical* sketches, I won't last long. I'm reminded of the contrast of Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel, where all the love and brilliance was in the first series, and the second was the dumping ground for any extra creative energy, or all too often merely shlock when the creative energy had run dry.

I was also somewhat annoyed by his credentialist misunderstanding of the functioning of blogs.

Posted by Charlie on 27 September 2006 - 11:08 AM

I totally agree about the musical number. The scene where they were writing it was a lot funnier than the performance itself. But I'm willing to cut them quite a bit of slack in that regard, as long as we only see the actual sketches when they advance the plot or develop the characters. (Which I think is likely to be the case.) Overall, I think "The Cold Open" was better than the pilot, and so far, the show is living up to my expectations.

Posted by michael on 27 September 2006 - 12:48 PM

I agree that the musical number was bad, I think I would have much rather seen "Crazy Christians" than that (although I'm glad they didn't show that sketch, after the talk and buildup it would've only been disappointing).

I'm fairly new to the Sorkin fanclub and am just now watching the West Wing (I'm a little more than midway through season 2 from Eileen's DVD collection), but it seems like that show also intended at first to show the behind-the-scenes and staff rather than the president and his doings. That premise went by the wayside rather quickly (to the benefit of the show, it turned out), but I certainly hope that doesn't happen here.

The only place where I think they'd benefit from showing actual sketches is to explain some of the show-related relationships between the players. Harriet is supposed to be the most talented one, and in the pilot she snaps at one of the other players who is presumably less talented, but it's hard to really get that across convincingly without seeing them in action.

Posted by Chris Hill Festival on 27 September 2006 - 5:57 PM

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I agree that the musical number was bad, I think I would have much rather seen "Crazy Christians" than that (although I'm glad they didn't show that sketch, after the talk and buildup it would've only been disappointing). I'm fairly new to the Sorkin fanclub and am just now watching the West Wing (I'm a little more than midway through season 2 from Eileen's DVD collection), but it seems like that show also intended at first to show the behind-the-scenes and staff rather than the president and his doings. That premise went by the wayside rather quickly (to the benefit of the show, it turned out), but I certainly hope that doesn't happen here. The only place where I think they'd benefit from showing actual sketches is to explain some of the show-related relationships between the players. Harriet is supposed to be the most talented one, and in the pilot she snaps at one of the other players who is presumably less talented, but it's hard to really get that across convincingly without seeing them in action. I totally agree about the musical number. The scene where they were writing it was a lot funnier than the performance itself. But I'm willing to cut them quite a bit of slack in that regard, as long as we only see the actual sketches when they advance the plot or develop the characters. (Which I think is likely to be the case.) Overall, I think "The Cold Open" was better than the pilot, and so far, the show is living up to my expectations. Ugh, I had such high hopes for the show, but if we see many more sketches, much less musical sketches, I won't last long. I'm reminded of the contrast of Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel, where all the love and brilliance was in the first series, and the second was the dumping ground for any extra creative energy, or all too often merely shlock when the creative energy had run dry. I was also somewhat annoyed by his credentialist misunderstanding of the functioning of blogs.
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