I first began watching Studio 60 in December 06, at which point I managed to get my hands on the first half of the season. Naturally I loved it to ten thousand x ten thousand pieces and immediately rated it as one of the very best comedy/drama shows I’ve ever had the good fortune of watching. It’s just brilliant, and I can’t even begin fathom the stupidity of it being cancelled after just one season. It’s like Firefly-thing all over again.
Ah, well. This just goes to show that American Viewers are in general not very bright (I know; huge shocker). Studio 60 has everything you’d want from a show: mind-blowingly good actors, dialog to die for, fantastic sub-plots and character interaction and it keeps you in a state of suspended terror excitement. What’s more is that I actually give a crap about the fate of these fictional people, which is a very rare thing for me. Normally I couldn’t care less about whether or not the main character would get together with his ex, or if the brother of a supporting actor was killed off - but here I found myself living along with their ups and downs and I never wanted it to end.
For those of you who haven’t seen Studio 60, here’s what its about: Studio 60 is a live comedy show, much like Saturday Night Live and its fallen on hard times. NBS decides to take action and brings in a star duo in Danny Trip (Bradley Whitford) and Matt Albie (Matthew Perry). Of course thee is a lot of intrigue and power play going on, but over all I thought the setting was fascinating and those things I mentioned earlier are, when done correctly, hugely entertaining. I adored both Matt and Danny, but I also grew extremely fond of Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) and Jordan (Amanda Peet). I never cared much for her before I saw this show, but now I rank her very high and would consider watching whatever she does next.
The true mastermind, though, is surely the famous producer, Aaron Sorkin. I haven’t seen more than a couple of episodes of the The President (which he produced and created and wrote and directed and blessed with his holy self), but I now have a strong urge to see if they’re just as good as this masterpiece.
Of course it isn’t flawless, but I put most of the varying quality (from *brilliant* to *very good*) in this second half of the season up to the fact that the producers were probably trying out different things to capture an audience and maybe keep the show on for a second season. Obviously, this failed, and it saddens me that Studio 60 never got the attention it should have gotten.
Still, I highly recommend you try it out. In addition to the mixed quality of the middle of the second half, I also felt like things worked out a little too well. Still, in my heart I know I wouldn’t have had it any other way. 9/10.
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I agree on everything, ‘cept maybe that it never stooped below “very good” - a few episodes during the worst of the “trying everything we can to capture an audience”-bit were just plain good, nothing special. But on the whole, an excellent show. In addition to the characters you mention, though, I cannot keep myself from also mentioning Jack Rudolph, my favourite character on the entire show.
Oh, and just a helpful little correction, by the way; “Presidenten” is the Norwegian title of the show, but in English it’s called “The West Wing”.
And am I a spambot? Wouldn’t dream of being anything else.
31. August 2007 @ 09:56 ( Permalink )
Which episode(s) in particular do you have in mind? I thought “The Disaster Show” was the weakest of the bunch, but that’s just because it didn’t include Matt, Danny and Jordan. It was different, but not necessarily less good. Just not good in the same way.
Jack Rudolph was of course also very well done. I liked him a lot, but then again I liked all the main cast a lot.
That’s the second time I’ve done that error. I’m sorry - when something has gotten itself cemented into my consciousness I have a hard time erasing it.
“And am I a spambot? Wouldn’t dream of being anything else.”
Now that’s interesting. Do spambots dream, and if so, what do they dream about? Electric sheep?
31. August 2007 @ 21:20 ( Permalink )
Never any downright weak ones, but I felt the general level of quality started declining ever so slightly after 1×12, and turning back up around 1×18, but not really hitting its stride again ’til 1×20.
As for your spambot’y comment, the even more interesting thing is, that statement I made is most probably true, at least given the likely premise that spambots do in fact not dream, and in all its truthfulness, it doesn’t really give an answer to the question, as the “I” is merely implied, never stated.
And in Stalinist Russia, Spambot are a YOU!
31. August 2007 @ 22:16 ( Permalink )