Studio 60

[tzikeh]

Tonight's episode: The Focus Group


Much, much better than the pilot - funnier, faster, more cohesive, more "Sorkinesque", if you will. The Matt/Danny was there in spades during their beachy romp when, and I'm certain many of you noticed, once Danny got on top of Matt he was straddling his torso and then moved *backwards* to straddle his naughty bits. Like, actually that really did happen. I saw it. Plus "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", with Danny dancing (Oooh! Danny knows The Pretzel!) with Harriet but *looking* at Matt, who is *looking* at him. But Sorkin has to throw in the whole "this is too homoerotic for me" bit, the same way he did in West Wing with Leo and Jed's candle-lit dinner and "pretend we're not paranoid homophobes". Aaron, Aaron, Aaron. You want a heterosexual life-partner. I think you kind of have one in Tommy Schlamme. Please get over it.

Sketches? Still not funny.

And now, the plagiarism.

"Thieves get rich, and saints get shot, and God don't answer prayers a lot". Hello, word-for-word lyrics from Stephen Sondheim's short-lived musical Merrily We Roll Along. I guess Sorkin thinks it's okay to flat-out steal stuff other people created so long as he figures nobody will recognize it and therefore he's unlikely to be caught. You did not make up that line, Aaron, but you're letting us believe you did. That's called plagiarism. Stop doing that.

And? A school in a small town gets letters from parents about how Grease offended them, so the principal cancels the production of The Crucible, and instead goes with A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is about drug trips, underage sex, bestiality, etc. Metafilter posted an article about this when it happened. I posted about it here in my livejournal. Let me be clear here; there's no way in hell Sorkin read and/or plagiarized my post and I am not claiming he did; lots and lots of people had the same reaction Sorkin wrote into the episode - y'know, back in February, when it happened. Once again - stop it.

(Aside - my friend J [the apple-picker J] is a theater director here in Chicago and tried to organize a production of The Crucible to be performed in that small town, starring those kids, in a community center or something. It never got off the ground, but it was a great idea.)

IMO - Peet continues her lack-of-acting-talent streak. But until there is some kind of change in my opinion here, I will stop posting it in each review, so just take it as read.

The t-shirt was funny.

Comments

[drkcherry.livejournal.com]

I don't care for Peet's acting. I can't think of a good description of it, other than to see she is too 'wide-eyed' and in your face. Her timing is off and she comes off flat to me.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

She's just not Sorkinesque. Maybe she's better in other things. I'll have to look her up at imdb and see if I've seen her in something where I've liked her.

[klia.livejournal.com]

I liked her in Two Ninas, Syriana, and Something's Gotta Give.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Hmm... maybe he thought everybody would get the Sondheim quote? I dunno. I thought it was obvious Jack was quoting *something*, though I didn't know what.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The show ran for exactly twelve days on Broadway in 1981. I don't think he thought everyone would get it. :)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Ah, I did not know that.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

No, but I'm with musesfool of the opinion that it was clearly a quote and not something Jack was saying on his own. He must have some confidence that people (especially people who are familiar with his stuff) will recognize *that* he's quoting/alluding/etc., if not necessarily *what*. ("Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.") (Bomb threats for portraying Jesus as gay wasn't Sorkin's original idea, either, but was it wrong for him to include that on Sports Night?)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Bomb threats for portraying Jesus as gay wasn't Sorkin's original idea, either, but was it wrong for him to include that on Sports Night?

Yeah, I thought it was - for two reasons: 1) taking something that really happened, changing the name of the town, or the name of the person in question, or whatever, is an easy out for having to, you know, come up with your own material. 2) I always felt Sports Night was a wonderful show on its own merits: funny, great characters, great dialog, workplace setting portrayed in a way we haven't seen before. But when they started bringing in preachy politics, I thought "this show is not weighty enough to bear these kind of topics. I didn't care what a sportscaster had to say about Jerry Falwell - while I might have agreed with Casey, it seemed out of place for the show. I'm feeling the same way about Studio 60. I think West Wing was his best show because within that setting he had the best of both of his interests - funny, great characters, great dialog, show a workplace setting in a way we haven't seen before, *and* political or social commentary. That was the place for it; not shows about people who write and work in light tv. Behind the scenes at a news program (and <lj user="yahtzee63" came up with that idea, not me) might have worked far better than this for the Sorkin soapbox outlet.

... posted unfinished *again*

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

after ["(and] was supposed to be yahtzee63 came up with the idea of the news program, not me) would have worked far better for me.

Re: ... posted unfinished *again*

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This would have worked better if they'd been producing a news program --maybe a cable pundits show even. Or a Jon Stewart type show.

But Saturday Night Life? Just doesn't matter that much any more.

Re: ... posted unfinished *again*

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

That should have been Saturday Night Live obviously.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Well, he obviously feels that a TV comedy audience ought to be intimately familiar with the Commedia dell'Arte and Molière, so perhaps that was a little test for us. *g*

I didn't feel like he was plagiarizing so much as I felt he was being pretentious. He knew very few people were going to recognize it, but he made it obvious it was a quote. He just didn't care.

I'd happily forgive him if he'd just be funny.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

he obviously feels that a TV comedy audience ought to be intimately familiar with the Commedia dell'Arte and Molière, so perhaps that was a little test for us... he was being pretentious. He knew very few people were going to recognize it

Y'know, I never thought about it that way before, because I, er, always *got* the jokes. But you're right. He's just showing off what he knows.

Huh.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure i can continue to forgive him for unfunny sketches *and* the excessive fear that we evil slash fans might get a hold of his precious characters...good god, the we're not homosexuals is a bit overcompensating, isn't it???

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yes, incredibly overcompensating. He could have done so many other funny things with that scene without having to say "don't let people think we're gay".

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

it's back to the old author control, isn't it? i just don't get while he can't be a grownup about this and accept that some of us may read his tect against the grain...no, he goes out of his way to make sure such a reading is prevented as much as he can...compromising his text in the process...

rarely does propaganda make good art, and when he gets on his anti-fan high horse, the writing quality is his first victim...

then again, we got the song :D

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

OMG the song. Just... yes.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Sketches? Still not funny.

This is my biggest problem with the show. Sorkin can't write comedy. He can write wit and dry humor, but not real comedy.

So nobody on this show even looks like he or she is an actual comedian, performs or writes comedy for a living. These are pretty dreary people, actually.

They look and act like industry people, but not very funny ones. (Folks like Mel Brooks and Martin Short and Billy Crystal are actually funny behind the scenes, too). You can put up with the drugs and crap when the people are truly talented and brilliant. But though we're told they're brilliant, it isn't actually demonstrated.

The dreary people point is my other complaint. Maybe it's me, but it's hard for me to get worked up with all the angst. In WW, it was world crises after all. This one? In the end, it's just a show. And from the looks of things, not a very good one. (Again, the main problem). All the sweat and tears for a so-so product. This (fictional) show is highly rated? Hard to believe.

So the real series itself is losing credibility for me. I stayed with Lost into the second season until I got fed up with getting jerked around.

Studio 60 doesn't jerk me around, but I'm really not caring about these people or what they're producing, so I may lose interest faster.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

This is my biggest problem with the show. Sorkin can't write comedy. He can write wit and dry humor, but not real comedy... it's just a show. And from the looks of things, not a very good one.

Yeah. I just... I get that it's *very* high-pressure in their world, and I get that if things go wrong, everyone has to worry about their career, but dude. I dunno... in Sports Night, the angst was never about the *show* - even when they were worried that the show was going to suck, it was in a humorous way.

I can't give up on Sorkin quite so easily, but he is definitely On Notice.

[way2busymom.livejournal.com]

IMO - Peet continues her lack-of-acting-talent streak.

Yep, she's still not doing much for me either. But the "Okay, your teeth are kind of big...." was the line that made me laugh out loud.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I referred to her as "Jordan McFlatline" in my post about the pilot. When that changes, I'll let people know. ;)

[brak666.livejournal.com]

I just want to grab Sorkin and shake him and say "Dude, you've got DL Hughley right there! He's an actual funny person. Isn't that least partly why you hired him?"

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

*I KNOW*!! But if you shook Aaron Sorkin too hard, his ego might fall out, and then I'm not sure his writing would be as good as it is most of the time.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

It's called letting GO your illUUUUUUsions and don't conFUUUUUUSE them with DREAMS!

I've now been singing that song for two days.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

So you better look at what you've got - over here, HELLOOOOOOOOO...