It’s okay, my standards are low, too. I don’t care how realistic a TV show is. Why? Because it’s a TV show. I want to be entertained. If I wanted to watch real life, I’d pay more attention at work.
Actually, it seems like most people posting so far liked it, even if they had some reservations.
I also thought the “Tell Jordan I’m not 15 years old” line was really good. It was funny, and it harkened back to the preternatural insight into other’s motivations and manipulations that was a hallmark of the West Wing. (The problem with that is that you then have to come up with kryptonite; sometimes people have to fail to see even the most obvious manipulations for dramatic purposes.)
I understand that Harriet hadn’t seen the telephone number (who gives someone a phone number without calling her attention to it?), but it just doesn’t make any sense to me that she is so unintelligent that she would even think to blurt out that a phone number could be mistaken for a uniform number.
I also get that it is not a comedy. I would suggest that it is falling very flat as a drama. For example, very few people seem to be into what was the bulk of the drama last night - the Harriet and Chandler storyline. The other big dramatic storyline, the plagiarism bit, was chock full of holes - the bit wasn’t funny enough to support the believability of the characters’ response to it. The method of handling it wasn’t very believable. I was with them during the first cut into the West Coast feed (although the cricket score bit didn’t make much sense if it was supposed to prove anything), but the repeated cut-ins just didn’t seem believable. Who would continue to screw around with the show when it was reasonable clear that they didn’t know all the facts?
By the way, are studio audiences for a show like this really as small as the seating for this show would suggest?
No problem, I’m guessing Danny gets into a relationship with the Christine Lahti character (who I had to keep squinting at to make sure it wasn’t CJ from TWW).
I hope so. One, I like Christine Lahti a lot, even if she sold her soul to the devil to keep that body at her age, and Two, I did get a really nice chemistry vibe from the two of them.
In fact, I’d have been a lot happier if Lahti played Jordan. Um, in the acting sense, not in the “player” sense. Although if they wanted to go all Lipstick, I wouldn’t be minding that either, ifyouknowwotImean. 
From a dialog point of view, the show was quite good.
The plot, however, was weak. First of all, the “we really wrote it in the first place” resolution was oure deus ex machina. The coincidence factor – that someone took it from a comedian who happened to take it from a writer on the show (and I got the impression it was never aired) – is just too much to swallow.
I also found the reaction to the discovery of plagiarism very much off. Maybe it’s because my background is in book writing, but I would have expected Ron and Ricky to give up the name immediately and have him escorted out of the building. Not only was it the wrong thing to do, but it could have cost the show millions. Problems or not, you do not excuse such things, and you certainly don’t cover for the person doing it.
And add me to those who think the Harriet/Danny relationship is tiresome.
OTOH, the dialog was sharp and witty. I don’t have problems with the actual show-within-a-show not making me laugh – it’s generally irrelevant (except for the cold open, where it was the focus of the episode). The issue is that Sorkin uses character-based humor that is inappropriate in the actual show-within. The funny bits are what’s said off the air.
Did anyone else have trouble following the dialogue in last night’s episode? The background noise on the show was just too loud- most of the scenes sounded, to us, like they were mumbling.
Or like when nobody notices how spectacularly good-looking everybody on the cast is.
I spoiler-boxed it because I posted that before the show aired in the Mountain or Pacific time zones. Didn’t want to ruin it for the people on the Left Coast.
Robin
I also thought last night’s episode was better and funnier than the previous ones. I loved “Meet the Press with Juliette Lewis” because it’s such an absurd concept, and the impression was dead-on and not one you’re likely to see very often.
Thanks, I forgot all about that – I’ll watch it tonight then.
Better than paying Apple $1.99 for it.
No, in comedy it’s absolutely something you do not do. If people find out you’re stealing other comics’ bits, you’ll find it hard to get booked at clubs and be shunned by your fellow comics.
Danny and Matt should have gone to the rest of the writers and asked them to turn in the offending writer. If they’re all so scared for their jobs and want respect from Matt and Danny, they should be jumping over each other trying to be the first to turn the jackass in. I would have. “HE’S Spartacus!”
Over the weekend I asked my teenaged daughter how she liked the show. She said she expects less of TV than my wife and I - she only wants to be entertained, and said this show entertains her.
So I intentionally lowered my expectations - and still was underwhelmed. I’ll probably keep watching just because I am a lazy sack of shit and the rest of my family watches, but I think 4 eps is giving it a pretty fair chance.
Besides the dislike for Harriet, and my personal inability to accept the 2 male leads independently from their last shows, I have a lot of problem with things that strike me as too fake, predictable, and unbelievable for a show striving to convey realism. Like the writer knocking over the conveniently placed suit of armor. Or the oh-so-clever bat through the window (I kept thinking how dangerous those falling shards would be.) Are lingerie revues considered hip entertainment in LA?
I know my least favorite aspects of WW were when they used conventions I just didn’t believe - unless they were done just for comedy and were relatively infrequent counterpoints to the majority of the show.
I guess it makes the show feel uneven to me, when it shifts between seriousness and camp.
I’ll try to keep a low profile in subsequent discussions - just because I don’t care for it is no reason others shouldn’t. Its just that I was looking forward to it and have been disappointed so far.
After it was over, I shifted over to PBS to catch the end of a show on the civil rights movement. That was good - I wish I hadn’t missed the first 1/2.
I’m more in agreement with the critics than the supporters of the show so far but I’m going to give it one more chance. I think the only resolution for the Matt/Harriet relationship is for Matt to finally admit (as I believe Sorkin has implied a few times) that he is in love with Harriet’s talent much more than he’s in love with her.
The Christine Lahti character annoyed me. Would a journalist bring the You Tube clip to the attention of the producer or would she sit back and see how the story develops? I’m not sure on that one but I really don’t see why she would kick in $20 so they could scrounge up an audience. It might just be me but that seemed like she was crossing a journalistic line.
Finally, whenever Jordan has her hair down I keep thinking it’s the other actress from the show-within-the-show. You know, the one who spent the weekend with Matt and was in the commedia del l’arte sketch. It took me a disconcerting amount of time to realize it wasn’t that actress talking to Danny about bringing a writer onto the set.
Only if you give a cricket score.
That seemed to me to be a pretty clear reference to the Pussycat Dolls.
If she was just a journalist, you’d be 100% right. But the first time we saw her was with Jordan at the cafeteria. It seemed to me that her and Jordan have been friends, or at least friendly, with each other for some time. So with this in mind, she acting like a friend. Plus, I think she wants to do the Horizontal Bop with Danny, since he didn’t fall for her Transparent Cleavage Trick.
And I’m having a hard time myself with the whole Harriet/Matt romance. I just don’t buy it. Both of them are too intelligent and committed to their own beliefs to ever want to share their lives with someone like the other. I like both characters (in fact, I can’t think of any of the characters I don’t like - even Ricky and Ron. We’re supposed to hate them, at least not have any respect for them, and I don’t), but I don’t think that Matt and Harriet should be involved. And I would like to see a little more of Danny’s character developed. Right now it’s all about how Matt (Sorkin) is mad at the world and has all these targets he wants to knock over with his Comedic Wit. That’s gonna get real old real fast.
But it’s still a smarter and better show than anything else I’m watching (except maybe The Venture Brothers), so I guess I’m stuck with it.
And just for The Controvert, this just in: Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 144 runs.
I assumed that the writer stole it from the show’s archives, not from the stand up. He would have access to those, I assume, and who would suspect or check on something that was written but never aired? I never tried to figure out how the stand up got the material.
I have to say that this was the best episode thus far, but in a way that wasn’t particularly encouraging. I like that the show seems to understand that Matthew Perry is the Lead and appreciated Whitford & Peet taking back seats. I also like Lahti in just about anything and look forward to seeing more of her. And the Juliette Lewis sketch is definitely the funniest thing we’ve actually seen of the show itself (though again, not necessarily that encouraging). And I liked Nate C. assuming wingman status…
…although that only fed the inert and tedious “romance”. I’m also tired of how Christian Harriet keeps reminding people they’re going to Hell; I’ve gotta believe that, as close as everyone is, that’s still gotta get old fast even amongst friends. And though I’m glad that they decided to further explore the Ricky & Ron/Matt dynamic, there were too many contrivances in this “crisis” to make me care too much.
So like I said–best episode yet, but it’s still on really thin ice.
Color me tepid. I am one or two shows away from pulling the plug.
Question: Isn’t it rather wasteful to pay the salaries of 20 or so writers who seem to be collectively incapable of producing 90 seconds of funny material in a week’s time?
I liked it, but I think this was the weakest episode yet. All that scrambling just makes them look silly.
I did like the “Accusing a writer of plagarism is the same as calling him a sex offender.” I can understand how that charge would be taken seriously, as it is could be a career killer.
I liked how Danny called Harriet on making out with the baseball player and how that was throwing off Matt. I also liked how he stuck by Matt, telling everyone that however he wanted to handle it would be the way it is handled. What’s up with his glasses on top of his forehead? It makes him look older.
And, FTR, this is the third broken window Sorkin has had in a show. There was a broken window in Sports Night and West Wing.