I assume this is not a spoiler, since it’s listed in my TV Guide, and I just can’t resist the urge to be irked about it in public:
After waiting two weeks to see a new episode, it turns out to be a two parter. Grr. More waiting.
/me takes the lord’s name in vain.
I saw it tonight. More painful stereotypes.
I rather thought the point of the painful stereotypes in this episode was that they weren’t painful stereotypes after all.
When characters have to point out how clever they’re being, they’re not being clever…
Wait - there was a Studio 60 on last night? Well, off to NBC.com to see the damn thing.
It airs on Sunday nights in Canada. I assume it’ll be on tonight as usual in the US.
O, Canada.
That was the first episode of this show that I’ve genuinely enjoyed all the way through. I thought it was absolutely great.
So Tom doesn’t want to reveal the reason he was speeding? Hmm.
If I know this show, it will turn out that he was delivering a desperately needed kidney to the hospital where a sad little orphan was having surgery. Or something equally as heartrending.
“There’s a joint in my jacket”
“Let’s light it up!”
Sorry, but the show just doesn’t ring true. Characters like John Goodman’s just don’t exist in the real world. I don’t for a second believe there are roving gangs of gay hooligans looking to pick fights with Christians.
But I’ll bet that’s what Aaron Sorkin thinks the culture wars are really like. The annoying thing to me is that I’ll bet he really believes he’s accurately portraying ‘red state’ people with that hicksville police station in Pahrump.
I’ve been on the front lines of the ‘culture wars’, and guess what? People don’t really care all that much. They don’t get so enraged by a TV show that they walk around with a giant attitude just waiting to ‘get’ some liberal. And the gay people I know are not so enraged by Christians that they want to seek them out and harass them.
This show would have been much better as a straight-up satire. Make 'em all caricatures on purpose. Then it could be enjoyable to take all these things and run them out to their limits. But this show plays it too straight, which makes all the crazy characters just seem false.
How was he a caricature, exactly? As opposed to being, y’know, prickly and smart and annoyed that he had to cut short his fishing trip?
Lecturing them about making fun of the Lord, ranting on about his faith, ready to teach them a lesson for mocking his God, etc…
I grew up in a very devout community. Some evangelicals along the way, even. And I’ve gotta tell you, they just aren’t carrying that particular monkey on their back. There are a few political activists who make all the noise, but the rank and file Christians number in the tens of millions, and they just don’t give a shit. They get mad if their kids get exposed to stuff that they think will warp their little minds, but they don’t spending a lot of time hating on the athiests. If anything, they just feel sorry for them.
You watched a different character than I just did, I guess.
When he spends the first five minutes jerking around the folks in his “courtroom” like a red-state stereotype in order to illustrate that he’s NOT a red-state stereotype, that’s a caricature. When he follows it up with an oh-so-clever expositiory speech explaining his utter distain for “Studio 60”, that is cliched character development.
Of course, Goodman’s judge wasn’t the only one. Anybody count how often D. L. Hughley told somebody “The joint is mine”? It wasn’t funny the first 30 times, why would you think its still funny on the 31st?. Then you had Harriet trying to carefully articulate her point yet again (haw haw!) long after it became painfully clear a confrontation was inevitable (not to mention the completely inauthentic “roving band of gay men”, apparently incensed at what they read in celebrity magazines). Throw in the penny-ante stakes in this supposed drama (the show will go on with–horror of horrors!–two less cast members and Danny running things over the phone if they can’t clear up a speeding ticket, yes, a speeding ticket) and I checked out after ~10 minutes.
I spent the rest of the hour with the TV on while I surfed the 'net. I don’t expect to do that again, since I don’t really care to waste my time with it any more.
Must each thread be threadshat in? Can you folks make a studio 60 sucks thread and just pile it in there?
We did. This is it. Jesus H. Christ, the OP dumps on the show!
I guess we’re all willing to be judged. Either that or we’re out to get Aaron Sorkin, for putting us through all the smoke and mirrors because he can’t be bothered to actually make his show enjoyable and good.
Eh, that’s the internet. Hell, that’s life. The people who dislike things tend to make a lot more noise than the people who enjoy them. As long as they are giving good criticism of the show as opposed to “This show is lame. Matt is stupid.” they have every right to be in this thread. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t make them a “threadshitter.” YMMV.
This one took awhile to get rolling, but when it hit it was well worth it. The characters including the faux redneck judge (nice job, John Goodman) and the “roving gangs of gay hooligans” (band name!) were believible enough to keep the plot rolling in my mind without causing too many bumps in the road.
Can we please have more scenes of Amanda Peet’s character walking, 'cause damn 
?
You sent assassins?
I was impressed with tonight’s episode. It had a bit of a “Celestial Navigation” vibe, but not nearly as funny.
Part 2 should be interesting.
And Tom’s speeding ticket is going to be for something that will be intended to endear us to his character.
John Goodman was great.
Yeah, this was actually a pretty good episode, with the one caveat that I’m absolutely dreading the revelation of why Tom got the speeding ticket. There’s like a 98% chance it’ll be something cloyingly moronic.
Amanda Peet was definitely visibly pregnant, though they did their best to cover it up. Wonder how long they’ll continue to make us attempt to suspend that particular disbelief.