Danny’s quite the lovestruck little puppy, isn’t he? But at least the phone call sequence established his seriousness. His earlier declaration of love for Jordan was so flat and unmoving that it didn’t seem like he really meant it.
I gotta say, Sorkin seems to have returned with some snap to his writing. Maybe not quite as solid as West Wing season 2, but definite WW season 1 at the worst.
A very good episode. The dialog was superb and the stories all pretty good.
The show is starting to hit its stride.
It didn’t help that someone was trying to text me all through the show, but I couldn’t seem to hear half the dialogue. Could all the actors please not mumble so much next time?
I admit, I squee’d a little at “No.” and my husband said, “Now, why is it that in this show, you read that as romantic, and IRL you’d be recommending a restraining order?”
I just shrugged and said, “That’s why I like fiction TV and not reality TV.”
I liked it a lot. Even Harry was tollerable. Good pedeconferencing andsome laughs too. I wonder if it’s still doomed, though… Mondays are getting pretty crammed.
I always liked Perry as Chandler Bing, but he’s really showing his acting chops here. It can’t be easy throwing off 10 years as a sitcom superstar and move to a dramatic role. I predict good things for him in the future.
Danny crossed the line from cute, lovestruck to obsessive creep at the end of the episode. That was just weird and wrong and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel anything positive toward that character - because now, he freaks me out. The way that went over screamed “fire him and get a restraining order” to me. And I hate her character.
The way the men treat the women on this show is disturbing. Not just Danny & Jordan - but everyone and Jordan and everyone and Harry and everyone and Lucy and tonight Jack & the daughter.
I agree that Danny seems to be crossing a line, although I guess there’s a difference between continuing to ask her out vs. hanging around in the bushes. Plus, she really does care about him, or at least it seems that way.
Overall, though, a very solid episode.
(And I always love seeing Russell from Wayne’s World, in this case as the moron. “If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he would be pralines… and dick!”)
So Jordan has casual lunches with Harriet? Do NBC executives just drop down to the SNL set to have lunch with Amy Poehler?
Probably not, but it was established early that Jordan doesn’t have any friends, so she set out to be friends with Harry. That means she can drop in to have lunch with her friend, and helps keep her tied to the show more than she would be in real life.
I’m probably in a minority of one, but my biggest problem with this show is that the dialog is too sharp. That’s okay, even laudable, for the White House, but I don’t think people in an LA studio are so ceaselessly urbane and chatty with the constant split-second wit. It seems so unnatural that every scene is so jam packed with just the right thing to say at just the right finger-snapping moment. And people pop out of dark spaces into the light at just the right time to pick up the baton and carry on.
I think that a few scenes of West Wing style banter would be fine, especially among the more polished character types. But it’s like the hurriedness of New York, the cerebralness of DC, and the parochialism of Chicago all packed into a small studio in Hollywood amidst the hookers and peep shows. It just isn’t a good fit, to me anyway.
The only thing that bothered me about this episode was the multiple set-ups for the Thursday night thing - Matt bidding on a ticket even as Harriet asking him to be her date for the show b ut him turning it downTom & Lucy making a date for Thursday, Jack setting up the daughter with Top for Thursday. All that’s needed is Fred & Ethel from downstairs to set up an important dinner party for that same night that The Ricardos promised to attend.
But things are firming up on the show. I like the tension between Simon and Darius. I was on Darius’s side of that one, maybe not for the same reason that Simon accused him of (he didn’t want to be “the black guy”), but totally agreed with his crack to Simon that ended that conversation.
And I think Fat Gymnast would be a great recurring character. Better than Nicolas Cage in random professions.
Exactly. That’s exactly what’s always bothered me about this show. That, and Harriett.
As for last night’s episode, could it get any more high school? Particularly in the budding relationships (Matt & Harriett, Danny & Jordan), and school girl bitchiness (Jordan & new VP of Irrelevant Programming, or whatever she called it).
Illiterate Programming. And explain to me what the great revelation is that the VP apparently reads a Machiavellian Workplace Primer and is using its BS against Jordan? As far as I can figure, Jordan thought the woman’s area of programming was useless and said so in multiple ways, thereby causing the VP to snap with the catty “but at least this one’s not pregnant” groaner. Jordan felt guilty and ended up accepting a proposal, and within a matter of hours, greenlighted some new “alternative” show. But WAIT, it’s not Jordan’s guilt that manipulated her into highlighting the type of programming she doesn’t want, it’s actually the lessons taught by the book the VP is reading on How to Manipulate Your Boss For Fun and Profit? So was this all a big “Jordan should trust her instincts more. She’s allowed to be a bitch because she is the boss?” Presumably the hammer will be brought down on the VP for being a deceitful cow in a coming episode.
That’s what used to bother me about Gilmore Girls. Lorelai was a thirtysomething high school dropout and her daughter was a teenager, but their pop-culture-laden banter seemed more appropriate to a pair of middle-aged humanities grad students. It never rang true.
As you say, in Studio 60 the characters are writers and comedians and should be a little cleverer and funnier than the rest of us…but it’s still a little too mannered to believe.
On the other hand, Oscar Wilde’s writing was too mannered to believe, so I guess this is faint damnation.
You are welcome, everybody.
I take full credit for any improved quality of last night’s and future eps, because they surely resulted from my leaving the room after the initial “phone call” sequence. I realized I didn’t care for either of the characters involved, and didn’t care for the situation they portrayed. Thinking about it, I realized I didn’t care about any of the other characters or plot lines, and that I hadn’t missed the show these past several weeks. I had a tall stack of good books on my nightstand waiting to be read, and figured there was no purpose in watching the show with my family - who appear to like or at least tolerate it - and comment on how I don’t care for it.
So I left the room, took the dog for a walk, and started a book on the French and Indian War. I should have known that would be what it took for the show to improve (same way your watching a game can dictate your team’s success). So you can thank me. Enjoy the show.
Me? I’m free!
Wouldn’t you? Besides, it’s been established that the studio is across the street from Jordan’s building.
A few weeks ago I started watching The West Wing through Netflix (I’m about half way through season 2). It’s great, as most of you know. But seeing Bradford Whitley in two roles (Josh/Danny) at the same time if kind of freaking me out, especially since he looks so much older in Studio 60.
Actually if the show gets better you all can thank me.
My sketch troupe did a Studio 60 parody show back in November. Sorkin heard about it and has taken just about every inteview opportunity to lambast us and other critics of the show. He’s even called out people to go visit our website to see how “disgruntled” and “unemployed” we are.
He has said that the show will focus less on the comedy and more on the romantic entanglements. So he took the note that the comedy was lacking but can’t stop bitching about getting the note. The problem is NO ONE seems to have wanted that solution. Critics of the show want the comedy of the aspects to be funny. Why not continue to improve that instead of cutting it out and focusing on the second most critiqued aspect, the “love” story between Matt and Harriet and the completely creepy Danny and Jordan plot.
Defamer has a nice little complilation of the articles.
As if Sorkin didn’t have enough axes to grind in this show, now he’s got Push You Down and company to rail against? Thanks a lot.
