Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - The West Coast Delay
Matthew Perry is great in this serious role. It's interesting watching Steven Weber pull the asshole route. Yet I know why I have not fully loved this show despite the great production values of the whole thing. It's just not that much fun. Especially coming from a show about producing a comedy show.
I'm not even saying funny. It doesn't necessarily have to be haha funny all the time. Ugly Betty isn't a laugh-a-minute show, yet it's endearing and lovable and a joy to watch. Heck, even My Name is Earl and The Office aren't laugh-a-minute shows. The problem with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is that we are into the fourth episode and the whole damn thing is still way too serious when it is a show about making comedy. Have we seen Matt laugh yet? He's barely cracked a smile.
The comparisons to Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme's earlier and much better Sports Night is fair since both are about the producing of a TV show. Except the people in Sports Night seem to really love their job, and not just NEED to do the job for ego reasons, and thus, we loved watching them do their jobs. Right now, I'm only watching Studio 60 based on pedigree and watching the cast spew Sorkin's mile-a-minute dialogue, but lighten up folks and show us some actually funny in the moments of the show and not just the comedy sketches written for the show within the show (which haven't been all that funny).
Anyways, Ron and Ricky (Carlos Jacott and Evan Handler, both who are really annoying right now actually even though usually they are enjoyable to watch) are given 90 seconds to fill on the show and it ends up being plagarised material (again, bonus points for employing Lucy Davis, of the original The Office (and now also on Ugly Betty) and John Cabrera (Brian on Gilmore Girls) as writers in the room), so Matt and the show must fix it before the West Coast feed begins, all while Christine Lahti (4 episodes. That's how long it took before Thomas Schlamme could last before employing his wife, granted, I do love her after Jack & Bobby so actually, what took him so long?) is watching as a Vanity Fair reporter.
Oh yeah, and there still seems to be way too much deal over Harriet and Matt as well as the Christian concerns (I know it's a slam dunk but maybe it's a little TOO easy).
Anyways, maybe this show should have more fun, and not take itself so seriously. See Boston Legal (which I'll be posting about soon since I finally caught up. Can I say HILARIOUS?)
2 comments:
BOO HISS! I LUFF THIS SHOW! LUFF IT! LUFF! IT!
You made the point it's trying to make exactly. It's not funny producing a funny show. Matt's character is an insecure, self-torturing, worry wart of a northeastern Jew. And he's doing a kick ass job of pulling it off! And as with most comics in real life, when they are not "ON" they tend to be very serious and not funny at all. He's portraying this perfectly! This show is not supposed to be light-hearted and I think your comparison to "Ugly Betty" is so far off that you just can't compare the two. Sorkin would be super offended if he read that he should be more likeable the way "Ugly Betty" is.
And apparently, unlike you, I have actually LOL'd whilst watching the show.
Matt Perry is FANTASTIC! And the chemistry between him and Bradley Whitford is crazy hot for 2 people who have never acted together in any serious capacity. (Yes, I know Perry did a couple of guest stints on "West Wing" but they didn't have any serious playing time together.)
STOP KNOCKIN' MY FAVE NEW SHOW OF THE SEASON!
Okay Ms. Defensive. Ha. I'm not COMPLETELY knocking the show. I still highly recommend it. I am however mumbling as to why the show is bleeding viewers and what I think that may be so. I was actually comparing the show more to their previous effort Sports Night. I know Sports Night was a 30 minute comedy but the point is, it was FUN to watch them have FUN producing a show (despite the stress), whereas so far, all I fear is stress on this show. I have previously mentioned Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry's incredible chemistry but at this point, I dont know if it's enough. (I think a lot of it has to do with the Ron and Ricky thing which somehow irks me). Anyways, I wasn't comparing Studio 60 to Ugly Betty, just mentioning that THAT show IS a comedy and it isn't laugh a minute so I'm just saying Studio 60 doesn't have to be either, still, it would be nice if some of them smiled everyone once in a while.
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