Another reason Europe is just useless....

[Boz]

George W. Bush....LET OUR PEOPLE GO!!!

(Oh, jeez! Good lord, no! Don't send them here!!!)

tinyurl.com/yyqxhj




OK, on another subject, here is why "Studio 60" sucks.

Going into it, I know who Aaron Sorkin is, so I have no problem with the politics. I expect that from him (though, wow, how courageous, taking on the Christian right; what a bold statement; I noticed in this week's episode, Matthew Perry killed an Al Qaeda spoof though; sure don't want to Edited those people off)

I may not agree with Aaron Sorkin's political views, but he is one hell of a writer and I'll watch a lot of what he does just because of his talent for dialogue, if nothing else.

No, the reason why Studio 60 sucks is that the show is not funny. Not the show I am watching, that can be pretty funny. But the "show" all of the characters are producing -- it's abyssmal.

Each week there's a little snippet from the actual Studio 60 "show" and I have yet to see a single sketch that's a quarter as good as anything SNL did when it was funny. And I don't just mean the political stuff, that Nicolas Cage thing is God-awful.

Yet all of the characters congratulate themselves on how funny their show is. I'm giving Aaron Sorkin's national therapy/self-fellating experiment about a season an then it's done. Mr. Sorkin: make the "show" funny, and I'll watch the show.

Where, oh where, is Garry Shandling when you need him?

[washingtonhoya]

Here's how I approach the show within the show on Studio 60: Aaron Sorkin does not write and, to the best of my knowledge, has never written for SNL. There are (or were) people who did an outstanding job writing to make SNL funny, but Sorkin has never been one of those people. As you mentioned, Sorkin's strengths are in writing dialogue, and I'd add to that working with ensemble casts to create a number of dynamic characters. My hope for the show is that they'll minimize the "show within the show" segments, because some of them are just godawful crap compared with the rest of the show. (The Gilbert and Sullivan parody comes to mind, although I did find the Nancy Grace sketch somewhat genuinely funny.) If anything though, the intolerability of the "show's" sketches makes the rest of the show relatively better. Granted that's a fairly weak strategy to making quality TV.

The political stuff is to be expected, and like you said, I can tolerate it for what the rest of the show delivers, but the TVAOTCR* was about as cliched as the "walk and talk" scenes are becoming.

*Thinly Veiled Attack on the Christian right

I'm praying at the altar of my "Sports Night: The Complete Series" set (turns out, only 6 DVDs) the show gains some traction and makes the needed adjustments to find a larger audience and stick around for a better reason than trying to minimize the bad publicity of such a large sunk cost given the bidding war to air the show.

Or, failing that, someone can produce that "Nations" show that was pitched in the last episode. It sounded better than most of what's on TV today.

[Gold Hoya]

The show's in trouble.
Chicago Tribune

I watched the last two episodes on tivo last night. My reaction was similar; other than Nancy Grace the sketches are garbage. West Wing and Sports Night both had healthy amounts of conflict; Matt and Harriet are a little too "you're my soulmate" for my taste.

[Cambridge]

Funnily enough, 30Rock is much funnier. I didn't think I would like it, but Baldwin and Morgan slay me everytime they open their mouths.

[Deleted]

cambridgehoya said:

Funnily enough, 30Rock is much funnier. I didn't think I would like it, but Baldwin and Morgan slay me everytime they open their mouths.

100% ditto. That entire show is cast as well as any show on TV (now that AD is off the air).

Morgan has gotten funnier with age. Of course, nothing will ever top (a) his performance at GU during my senior week ("That's my GIRLfriend Mr. Mor-gaaan"), and (b) his should-be-famous, black-actors-bonding-with-Jamie-Foxx "GET ME A SODA... BITCH!!!"

Baldwin = Pure. Comedic. Gold.

Jane Krakowski... much hotter than I remember. Although, I don't think I've ever actually seen her in anything other than old Ally McBeal commercials (sorry, 'Bridge... I know it was your favorite show and all).

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I always prefered Asia anyways ... Heat of the Moment is an amazing song.

[Cambridge]

buffalohoya said:

cambridgehoya said:

Funnily enough, 30Rock is much funnier. I didn't think I would like it, but Baldwin and Morgan slay me everytime they open their mouths.

100% ditto. That entire show is cast as well as any show on TV (now that AD is off the air).

Morgan has gotten funnier with age. Of course, nothing will ever top (a) his performance at GU during my senior week ("That's my GIRLfriend Mr. Mor-gaaan"), and (b) his should-be-famous, black-actors-bonding-with-Jamie-Foxx "GET ME A SODA... BITCH!!!"

Baldwin = Pure. Comedic. Gold.

Jane Krakowski... much hotter than I remember. Although, I don't think I've ever actually seen her in anything other than old Ally McBeal commercials (sorry, 'Bridge... I know it was your favorite show and all).

hmmmm...methinks you have been hitting the bottle a little too hard during the post-bar exam halcyon days. Cute in a cute mom who would really dig some attention from a dashing young attorney in his late-twenties kinda way? yes. No question. But, hot? I'm going thumbs down on that one. But, then again, are you up in Buffalo now? If so, that would explain the sliding scale and slipping standards.

PS How you feeling about your bills this weekend? I think you'll be cursing your draft results...as in "damn that Maroney" and "who is this Chad Jackson fella?"

[Jack]

stpetersburghoya said:

I always prefered Asia anyways ... Heat of the Moment is an amazing song.

The Final Countdown has chunks of Heat of the Moment in its stool.

[DanMcQ]

You guys have time to watch primetime TV? Wow.

[Deleted]

danmcq said:

You guys have time to watch primetime TV? Wow.

That's the beauty of TiVo / DVR, my fine feathered friend.