Posts from — September 2006

As much as it pains me to say it, I’m not totally sold on Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. There’s enough that’s good about it (and I am enough of a lover and admirer of his grand style of writing) that I’m going to keep watching, but it surely doesn’t have its legs under it quite yet, but is instead stumbling, a little off-balance, a bit odd. As the ever-lovely amy said last night, there’s nobody I love on it yet, as there was shortly into The West Wing, though it did take me some time to realize that the Ziegler was my one true love on that show. Though I predicted love for Suzanne the PA after the pilot even though she only had one line, a great line, and there is still hope for that. And Matthew Perry is much, much better than I would have thought. And I love Bradley Whitford, but I’m having a hard time remembering that he’s not my Josh Lyman. Again, as amy said last night in her ever-wiser-than-me wisdom, I’m waiting for him to yell “Donna!” and for Janel Moloney to appear outside the office door with a cup of coffee and that smirk she got when she knew that Josh was just yelling because he could but that really he just needed to see her because he was in looooove. But that’s my problem, not his, and it is surmountable.

Amanda Peet was better in the second ep, and maybe DL Hughley can act, but the jury’s still kind of out on that one. And then there’s Sarah Paulson. I want to like her, I really do, especially as she was so so good on Deadwood, but as Warren Ellis wrote a week ago, even if he’s completely and totally wrong about Sports Night, she’s bringing too much of the crazy she had on that show to this one. There’s also the fact that the West Wing started out a bit off as well, and I won’t be at all surprised if Studio 60 finds its balance in the next few episodes. There’s tons and tons of potential here — and I’ll say that the pilot played better the second time around, though you shouldn’t have to watch it twice. I want to be in love with this show, and I’m right now only in serious like.