After watching Studio 60 last night, I'm prepared to announce Aaron Sorkin's secret plan behind the "Tom's brother gets kidnapped in Afghanistan" plot. Faced with lagging ratings and disappointed critics, he clearly tried to turn Studio 60 into The West Wing. It was an interesting strategy, to be sure. I can almost see the wheels turning in his head: "The West Wing featured heavy stuff like conflict in the Middle East and religious freedom, and no one called it a disappointing failure...hmm...hmmmm..." Thus, the decision to spend an entire episode (part one of three) on Tom's brother, Matt and Harriet's neverending fights about religion, and Jordan's baby. I'm sorry, didn't there used to be some sort of show-within-a-show here?
So yeah, Tom's brother is still kidnapped, and the morons at the local news have decided that broadcasting the fact that one of the kidnapped soldiers is related to a TV star won't endanger his life at all. Everyone is understandably upset. The sexual harassment lawyer randomly brings to Matt's attention a secret company that basically takes ransom money in to the Middle East and Latin America and rescues kidnap victims. Not so much kidnapped soldiers, but still...they're exploring the possibility. Harriet is praying (and fighting with Matt about praying). Matt is having drug flashbacks or something to the day the U.S. declared war on Afghanistan, and the difficulties inherent in writing a comedy show at that time. Luke was an asshole then, too.
Meanwhile, Jordan's baby still isn't moving, and it seems the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck. Danny's there in a flash, harassing the young doctor and freaking out all over the place. It seems Jordan has pre-eclampsia, which is scary stuff, especially since the only cure is to get the baby outta there. Before they rush Jordan into surgery to get a c-section, Danny proposes and Jordan accepts. It's maybe a little sweet. Maybe. But that's all you're getting from me today, Sorkin. What happened to that late-night sketch comedy this show is purportedly about? Come to think of it, what happened to the theme song this show used to have?
Friday, June 08, 2007
Studio 60: The West Coast Wing
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3 comments:
Well, they did say that pregnancies in danger were the best way to ensnare female viewers. If Aaron Sorkin didn't have a moral objection to the Internet, I'm sure he'd be happy that it worked.
And what's with all the flashbacks on this show? Is this what it's like in Sorkin's head?
Yeah, seriously. TWW used to have flashbacks too, and yet somehow they were character-building and interesting, and not so much obnoxious.
Did you see that Sorkin is today's feature article on Wikipedia? Kept me up all last night instead of doing work.
I completely forgot about S60. It's dead to me. I'm considering referring to it as Fredo. It's like the Sorkin offspring that just couldn't amount to anything but whining and shiftyness.
On the other hand, have you heard about The Farnsworth Invention, which was supposed to be the next Sorkin movie, but is now the next Sorkin play (in what I call a reverse Few-Good-Men, or Men-Good-Few)? I'm pretty excited, even if only because there's a Futurama character in the title.
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