Studio 60 Episode 1.04 "The West Coast Delay" Review

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip is a show that has much potential and is a show that I cannot see lasting the year. It is a show built on shaky foundations. Shaky foundations based on the success of another show. That show was The West Wing. We won't delve into how brilliant WW was, but the creator of both shows, Aaron Sorkin, should be strung half way between heaven and hell for the glorious and damned creations of his.

SSOTSS is a cc of WW. My guess is he was pressured into making another show. The premise of this show is exhilarating - a late night live comedy skit show (a la Saturday Night Live) that hires new (old) show-runners when the previous pulls a Paddy Chayefsky and gets a one way ticket to a padded cell (maybe?).

The show, unfortunately, plays like WW on tv. Instead of a terrorist threat, it's a plagarism threat. Instead of a president of a country, it's a president of a network. Instead of Josh Lyman, we get Danny Tripp (both played by Bradley Whitford). It smacks of treading water. Sorkin should have known better. He's not even trying. WW hit the ground running. Four episodes in, SSOTSS barely registers a pulse.

And for a show about a show that's a comedy show, it ain't funny. Maybe it's intentional. Maybe Sorkin didn't want the comedy of the comedy show to upstage the comedy of the show. Not a chance in hell. Yep. When Chandler Bing wields a baseball bat and says "I can’t wait for something funny to happen. I have to make something funny happen." and then smashes a window out with the bat - that ain't really funny. Unless you like The Three Stooges and then it's effin hilarious.

And why, dear god, why, does it have to be so damned soap opera-y. WW never ever fell into this trap. Every time it came close, it would snap back to it's snipe, snippy self. This is wallowing in drippy !@#$ that would make DOOL proud.

Despite all this whinging, I enjoyed the episode "The West Coast Delay". It finally had some remotely funny stuff on the 'show' (the Meet The Press With Juliette Lewis bit where Sarah Paulson does a nice Lewis Cape Fear/Kalifornia skit), finally has some decent drama - the plagarism plotline is well done and timely (if a little obvious) and finally, some body finally explains how television gets from one side of the US to the other.

Oh and then there's this...