Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I'm out

Despite the qualified praise I recently bestowed on "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", I'm dropping the show from my fall lineup. The past two episodes were perhaps the most self-indulgent, patronizing, implausible 120 minutes of television I've ever forced myself to suffer through. And I've watched a lot of TV in my time, my friends.

When I say that "Studio 60" talks down to its audience, I don't mean like an impatient teacher talks down to a student who is slow to absorb an obvious lesson; nor do I mean the way Democratic nominees for president talk down to voters. This show talks down to its viewers the way a nursing home attendant talks down to a 90-year-old who thinks Ike is still president; the way some Americans talk down to foreigners who don't speak English; the way I've heard cashiers at Giant Eagle talk down to the retarded kid who's bagging groceries for them. After-school specials had more nuance and subtlety than this show.

It's a really shame, too, because there is a lot of talent, a lot of good individual performances, being wasted while Aaron Sorkin tries to teach his audience a few ham-fisted lessons about the poor quality of prime time television (Knock-knock. Who's there? Irony. Irony who?), the lack of creative freedom in this country (Hell, someone keeps letting Sorkin make TV shows) and the fact that U.S. troops in the Middle East don't have enough body armor. (Don't ask.)

Enough.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Sean McDaniel said...

for once, i couldn't agree with you more.

8:34 PM

 
Blogger Jonathan Potts said...

The irony here is that during the premiere episode of "Studio 60", a couple of characters were making fun of a blogger who was panning their late-night comedy show. One character said he preferred it when people had to have credentials before publicly criticizing your show.

Of course, in this context, another name for bloggers is "viewers" and from what I've read, "Studio 60" has lost one-third of its audience already.

8:55 AM

 
Blogger Sean McDaniel said...

i'm chalking it up to matthew perry. he wasn't much of a comedic actor on a thin show like friends. I've never seen him do much with a meatier role.

3:01 PM

 
Blogger The T-Dude said...

You are right, it's a shame. I had high hopes as well. The pilot was the usual rush to introduce characters, but it held togehter okay. But the sledgehammer to the head with the old guy, war-hero, blacklisted writer, was just too much.

3:33 PM

 
Blogger Maria said...

It didn't make them look too bright either when it took them that long to think to look at the picture the guy had taken to figure out who he was.

OK, yes, the program would have been over then, but as you both pointed out, that would have been an improvement to the episode.

1:02 PM

 
Blogger Maria said...

'Studio 60’ Cancellation Imminent

2:56 PM

 
Blogger Jonathan Potts said...

At least "Heroes" is doing well.

7:46 PM

 

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