This was, perhaps, inevitable. I had quite a bit of emotional investment in this season's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," having fallen violently in love with "Sports Night" when it aired and having been a similar fan of "The West Wing." I even stuck with "West Wing" through seasons 5-7, or what is better known as The Years That Didn't Happen. Sorkin's latest behind-the-scenes venture, this time at a late-night sketch-comedy show, was supposed to be a return to greatness, a chance for phenomenal programming to once again take to the airwaves, and another show for me to take to my heart. (This season there are only two other shows like that, so it would have been nice to have a third.)
And, well, despite the many issues with the show that I will no doubt address in the future, the show has a major problem: Sorkin can write good, humorous dialogue between characters, but he can't write a funny sketch to sace his life.
Apparently, the fact that Mark McKinney ("The Kids in the Hall") is working on the sketches isn't helping at all. Last week's episode revolved around a purportedly stolen monologue that turned out to be NBS property after all, but no one stopped to think that the speech, which included a bit about dropping Hot Pockets along with bombs, wasn't funny in the first place. Last night's episode featured a cruelly, blatantly, powerfully unfunny Nancy Grace sketch, which (a) you have to really suck to miss the natural humor of an idiot like Grace, and (b) it made the recent Nancy Grace sketch on "SNL" look funny by comparison, which is a startling accomplishment. Still, the worst offense came in the second episode of "Studio 60," when the show-within-a-show's cold open was an abysmal rip-off of Gilbert and Sullivan. More than just typical Sorkinian recycling (cf. "And It's Surely to Their Credit" for a much better use of the music), the sketch was just stupid. Hearing the fictional studio audience laugh and applaud the lame song was almost painful. I sat and watched, unmoved, realizing that Sorkin is still a talented writer-producer, but his best work may well be behind him.
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Los Angeles, California I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. I try not to think too hard about how I want to build my life around talking about other people's creations and not mine. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of a few TV shows ("The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day" for starters), you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings. I guess I was made to be a film critic. This Month
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"Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
Comments
Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Kevin Longrie
on Tue 17 Oct 2006 01:22 PM PDT | Permanent Link
No love for The Office?
Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Dan Carlson
on Tue 17 Oct 2006 01:29 PM PDT | Profile | Permanent Link
The Office is good, and I still record it weekly and watch it and enjoy it. But it hasn't carved out the place in my heart that Veronica and Battlestar hold. But that's mainly just my hang-up: I've always gotten more mileage out of pain when it comes to picking favorites (even Sports Night, among my favorite shows of all time, knew how to wring the emotional trauma out of everyday life; Dan Rydell is one walking time-bomb of angst). Rest assured, though, I do love The Office, even if it has started to overplay its sentimentality.
Re: Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Kevin Longrie
on Tue 17 Oct 2006 04:00 PM PDT | Permanent Link
Fair enough. That said Veronica Mars is my favorite show on television, so I see how it could be wedged pretty tightly with your heart. BG, despite everything I've heard good about it, all the praise, is something I have yet to watch. Here's to TV on DVD.
Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Darek
on Tue 17 Oct 2006 01:34 PM PDT | Permanent Link
I fell in love with the show after the first two episodes. I knew this was a show for the ages. After the fourth episode, I stepped back and said, "Wait a second." I ran to the mirror, looked myself in the eye and with a single tear rolling down my cheek I said, "Studio 60 sucks."
My favorite part about the show-within-a-show aspect is that every time they do something that's not funny, you hear 5 different characters talk about how funny it was. Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Dan Carlson
on Tue 17 Oct 2006 02:40 PM PDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I don't know, to say it sucks is still pretty strong, especially compared to the ocean of interchangeable procedurals and awful sitcoms clogging the schedule. But I agree completely about the pain these actors must feel having to say "This is funny" about something that is in no way funny. If you look closely, you can see Matthew Perry's eye twitch when he says it, as if his nervous system is rebelling against his decision to whore himself out.
Re: Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Darek
on Wed 18 Oct 2006 04:48 AM PDT | Permanent Link
I was just being over dramatic. But really, I either watch the show to the end or I cut and run. Matthew Perry is either with me or against me.
One thing I'm surprised about with the show, is how much I like D.L. Hughley. This has been a comment by Darek Tatum. Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Katie
on Wed 18 Oct 2006 12:46 PM PDT | Permanent Link
FINALLY, someone said it. I was torn at first because Studio 60 is essentially a drama and I thought cutting too much to the sketches could have possibly ruined the overall tone but now I find that what little glimpse of sketchwork I get seems to be a 1st draft script's attempt at desperate humor, and it's downright distracting. Hey, a recommendation for your third show, Heroes: it's fantastic... like BattleStar Galactica, it takes an old story and adds a new and sensational twist.
Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Dan Carlson
on Wed 18 Oct 2006 12:57 PM PDT | Profile | Permanent Link
I tried Heroes for a while, and though the geeky premise is cute, it should really be a miniseries, or just a comic book. The show is already becoming its own version of Lost: Plot progression on a microscopic level, followed by one cool image per show. And believe me, while the sight of Claire flayed open on a coroner's table was jaw-dropping, that's not enough to sell me on the whole. I just don't think it's for me.
I'm also curious what happens when the heroes beat their first big bad: Will they form their own pseudo-Justice League? I mean, they've got powers, they're gonna have to fight crime. Re: Re: Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Mike
on Wed 18 Oct 2006 02:25 PM PDT | Permanent Link
Perhaps it's because I never saw Sports Night and only rarely caught West Wing, but I thought Studio 60 was the best thing to happen to TV in a long time (caveat: I don't watch much TV, so the relative merits of BG, Lost, Veronica Mars, etc. are unkown to me). Then, they gave Sting a speaking role and a 3-minute infomercial for his baffling lute CD. I like Sting and all, but it felt gimmicky and forced. And now I can't help but think the entire show is a little gimmicky and forced. But it's still a pretty enjoyable hour, so I'll stick with it for a little while longer.
Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Anonymous
on Thu 19 Oct 2006 07:38 AM PDT | Permanent Link
I'm not exactly thrilled with the show, and it's definitely for the same reasons you listed. However, I've kind of tricked myself into thinking that the terrible sketches add another degree of realism to Studio 60; if it's modeled after SNL, then it's appropriate that the sketches aren't funny. SNL is so, so terrible that I can't even handle watching it anymore. But someone has to be taking that show seriously, right (?!), and someone thinks the crap they're airing is funny enough to pass (or at least the funniest they have). I guess I'm not usually concerned with what is going on during the sketch anyway, it's not any worse than the old Mad TV reruns on Comedy Central.
Re: "Studio 60": Who Said Comedy Needs To Be Funny?
by
Anonymous
on Fri 20 Oct 2006 12:18 AM PDT | Permanent Link
I'm with you, I'm afraid, Dan. I, too, love "Sports Night" with a deep and abiding passion, and as much as I desparately want it to be, "Studio 60" is no "Sports Night." It just doesn't have the abject genius of SN, nor the energy, nor the magical chemistry between the characters. I'll watch every episode, of course...
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