1 Happy St

I'd been reserving judgement on the new NBC drama/comedy, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I figured I'd give it a couple weeks to settle in and let the series get some of the kinks out. After it's fifth episode last night, I figured I could review it fairly.

The new series on NBC (Mondays at 10/9 central) follows the writers and cast of a SNL-type late night show also called "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". Five episodes in, writer and producer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) has made the relationship of Matthew Perry's character and his star Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) the main plot line. Perry's character, Matt Albie, has been clearly established as the venomous left-wing writer and producer of Studio 60, while Paulson's is his talented Evangelical comedienne ex-girlfriend. Watching the two characters duke it out for 5 weeks about her faith and his lack of respect for it, one wonders how they ever talked about anything else when they were dating. Nonetheless, Sorkin expects us to suspend disbelief and accept that these two were once an item. She was apparently so attracted to Albie's writing talent that she never noticed that half of his jokes were at her expense.

But these are the things you put up with when watching a Sorkin vehicle. He is quite talented at writing snappy dialogue and makes his characters seem smart and witty, but he has failed repeatedly at writing a believable romantic storyline. Sorkin first tried writing a love story in SportsNight, his first network series revolving around the production of an ESPNesque sports news program. Frankly, I don't think I'd find any romance involving Felicity Huffman very believable. He also tried several times to spark non-platonic relationships on his second series, The West Wing, but none of them ever worked. Sorkin is at his best when he simply lets his characters do their jobs. He should leave the contrived love stories to the folks at All My Children.

All this being said, I'm still hanging with the show for the time being. It has its ups and downs. The behind-the-scenes look at late night variety television has been intriguing. Surprisingly, some of the sketches portrayed on the show appear funnier than anything we've seen on SNL in some time (but I suppose that's not really saying much). Some of the supporting cast (DL Hughley, Timothy Busfield and Amanda Peet) has been fun to watch. However, Steven Weber (who, even if he was to discover the cure for cancer, will always just be "the guy from Wings") overacts in each of his scenes like a hyper-active 5 year old at the Christmas pageant. On the flip side is Bradley Whitford, as the most boring cocaine addict you'll ever meet. In fairness, Sorkin hasn't really given him a storyline yet. I suppose it's only a matter of time before Whitford's character begins pining for the chubby PA.

The series still seems to be a little too much in awe of itself that there's a Christian character. I suppose that once Sorkin gets his typical Christian-bashing out of his system and just lets the show be about the show, it could be a pretty decent program. But after last night's episode, we may be waiting a while.