Current mood:

aggravated

Studio 60
Studio 60 hands Monday night over to Friday Night Lights?

Things are not looking sunny on the sunset strip, unfortunately for Studio 60. How to stop the steady stream of viewers seeking refuge elsewhere? Two things. Lighten up with the heavy-handed lecturing. Just because you can write smart dialogue doesn’t mean you should cloak every single line in irony, dress it in a black robe, hand it a gavel, and tell it to whack everyone it sees over the head. There is such a thing as too much. I also really cannot believe that anyone who is trying to find the time to put out a television show, live, every week, spends that much time uttering the words “Christian” and “right” over and over and over and over again. Secondly, and this one is a deal breaker, I swear, you have to stop already with showing us so much of the “Studio 60” skits. We can believe that this show is the flagship, we can believe that these actors are talented, we can believe that these writers are dying to write pertinent, trend-setting, comical skits, we can believe that the ratings are through the roof since Matt and Danny took over…we can believe all of this because you’ve told us so and because we *want* these people to succeed because mostly, we like them! However, when you show us the fruit of their labors and it’s just not funny…well, that’s a problem. It’s not funny. The skits range from mildly annoying to mildly amusing, but funny has so far not occurred to me as I watch. Go ahead and have the actors do their thing in the background, show us Matt or Danny’s reaction – we’ll believe them when they think it’s funny! Truthfully, it’s not that interesting to watch Studio 60 characters acting out Saturday Night Live rip-off skits. I’d rather watch the characters on the show I tuned in to watch rather than on *their* show. There was a bit about a bear a few weeks ago, and everyone insisted that Harriet would make it funny – she can make anything funny – and then they showed it on air and apparently forgot to show us the FUNNY part. Talk about the skits, run through the skits in dry practice tones, show us reactions to the finished product…but stop all the rest. It’s ruining the point of the show.

I’ve actually really been enjoying the last couple weeks, I think the show has gotten a lot better than the pilot and I think it has potential. In fact, there are moments of sheer brilliance. I enjoy the interpersonal relationships, I enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff, and I enjoy the witty one-liners. It could be a great show! There are just too many moments where I find myself thinking, “you’ve got to be kidding me”…it’s like a twilight zone where the show thinks I need to be the smartest viewer ever to “get it” one second, and then the next it treats me as though I’m incredibly gullible and maybe even borderline stupid. There’s also an air of condescension about the whole thing. I may be entertained enough to tune in next week (the acting is pretty great all-around) but I never fail to leave feeling like sooner or later they’ll want to come and install a light-up “LAUGH” sign on the wall over my TV.

Studio 60 will be giving up it’s Monday time slot to Friday Night Lights, for one week, on October 30th. This was a planned repeat episode of Studio 60, so things aren’t quite as bad as it would seem from the headlines. However, I’ve seen both shows, and this is cannot be good news for Studio 60. Friday Night Lights is well-worth checking out, if you haven’t yet. Past episodes (at least the most current past one) can be viewed on www.nbc.com with limited commercial interruption. The acting is superb, the writing is tight and touching, and Kyle Chandler is dreamy. (Yes, I said dreamy) It’s a sports story, a family story, and a high school story. The young actors are really, really convincing. It’s good-old fashioned drama, and for those of us with no football background – living somewhere other than Texas and the like – it’s amazing to see how a sport can transform an entire town. If I were told right now that I can only see one of the two shows from here on out, I choose Friday Night Lights, hands down. I hope Studio 60 finds its footing, and its audience, before it’s too late. Personally I think it’s going to depend on big egos taking a backseat and allowing the actors to play it out as characters instead of “presenting it” to viewers. 

-Sherry