Running Studio 60 thread (spoilers)

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Gotta agree with Satchel. There are more and more big name actors doing TV because that's where the smartest, most creative writing is happening.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Let's back off the golden age stuff, but agree that since reality crap has become the bulk of the programming, studios have freed up moneyto hire better writers and better actors for some of the dramas out there, making them much, much better.

I watch as much crap as anyone, but you can't point to the few good shows and say they're indicative of a golden age. And HBO shows don't count -- pay to play, as they are.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Finally watched the pilot last night -- it needed to start off way slower. With the lighting, the fast jabber and the 50 different people they introduced us to, it needed to be a 15 minute segment. I realize that they were going for a "classic" opening that will win an Emmy, but I was confused for a while. I thought that Amanda Peet was great.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

I have a feeling that Amanda Peet, by the end of this season, will go down as one of the most divisive actresses in SportsJournalists.com history.

Personally, I don't really care for her. Watching her in the pilot, I couldn't stop thinking, This is Denise Richards trying to play nuclear physicist "Christmas Jones" in that Bond movie that almost single-handedly destroyed the Bond franchise. My problem with Peet is that, almost always, she chooses to play her characters with too much confidence. There is no vunerability. She has that sort of flip arrogance that Sorkin loves in his female leads that, when it's not played just right, comes off as phony. (To be fair, I liked this quality in Mary Louise Parker on the WW, but most of you hated it and wanted Josh to end up with Donna, who I would agree was a deeper, more complex character.)

I didn't see Syriana (yet) so perhaps I'm missing one of her better performances, but in The Whole Nine and Ten Yards, she was that flip overconfident girl, in Something's Gotta Give she was that girl, in Saving Silverman she was that girl, ect.

On the other hand, I liked her a lot in Igby Goes Down, so I'm willing to give her character a chance to grow on me. However, the name "Jordan McDeere" sounds totally phony and feels like it was stolen from a John Grisham novel.

All this isn't to say that I disliked the show. Quite the opposite in fact. I enjoyed it very much and will watch tonight and probably weekly. I'm quite fond of Mathew Perry, in fact, and didn't feel like he was playing Chandler Bing at all. I think he's a fairly good actor, far better than any of his Friends castmates (though Aniston can do dramedy well occasionally) and the fact that he is an ex-tennis player makes me want to root for him more.

Also, conservatives can pop off all they want about WW being a Democratic fantasy, and get their yucks about Sorkin's liberal pipe dreams, but I will say this: His Republicans are always good, honest, three-dimentional characters, as I expect the "Harriet Hayes" will be. She'll have to take a few cheap shots, but Sorkin will represent her views honestly and respectfully. The Republicans didn't start acting like cartoonish bafoons on the WW until Jon Wells and NBC pushed Sorkin and Schalame out the door.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

On The West Wing, the defining characteristic of most of Sorkin's key roles was their goodness. You might not agree with them, but almost everyone, from Bartlet to Charlie to Danny to Ainsley, was good. I don't think that it works as well on a show about television.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Hmmm.......Sorkin's Robert Ritchie vs. Wells' Arnold Vinick.....I wonder which one was the cartoonish buffoon and which made conservatives look good.....the members of the House Oversight Cmte. in season 2 vs. Ray Sullivan. Sullivan took all the typical conservative positions and he came off like a tough, intelligent and likeable man. Even the Reverend Don Butler came off as principled. In terms of how they portrayed conservatives, Wells easily defeats Sorkin in a TKO.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)


Great post, DD. Peet was also 'that girl' in Changing Lanes, a very underrated movie, IMO. Her role in Syrianna was really too short to analyze much.

For some reason, I always compare Peet to Biel, who I like a lot better.

Mr. Lugs's only comment about the show was that he was annoyed by the Harriet Hayes character. I'll have to find out why exactly...

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Because she's a typical Sorkin sop to people who he'd otherwise lampoon -- Remember the Reverend Al on TWW, whom Leo liked?

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Yeah, but his female sidekick....in a matchup between her and the proverbial Roman lions, I'd root for the lions.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Jordan McDeere is Mitch McDeere's way-too-confident, grins-too-much cousin. But even she laughs at the scene where Mitch does cartwheels on Beale because he just can't help himself.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

The thing I liked about her was that they set her up as being a reasonable person throughout the first episode. I mean, she did something crazy with The 700 Club, unforgivable to her boyfriend. But she seemed to be someone with a little bit of depth.

Although I could have done without her throwing the tiny religious barb into the middle of dissing the drunk, irritating minor cast member in the bar.

 

Re: Studio 60 premiere (spoilers)

Episode 2: Pretty Damn Strong!