Movie Maven

Quick programming note:
Ok, so I'm a liar. I promised you posts last Wednesday, and was so far unable to deliver. I am a bad Movie Maven, and you should feel free to verbally spank me in the comments box. However, I seem to have gotten a burst of blogging mojo and will do what I can to make it up to you. I'm on a TV kick lately, so don't be surprised if I begin to wax poetic about tasty little morsels like Battlestar Galactica or The Office over the next few weeks. Below is some huffy, whiny commentary about Studio 60. Enjoy!

I am so tired of reading blog posts about Studio 60 and the Sunset Strip.

Seriously I am so bored with everything to do with this show. I was an avid fan of The West Wing, and Aaron Sorkin's beautiful, shroom-induced hallucination of the executive branch. I admit it I was this close to writing in Sheen's Jed Bartlett on my 2004 election ballot, before I sobered up and remembered I vote in the swing state to end all swing states. I wept when, on the show, Bartlett announced his re-election campaign as "Brothers in Arms" played victoriously in the background. So obviously I looked forward to Studio 60, loving Sorkin, Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry, and the idea that the same wit, intelligence and social commentary could be translated to a fake sketch comedy show.

Unfortunately it looks like Sorkin was just on a bad trip. I was pretty disappointed with the couple of episodes I've seen, and honestly didn't really know what to make of it. It is funny and smart and the pacing is excellent. But the primary problem is that Sorkin's high-minded morality (some would say pretentiousness) that worked so well for government just doesn't sit as well in the world of television. Yes there is room to discuss censorship, the medium's ability to facilitate public discourse, blah blah blah, but in the end it's television and a sketch comedy show really doesn't hold that much political sway (Jon Stewart notwithstanding.) What could pass for moral authority inside a fictional Beltway just looks silly and self-righteous inside a fictional L.A.

So the show can be funny and smart, but in the end it's not that effective and hasn't really caught my eye. And I'm well aware that many online critics, from blogger Lance Mannion to Salon's Heather Havrilesky agree with me to a greater or lesser extent. They all don't really know what to make of this show, and the reviews have been decidedly mixed. So here's what I don't understand.

Why is Blogland so abuzz about it? Mannion's been live-blogging the show several times now, and every time he gives reasons why he doesn't really like it all that much. But he keeps live-blogging it, or ruminating on it between episodes. Wolcott's discussed it, as has Slate, Salon, and Shakespeare's Sister (my divine three S's.) Mind you, I'm not criticizing any of these people- God knows I have many passions close to my Movie Maven heart, and I understand very well the nature of television obsessions. But most of my obsessions are things that I enjoy watching, not things I feel ambivalent about. It would be different if it were some sort of love/hate relationship, but I don't think that's what's going on. It's like they so want to believe that Sorkin can create good TV (which he can) that they're ignoring their own instincts. My sister Shakespeare's Sister put it very well when she guest live-blogged on Mannion:

Why do I like this show? I ask the same question every week, because every week I gripe to Mr. Shakes about all the things I think are too much or too little, and everything seems to be one or the other. It's the characters I like. They're stuck inside this giant pendulum that's swinging way too wide, back and forth. But it's in rhythm...and I think its arc will narrow, and then everything will fit.

I do hope that in the end everything fits for Sorkin's show. I love him and his elitist, yet optimistic view of our so dreary state of America. But I'm not counting Studio 60's eggs before they hatch. My TV time is grossly limited, and I'm not going to waste it on a hope and a prayer.