Keith: Okay, first, 20 Good Years… Really? Is it just that we're so late in the process that your faculties are shot? I like Lithgow and Tambor too, but this is already limping like a horse that needs to be put down. And I'm not sure there's anything I hate more than a laugh track that's been added to scenes that clearly weren't shot before a live audience, unless it's seeing Lithgow in a Speedo.
I'm with you on 30 Rock, though. I don't want to sound like I'm bagging on Dratch, who I think is really funny, but the pilot that aired is much improved over the original pilot. I think that has less to do with the casting change than a general tightening of the gags. As Ken Tucker's Entertainment Weekly review pointed out, nothing about the show within a show makes sense—it's a live, primetime sketch comedy apparently aimed only at women—but I go with it because it makes me laugh.
Circling back to where we began, that's more than I can say for Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which had one of the best first episodes of recent years, and has blown it in ways large and small each subsequent week. I still like the relationship between the leads, but I'm sick to death of their self-righteousness and self-congratulation. Every other scene seems to be Matthew Perry or Bradley Whitford congratulating each other on their genius or talking about the genius of Sarah Paulson's character. Paulson is fine in the role, but the sketches just aren't there. It's like a movie that spends all its time talking about the genius of a painter who only draws stick men. There's more. I'd count the ways, but I'll hand that over to you.
Noel: I'm of two minds on Studio 60. Yes, the sketches are surprisingly lame—with remarkably Sorkin-esque dialogue, have you noticed?—and I'm having trouble buying the premise that any of these folks are comic geniuses, or that America is falling in love with their show, or that a decade-old drunk-driving incident involving a network executive would spark a major scandal. (How many people in America even know what a network executive is, let alone care who they are and what they do?) And last week's episode, about the scramble to fix a plagiarized joke for the West Coast feed, seemed implausible and overwrought.
But at the same time, even though the fix was ridiculous, the scramble was entertaining to watch, and it reminded me of what I like about Aaron Sorkin shows: the thrill of watching people work. I'm also still loving Matthew Perry, who handles the combination of insecurity and authority very well, and Nate Corddry, who finally got the chance to make an impression last week. (That's another unfortunate Sorkin-esque fault to Studio 60: the huge, underutilized cast. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the people in the writers' room last week Lucy Davis from the British version of The Office? And she only had one line!)
I'll be sticking with Studio 60 for as long as NBC wants to run it, because it does hit some highs between the lows, and because there aren't too many other shows this fall that are calling me back. The Nine, like I mentioned earlier, has me pinned for now, and Heroes, I'm really enjoying. I'll keep watching The Class and 30 Rock because I'm starving for sitcoms, and those two are reasonably funny and quirky. But I've already decided I can live without Jericho and Ugly Betty, even though their networks have picked them up for full seasons. And the networks have saved me some time by giving up on the likes of Smith, Kidnapped, and Justice, either by canceling them outright or sticking them in untenable timeslots.
So all in all, this wasn't the best crop of new fall TV. At least Lost, Veronica Mars, The Office, My Name Is Earl, and How I Met Your Mother are staying strong, and even Gilmore Girls and Desperate Housewives have been improving lately. There's still more decent TV to watch than time to watch it, by and large.
Now bring on the game shows!
Keith: I guess more-decent-TV-to-watch-than-time-to-watch-it is a fair enough gauge for the health of the medium. Well, that and the slow, steady decline of reality shows.
As for me, I'm sticking with Heroes, Studio 60 (almost out of spite), and 30 Rock, from the new shows. I liked Ugly Betty, but I've already pegged it as this year's Everybody Hates Chris: a totally decent show that I probably will never watch again. I will probably keep on watching Friday Night Lights until the plug gets pulled, although I'm tempted to bail early so as not to get too attached. Then there are all the favorites from past seasons. Man, when did we start watching so much television? And when do you know when it's time to stop?
Noel: Well, for me, I think I'm rebelling against the modern trend toward judging every show on an episode-to-episode basis—something I find really annoying when it comes to my favorites, like Lost—by taking a wait-and-see attitude toward new series, and giving them a few weeks to reveal what they're going to be. But honestly, as disappointed as I am that Smith got cancelled, do I miss it? Not really. There isn't a single new show from this season—not even Heroes—that it would hurt me never to see again, the way it would hurt me if Lost or Veronica Mars went away. (Although I do have a lot of fondness for that 30 Rock, I have to say.)
And looking across my collections of TV-on-DVD, I see favorites like Columbo, News Radio, The Simpsons, and The Andy Griffith Show—and I see shows I haven't gotten around to watching yet, like The Wire and Big Love—and I wonder why I even bother looking for new TV to fall in love with every fall. It's not like I don't have better things to do, or even to watch.
Maybe it's because I'm a TV addict from way back, and I know that having a lasting relationship with a TV show can be more satisfying than just about any other kind of entertainment, outside of a good book. To quote The Simpsons, "They've given you countless hours of free entertainment. If anything, you owe them."
On the other hand, we all know the next line, don't we?
Missed part one or part two of this dialogue covering the new TV shows? Just follow the links.
« Previous | 1 | 2
- Comments