I know where the joke was.
I'm sure there are about seventy posts about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip going up on your friendslist right now, and this is... one of them.
If you live on the West Coast? You should watch this show when it appears on your TV in a few hours. If you already missed it? You should watch this show next week. The heart of the message is, you should watch this show. You, who are still nostalgic for the linguistic brilliance of Homicide, never mind Sports Night; you, who only do the shows with the buddy homoeroticism; you, who don't do realism or comedy or ensemble drama. You. Should watch this show.
Some reasons why I'm talking about you, the one in the back trying to hide behind a pillar:
1. Aaron Sorkin? Still writes dialogue like no one else. It's not realistic, but it's better than, in the same way that Woody Allen and Oscar Wilde are better than. It's stylized and funny, and it's poetry.
2. Every single member of the cast can keep up with the difficulty of Sorkin's dialogue. From time to time on Sports Night and more frequently on The West Wing, actors struggled to keep up with the linguistic equivalent of a tennis ball machine aimed at the face. But even the actors who I thought were going to sink under the rhythmic demands shone. Amanda Peet and Matthew Perry? Not to be trifled with.
3. Bradley Whitford is incredible. He's gained weight, and he's adopted a certain heaviness in his body language; he doesn't even look like the same person. He sounds a little like Martin Sheen. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.
4. There are all these amazing, subtle visual references. I'm hesitant to list them, because it will ruin the joy of discovering them, but keep an eye on where things are set. Keep an eye on blocking. Keep a big, big eye on the guest stars. So much of TV seems to be accidental, but everything on this show is purposeful, pointed, and pregnant with meaning.
5. Slash. But not the usual slash. Like, there's room for it, but I think this ship has sailed, and that makes it more interesting to me. I think I have a new One True Friendship, not a new OTP. And, you know, I've seen sixty minutes of this thing, so that's a bold statement.
6. I've seen sixty minutes of this thing, and I know these people.
7. Competence, as a central theme, cannot be underrated.
8. The soundtrack cues are brilliant. It's a show that allows silence to be loud, and that's a difficult allowance for TV to make. It makes the dialogue louder and crisper.
9. What, you have something the fuck else to watch at 10 on a Monday? Unless you're a hardcore NFL fan, in which case I totally understand and encourage you to find someone to tape for you, there's nothing else on that competes with this.
10. I give it four episodes.
If you live on the West Coast? You should watch this show when it appears on your TV in a few hours. If you already missed it? You should watch this show next week. The heart of the message is, you should watch this show. You, who are still nostalgic for the linguistic brilliance of Homicide, never mind Sports Night; you, who only do the shows with the buddy homoeroticism; you, who don't do realism or comedy or ensemble drama. You. Should watch this show.
Some reasons why I'm talking about you, the one in the back trying to hide behind a pillar:
1. Aaron Sorkin? Still writes dialogue like no one else. It's not realistic, but it's better than, in the same way that Woody Allen and Oscar Wilde are better than. It's stylized and funny, and it's poetry.
2. Every single member of the cast can keep up with the difficulty of Sorkin's dialogue. From time to time on Sports Night and more frequently on The West Wing, actors struggled to keep up with the linguistic equivalent of a tennis ball machine aimed at the face. But even the actors who I thought were going to sink under the rhythmic demands shone. Amanda Peet and Matthew Perry? Not to be trifled with.
3. Bradley Whitford is incredible. He's gained weight, and he's adopted a certain heaviness in his body language; he doesn't even look like the same person. He sounds a little like Martin Sheen. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.
4. There are all these amazing, subtle visual references. I'm hesitant to list them, because it will ruin the joy of discovering them, but keep an eye on where things are set. Keep an eye on blocking. Keep a big, big eye on the guest stars. So much of TV seems to be accidental, but everything on this show is purposeful, pointed, and pregnant with meaning.
5. Slash. But not the usual slash. Like, there's room for it, but I think this ship has sailed, and that makes it more interesting to me. I think I have a new One True Friendship, not a new OTP. And, you know, I've seen sixty minutes of this thing, so that's a bold statement.
6. I've seen sixty minutes of this thing, and I know these people.
7. Competence, as a central theme, cannot be underrated.
8. The soundtrack cues are brilliant. It's a show that allows silence to be loud, and that's a difficult allowance for TV to make. It makes the dialogue louder and crisper.
9. What, you have something the fuck else to watch at 10 on a Monday? Unless you're a hardcore NFL fan, in which case I totally understand and encourage you to find someone to tape for you, there's nothing else on that competes with this.
10. I give it four episodes.