Thangs

[iainjclark]

Day 34. Internet connection still crappy. PlusNet finally agree to move us back to the BT network at no charge to us - which will take at least 7 days since they basically have to ask Tiscali for the MAC code to move us. This is no different to the situation if we were moving ISPs. How crazy is it that they would put us on a product that's

Comments

[coalescent]

I am coming to the conclusion that Studio 60 will only be fully appreciated by those familiar with the life and work of Aaron Sorkin and able to recognise exactly how meta it is.

It's not just less funny than TWW, it's less intense. TWW scripts may have been 40 pages longer than the average to accomodate all the extra dialogue, but I don't think that's the case here. It also feels less like a Sorkin fantasyland than either of his previous shows, despite the fact that, as truecatachresis pointed out last night, it's patently absurd for everyone to love their job.

I too am waiting for the characters to settle down, but I think that's as much down to the writing as acting -- "Holy hell" and similar seemed a bit out of place

[predictivememo]

I am coming to the conclusion that Studio 60 will only be fully appreciated by those familiar with the life and work of Aaron Sorkin and able to recognise exactly how meta it is.

Interestingly there is already a noticable split developing inside the Sorkin fandom that I frequent: you're either squeeing uncontrollably or you think Sorkin is pulling a fast one, and that he's not actually grasping the medium he's writing about hard enough yet by the balls. I did like the second one far more than the first but after several watches I find myself wondering what it is that bothering me, because something is. Something is either missing or awry or simply *misplaced*: they've gotta fall on their faces soon I think...

[iainjclark]

Yes there's clearly a great deal of Sorkin using his own life as material, and I think that's actually a good thing: he can mine every script meeting, every deadline, every visit to rehab as part of the show. It's like the Toby and Sam speech-writing bits of The West Wing spun off into their own show. It's good that he has those places to draw on, because I'm still quite hard-pressed to work out where the show's storylines will be coming from. I suppose if he managed to get two seasons out of the premise of Sports Night anything is possible

[abigail_n]

This is all very well and good and thoughtful, but I finally got around to watching the episode this evening and what really struck me was how bad everyone's hair had become. Bradley Whitford aged five years just going through the hair and wardrobe trailers, and Amanda Peet looks much nicer without the bangs and highlights.

I only stopped muttering about these tonsorial disasters long enough to mutter even more loudly at the scene in which Tom and Simon discuss the blogger, which made LemonLymon.com seem like a love letter to internet fandom. It takes a lot of nerve to complain that no one takes television seriously and then deride the people who do. I liked the episode as a whole and I'm going to keep watching the show, but Aaron Sorkin's self-insertions are going to be an even greater hindrance here than they were on The West Wing because it's easier to tell where they're coming from and who they're directed at in this setting.

Brad Whitford and Matthew Perry still have some way to go to convince me that they're not Josh and