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Two Canadians Give STUDIO 60 1.8 Four Stars!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
For those who haven’t heard, “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” got a full-season order a few days ago.
And as usual, the Canadians got to see Sunday what the Americans see Monday.
“L-Prime” has this:
What’s it called?
“Nevada Day, Part II”
Who’s responsible?
Teleplay by Sorkin; Story by David Handleman & Cinque Henderson
What does TV Guide say?
Conclusion. Jack has difficulty persuading a Nevada judge (John Goodman) to let Tom out of jail in time for the live taping of “Studio 60”; the romantic tension increases between Matt and Harriet.
What else is TV Guide not telling us?
Again, it’s a technically accurate summary, but it’s a little thin on how those bits inform the actual hour of TV.
Any backgrounders gaining screen time?
Nate Torrance’s Dylan gets a bunch of attention on the actor’s side, while Lucy Davis has her biggest night on the writer’s side, and lo, Dawn fans did rejoice.
Anyone have a lighter week again?
Timothy Busfield is less MIA than last week, despite his sole director’s credit, but all of his 45 seconds or so are fantastic.
Once again: Comedy? Funny?
The biblical cheese idea is fantastic, but the Visa sketch brings act three to a screeching halt.
Does anyone take a big bite out of the speechifying pie?
Harriet and Matt, a little, but what else is new?
Will there be more cries of snobbery/liberalism/general elitism?
A question actually largely addressed by the episode itself, and there’s a (dare I say) touching conceit given to the usual fodder for abuse (the dreaded ‘Middle America’) in the resolution of the Tom mystery.
What’s good?
“It’s a funny name, get past it.”; “… and watching you trip all over it makes me want to hit you with Liberace.”; Cheeses of Nazareth; “I was thinking of getting a bunch of them together in my basement and setting them to work for me as pickpockets.”; Steven Weber being … unkind to electronics; John Goodman, again; hey! There’s Timothy Busfield!; “Wanna talk about it some more?” “No.”; “I’m not white, Darius, I’m English.”; a red paintball; Ed Asner ripping Jordan to pieces; the Thunderdome reference; “Hey, look at that, I’m Agatha Christie.”; “Are we flying as fast as we can go?”; “It’s ok, it’s ok, let it out. Ow! It’s ok.”; Steven Weber, yet again; “Jack, I’m gonna go in, but I could kiss you all over the face right now.”; “There’s a diner in Pahrump, I’ve never tasted food like this.”
Cual no es bueno?
It took a small uptick this week, but I still don’t buy the Jordan/Harriet friendship, as it seems the only reason they’re set up as friends is that they both have two X chromosomes; the big reveal about Tom works well motivation-wise, but the nuts and bolts of the logic don’t add up; the romance thing kinda hits you out of nowhere at the end.
Any shocking, mind-bending, brain-explosdying twists?
Um, some schmaltz is shoved at us pretty quick, but nothing big. You were expecting alien babies maybe?
And perhaps the biggest question of the night: with the recent renewal, will people just shut the eff up and watch the damn thing?
A man can dream, can’t he?
Rating for 1.8 (out of five)
****
“Daniel” says:
What’s It Called?
“Nevada Day, Part 2"
Who Wrote It?
Teleplay by Aaron Sorkin, Story by David Handleman ("Sports Night", "West Wing"), and Cinque Henderson ("E-Ring")
Who Directed It?
Timothy Busfield
What’s It About?
Jordan deals with her quote about not wanting kids; Harriett deals with her apparent homophobia; Matt tries putting a new guy on the News 60 desk; Everyone in Pahrump tries to get back to work
What’s Good About It?
Half-Way House Cafe, Matt disagreeing with Harriett, Jack dealing with the camera, Jack's rant at the end, more arguing with Jack and Dannny, and Jack in general, John Goodman's fixation on Simon's hair, John Goodman in general, the way characters are standing up for each other more, and becoming nicer, more "real" people
"Is Tom in jail in a Marx Brothers' movie?", "Cheeses of Nazareth", "I'm in the middle of an episode of Walker Texas Ranger", "I'm homophobic in the way that makes sense", "Wanna talk about it some more?", "Whaddaya know, I'm Agatha Christie", "We're not being slowed down by the fact that you're making chicken caesar salad for everyone?", "Can't really break a newspaper", "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STARTLED ALL OF THIS!"
What’s Not Good About It?
For those of you just looking to complain, there's a lot of focus on Christianity's stance on things this week, some people may be unhappy with the resolution on Tom's charges
Rating (Out of Five)
****
10 p.m. Monday. NBC.
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+ Expand All
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the ultimate show?!!
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I thought N-Day Part 1 was a bit weak, with good bits thrown in, so I'm looking forward to N-Day II. And thank god for the full-season order. But why shut the eff up and watch it when we can talkback it?
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Yep... that's right.
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Let's see if it's better than last week's.
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Enjoy the episdoe.
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I just fucking love it
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Still worried about Goodman... Hopefully he loses some weight and gets another sitcom on abc or something...
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If that's the joke, the ska band Five Iron Frenzy should sue, because that was the name of one of their CDs three or four years ago...
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I'd give this 2 out of 4 stars. Cheeses of Nazareth is not funny; have your funny-bone checked. The whole silly "tell him why you were speeding" plotline is resolved in about 30 seconds by some guilt-ridden crying over "our troops." Someone in the last talkback said this show needs a 'snake.' This is true, and Jack Rudolph's schmaltzy speech this week proves that everyone is suffering from O.N. (Over-Nobility). Can't wait for this show to get back on track to the greatness it started with.
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That was in one of the episode summaries i read for last week.
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I too was rather "wait, what?" with the explanation to Tom's speeding. The Visa sketch was not funny. I didn't know what was supposed to be funny about it. Maybe the joke was the way she pronounced "socks", sounding like "sex". All the while I thought of what was said so often on the previous Studio 60 TB - that the sketches, when we see them, are like something we would have seen performed by Horatio Sanz and Chris Kattan. An idea, that maybe in concept was funny, but in its final form is not. But those were only a few moments of an otherwise good episode. John Goodman is always a delight to watch. Too bad they have already used him. It would have been nice to have had him playing a recurring character. A Jerry Fallwell type, urging consumers to boycott the show and being a constant thorn in Matt & Danny's side; or the head of Standards and Practices; or a former cast member.
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There seem to be a good number of people on this talkback that feel the show is not all that good and I want to thank those people for watching anyway and giving this show a chance rather than watching "Law & Crime Scene Dancing With Who Wants to Sleep With My Sister." I don't know if it'll ever get up to your standards, but I think it will pay off. I love this show, its one of only a handful of shows I watch and all of them seem to be rated rather low. It may be wishful thinking, but I hope someone at NBC is trying to bring class to the network and let that be what sells their shows rather than all of the shit that Wes complained about in the first ep.
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Sorkin is just bitter that when it came to winning kristen chenowith's heart he could'nt compete with the king of kings,the prince of peace and the best damn winemaker this side of galilee
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There were some great moments but it felt a little off, and the final scene was handled really badly. Matt can get away with his comments because Perry is great and gives him a great deal of vulnerability to add to his holier-than-thou attitude, while because Paulson is just so plain bad a lot of the time her more literal holier-than-thou attitude just comes of as being abhorrently smug. There is no sympathy with her character, and I feel that is squarely her fault, not that of the writing. Also Weber is again fantastic and Whitford getting mor screen time is always good news in my book.
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Not a bad show, just boring.
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I love how much this show makes you listen and not zone out... but I'll have to DL that bit about why Tom was speeding 'cause it went too quickly.
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So...are we not worried by how lousy he looked in these episodes? I thought he looked rough when he turned up on The West Wing the other year, but in this...wow, he looks so pale, so haggard; he looks three seconds away from having a major heart attack. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, JOHN, SEE A DOCTOR, LOSE SOME WEIGHT! Even though you inflicted King Ralph upon us, I'll be sorry to see you go.
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Is there anybody who thinks that the sketches are not funny and that the show is too self-righteous and pretentious and that that ruins the show? And is there anybody else who thinks that, on the contrary, the show is intelligently written and well-acted and that if the first group of people don't like the show so much they should just top watching it? And then does the first group object that they WANT to like the show and think it has potential but that the things they mentioned above are just too distracting? And then does the second group think that the first group has no life and just live for the purpose of going on the internet and complaining and what do they actually like if they're just going to pick everything apart? And then does the first group argue that the whole point of this website is to discuss whether things are good or bad, not to blindly praise things? Just wondering.
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im pretty sure im done....cant stand this church/gay bullshit...
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The show has shown the potential to be good but it just has its head too far up its own ass and takes itself and the scenario the characters are in too seriously. It's also contributing to this media created cultural war between the "red and blue" states that's not half as apocalyptic as Hollywood likes to portray it. In short, it needs to lighten the fuck up and stop pretending that it's saving the world.
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ILMFAO...THAT WOULD BE A GREAT SKIT ON SNL...HAHAHAHAHAH..EPIC
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Im still lmao....
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At one point, Harry says somethin about a "child molester nominated for an academy award". Does anyone know who she's talkin' about??????
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Roman Polanski
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jordan on the other hand is quickly growing old in my book...i just don't buy it....she doesn't look nor act like she could handle a networks programming, she just doesn't have the gravitas....
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Being an Executive Producer sure seems hectic!
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what I figure is: the brother was being deployed, so there was a protest (bunch of hippies standing in the railroads, that sort of thing) and the guy wanted to get there in time to say goodbye because statistics say he'll die. right? it wasn't that clear. Still, the judge thing was very weak.. he made such a big deal about being a fair intelligent person (with the joke about calling the chinese 'japs' and shooting people on the knees), and then spent the whole 1st part arguing about something that had nothing to do with the case ("studio 60 makes fun of me, whaaa"), and then he dismissed the whole thing based on something else that also had nothing to do with the case.
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According to Kirstin on E!, NBC picked up the full season because it would cost them just as much to cancel it as to keep it going with all the guarantees. Also, she said that a lot of the cast were upset that the network picked up the full season. Sounds like this show has no hope of surviving.
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From Heather: Yay! Studio 60 was picked up! Congrats on the exclusive scoop. I'm so happy, but I want to know: Is it true the people working on the show didn't want it to be picked up?
Kristin: Sadly, that is pretty much what I've heard—many of the people who work on the show were hoping it wouldn't survive. Such a shame, 'cause the show has gotten so good! I'm also told that NBC would pay a massive penalty for canceling the show, so it would actually cost the same amount to halt production as it would to keep making it. -
that dangerously teetered into preachy in the arguments between Matt and Harriet. Yet these are pretty realistic arguments that people make. Why do they seem more preachy when they're on camera? At least they showed both sides scoring points in the argument (the 'I don't know' bit was on the money). So does anyone think that the mistranslation thing with Jack was just something that the father told his daughter to say to Jack to save face (I know that's a Japanese thing, not a Chinese thing but work with me)? And I'm definitely starting to dig Jack (in a character sense, of course).
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Sergeant Buzzkill. Seconds season always have so much potential. I'd just like to hope that Sorkin, Schlamme, Whitford, Perry, and Weber are still getting along and happy. I'd hate to see that much talent just angry at each other all the time, and watching a show that doesn't even want to be made is so, so awful. Let's hope this isn't as dreadful as it is being made out to be.
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The moment Sorkin wrote that line must've been the moment he realized what an batshit insane show he was writing. And then he had another good laugh about how funny the word "Parump" sounds.
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she deserves a pearl necklace...what the hell, I'd give her the earrings too.
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No wonder I stopped watching. I have a feeling the 'two canadians' are paid a tidy sum by NBC to divy up stars.
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HAHAHAHAHA. That jokes KILLED. No wonder Matthew Perry gave it a big thumbs up! This show ROCKS!
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still watching the show and whining about it later I see...you're like an old person at an early bird special that goes every week and complains the whole time...classic
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I thought it was much better than last week's. The paintball gun going off and almost hitting Jack Rudolph was geniius.
Although, I still don't understand why Tom was speeding. Anyone wanna clear that up? -
Harriet believes the Bible because her mother died when she was young, the Christian Singing Group took care of her, etc, etc... Matthew Perry's character doesn't believe the Bible because... I don't know, probably since Sorkin sees him as a normal, intelligent, College Graduate! Why would he believe the Bible? Neither of his parents died!
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Rofl.
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As a real-life thinking and (hopefully) intelligent born-again Christian, I have to say we deserve a lot of the ways we are portrayed in the American media. THAT being said, I do not know one single Christian (and I know many) who would say that Ann Coulter represents the voice or even a voice in Christianity. None of us, that I know of, even associate her with our faith--we associate her with angry Conservative politics, but not as a voice of our faith. So, Aaron, give us a break.
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Harriet makes the exact same argument about Coulter as you do (and it's presented reasonably). So that view is represented on the show. Thanks for playing.
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the female characters are bad...Harriet get the fudge out
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Still worried about John tho'.
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What a fuckin load. It started off decently. But it's become a broken record, what with the single minded focus on "right-wing Christians". Gee, Sorkin, some people think different than you. Get the fuck over it. Sure, there are some fuckin nutjobs that claim to be Christian. But there are nutjobs in every religion, not to mention nutjob athiests. Oh, and Harriet as one of the main characters doesn't make up for it either. She is a fuckin caricature. Cardboard. And a punching bag for Matthew Perry's character. He regularly makes her look stupid, like at the end of the last episode (1.7?). In my opinion, and this isn't just because of the anti-Christian BS, this show is a massive waste of talent. If Sorkin would get off the war horse for a minute and focus on the mechanics of running a live sketch show, Hollywood politics, press interaction, and behind the scenes shit... THEN it would be much more interesting. That was what I expected out of the show. I didn't expect pro-Christian views, nor did I expect anything but liberal viewpoints to be presented in a positive light (this is Hollywood) ... but a one-trick pony is a short lived pony.
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Actually, that NOT the argument Harrier makes. You missed the point. Harriet says that she goes on the singing tour in order to show young Christian girls that Ann Coulter is not the voice of Christianity. My point is that basically no Christian would say that because no Christian thinks that Ann Coulter IS the voice of Christianity. That would be like...I don't know, some normal gay guy coming out of the closet to show homosexual teenagers that not all gays are as flamboyant as Liberace. No homosexual thinks that, so he's making a moot point. That's what I was trying to say.
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Polanski was nominated for the "Pianist". Unfortunately, he was unable to attend the award ceremonies because he is on the lam in France because he is wanted for statutory rape charges in California. He is accused of having sex with a 13 year old girl. The one thing Studio 60 got wrong was Polanski won the Oscar for the Pianist.
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I thought the most appropriate line was from John Goodman when he told Danny to stop portraying everyone outside of Los Angeles and New York as cast members of Hee Haw. That is one piece of advice this show should learn from itself.
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The Chinese dude is saying it to save his own face. True it's not so much a Chinese thing as Japanese, but the joke is the same in any language: Man flies off the handle thinking he has a lot of leverage to do so, and then someone else one ups him by getting all up in his face and taking the "real" moral high ground. Then the man renegs by pretending he meant to say something else when it's clear to both parties that he meant exactly what he said before, but is just renegging. How do I know this is true in this case? I speak Chinese.
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Sorkin seems to stumble over his "most of America phobia" more often than Harriet stumbles over her homophobia. Especially when he makes an awkward effort to look like he's trying to be balanced.
Fo9r intstance having the character who delivers that line grossly missuse his oath of office to carry out a personal vendetta against a tv show he doesn't.
Or Harriet's position that people from small towns should be given a pass for disregarding gay love and banning the Crucible because, their poor and not city folk and its just mean to expect critical thought, opened mindedness and sensitivity from that small part of the country between New York and LA.
The problem with extemist Christians or consevatives aren't that their Christian or even that thei conservative. Its that they are extremist and that they're being percieved as being represemntativecof everyone.
If Sorkin really wanted to demonstrate that the extremist don't speak for everyone, he would make the Harriet character eager to bypass the cutsy religious name calling and go expose the centsorship and intolerance of these communnities because as "sympathetic" Christian and defender of small town America she would not beleive that is what Christianty and small town America is about and would want to show that by example. -
you are the type cockwad that is so fuckin "compassionate" and "tolerant" that you'll stick up for gays but bash the Christians right at every turn, right? Here's a clue ... generalizations are usually wrong, fucknut. Oh, and just to feed your stupid, retarded generalization ... "Have fun burning in hell."
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Just to let you know. Roman Polanski isn't "accused of having sex" with a minor. He was convicted in absentee of drugging and then raping a minor. He is a wanted felon.
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Not to get sarcastic, but I think I covered that subject when I said he was "on the lam in France because he is wanted for statutory rape charges in California".
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I agree that Sorkin does provide lip service to other side. I think if he throws a line here and there like "the Democrats are just as homophobic with their stance on civil unions rather than marriage", it gives him free range to bash his targets like Christians.
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Gay Christians are an enigma.
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