I am – Hercules!!

I just stuck a note in “L-Prime’s” watchband letting him know I’m crazy about him. Here’s his take on the latest adventures of Matt, Danny, Jordan and Harry:

What’s it called?
“The Friday Night Slaughter”

Who’s responsible?
Melissa Myers and Amy Turner, teleplay by — all together now — Sorkin.

What does TV Guide say?
“It's a walk down memory lane for Matt as he recalls his romantic history with longtime (ex) love and “Studio 60” funny gal Harriet.”

What is TV Guide not telling us? 

Well, that’s about it. There’s a couple cute b-plots about sweating through the trimming after dress, and some Jordan/Danny cuteness.

Who’s back?
Schlamme – he’s back behind the camera for the first time in a while, if I recall correctly.

Will this week’s talkback distend with endless debate on whether or not Sorkin should continue on his leftist crusade?
If they can get past the one rant (which indeed I could have done with a few seconds trimmed off of) by Matthew Perry in the past — a speech easily explainable through actual, established character traits — I think, as I mention again later on, that this hour finally has some of the feel of setting aside some torches and settling on some decent drama.

How far do we get into the burgeoning Matt/Harriet relationship?
Not far. Not really far at all. Only glimmers from one side, and its more for motivating purposes. Which is essentially the central crux of the episode — it could sit back and be happy with plot unfolding, but it steps back and starts pushing characters instead, which is welcome.

Anything else interesting in the past?
Mark McKinney is in the writer’s room, so is the dude from Mr. Show. Ricky and Ron are MIA, and not that its surprising, but no sign of Wes Mandel. We get Simon on his first entry into the Studio though.

Anyone missing?
Present-day Simon doesn’t appear, nor does Steven Weber, which makes me cry just a little.

What’s good?
Love the opening tracking shot; “My hormones are like the Los Alamos experiment right now.” “I don’t know what that means.”; “I don’t really like anything, or anyone, but if you ever wanna talk…”; “If you pay attention, you might be able to not get a sketch on the air this year.”; “I hope so, cuz if I’ve got further to fall.”; “Really, where’s the clock in here? It isn’t big enough.”; Tom and Dylan waiting out the window; we’re finally finding out a bit of what ‘Crazy Christians’ was about; “You guys are embarrassing yourselves.” “Like we don’t know that!” “BIG SKETCH!”; “It’s almost like you’re St. Valentine yourself.”; “The marketing ideas we were just talking about…” “Psssh, yeah.”; “Nothing. It wouldn’t make it on the air, it’s not funny.”; “What makes you think I’m trying to impress you?” “Why did you read Revelations?” “Why did you read my plays?”; the little over-the-shoulder glance Amanda Peet gives at the beginning of act three; seeing Matthew Perry deal with the long time ago writer’s room – a decent little origin story, if you will; interesting seeing Luke in the past, though it’s a bit more of a suspension of disbelief that yet more famous directors came out of the Studio 60 writer’s room; “It’s like you’re on a first date – ‘look how many words I know!’”; the first encounter with Simon was not gag-inducing; “You graceless homicidal maniacs.”; “You might want to look for Canada on a map.” “The accent, too much?” “It’s Mexican.”; “Lemme tell you why – metric conversi--”; “Good show everybody, eat ‘em up.”; all in all, there was a decent piece of insight into Matt Albie’s past, with some nice tangents to pair up with some other contemporary stories, a little tough to grab sound bites from – but see below also.

Not so good?
The show’s idea of 90’s nostalgia music was gawdawful – Smash Mouth? Seriously?; we’re finally finding out what ‘Crazy Christians’ was about – and who’da thunk it might not be the end all of sketch comedy, not to mention prefaced with an (albeit self-acknowledged) arrogant Sorkin rant; the pushing felt more than a tad after-school special-y (a TAD? – could there be more foreshadowing?); we get into (or if you’re of the mind, were there already) a continual parade of more and more obvious clichés; I’m really not sure how I feel about the new Matthew Perry art imitating life storyline, I suppose we’ll judge later on. Oh, and the Tim Batale thing was waaaaaay obvious (anagram).

Rating for 1.15 (out of five)
**** — on one hand, there’s a couple obvious meanderings; but on the other, some stakes feel genuinely raised, and the show finally feels like a real drama, a show where humanity might start taking precedence over setting and posturing — Matt in particular, artificial as parts might feel, looks to be stepping into some dangerous territory.

10 p.m. Monday. NBC.

Ack!! Season-Sets Winging Furiously Toward Us!!
Batman Beyond 3.x * Bosom Buddies 1.x * Bullshit! 4.x * Columbo 1989 * The 4400 3.x * Justice League Unlimited 2.x * Hawaii Five-0 1.x * The Larry Sanders Show: Not Just the Best Of * The Loop 1.x * Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Vol. 1 * Michael Palin: Around The World In 80 Days * Moonlighting 5.x * NewsRadio 5.x * Northern Exposure 6.x * The Odd Couple 1.x * The Rockford Files 3.x * The Rockford Files 4.x * Secret Agent AKA Danger Man Complete Collection Megaset 2007 * The Shield 5.x * South Park 9.x * Twin Peaks 2.x * The Venture Bros. 2.x * WKRP in Cincinnati 1.x