Tim Goodman. The Bastard Machine : Feed the Machine: "Studio 60" worries; "Weeds," do not even say "Bachelor.":

cmmt fr Tim re differences in writing blog vs the reviews proper, and who reads which-
People who read the blog are more comfortable online, possibly more passionate about TV and more interested in having a discussion, which is great.


- Oh, and Hail Mary! Weeds' has gotta be the best comedy on TV, it's so good it should be on HBO. Posted By: nizzope

-Tim there are problems with Studio 60 beyond that it is too industry focused. The biggest one is that it's about a comedy show but is not remotely funny. What the guy above says about the cast not gelling is partly to do with how incongruent the show is. ...Secondly, I'm not sure where Studio 60 goes yeah this is what I wonder, how they can settle down into a show where the daily work of Studio 60 is foreground or just backdrop to an ongoing story and-or various small stories.. after the drama of getting the show on the air wears off after, oh, the first two episodes, as it already has done. What plot can they possibly contrive - two of the main characters have already had their past transgressions revealed for tabloid scorn, they've already had just 3 days to get the show ready, they got a religious-themed sketch on the air..
This is all a shame because some people, including Matthew Perry, are doing their best work in years here. It's Sorkin who's letting them down. He's a one trick pony.

elsewhere:"Ricky and Ronnie are coming off far more sympathetic than Sorkin probably intends."
12:27 AM Sars said... Isn't that Carlos Jacott as one of them? Was that casting a mistake? Because it looks like one to me.
I don't know Jacott but he's the one that isn't Charlotte's husband. anyway they both seem ~ likeable.. at least, not that bad.

Lance Mannion: Studio 60: In the cold, clear light of day: This is my morning after wrap-up. The live-blogging happened in the post immediately below. Make sure your check out the comments.
I liked this episode much better than last week's. But I liked it for the same reasons I liked the little I liked last week---Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry, Steven Weber, and Timothy Busfeld. Focusing on them made the show enjoyable for me. I just hated it whenever they had to talk to the other characters.
...In A Few Good Men and West Wing one thing that was conspicuously absent from Sorkin's work was romance. In Jed and Abby Bartlett Sorkin helped create a portrait of a great marriage. The Bartletts had transceneded romance and---even though Jed and Abby plainly got frisky from time to time, and I defy any man or woman married to Stockard Channing not to get frisky huh she played the first lady? cool ---sex. The only sexual heat ever generated on West Wing came when Mary Louise Parker and Bradley Whitford squared off, and that was all Mary Louise Parker and Bradley Whitford. So I don't know if Sorkin can do romantic comedy.It wouldn't seem to be up his alley. He's not very interested in his characters' personal lives. He wants to watch them work. ..If Sorkin thinks these people are too much the pros to let their personal lives make serious incursions into their working lives, then he'd better get out of them out of the studio quick. Their work just isn't that dramatic. Now there's a word for a TV show that isn't dramatic. A comedy. Which is the direction I think Studio 60 ought to go.But so far there haven't been many laughs. And there's a word for a comedy that doesn't have many laughs. Cancelled.