Studio 60 Rx

It has quickly become fashionable to dump on Aaron Sorkin's new NBC show,Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The series seemed set up to succeed, with top-drawer leads (Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet) and a strong supporting cast. But just a few episodes into the season things aren't looking good, as USA Today noted.



Sorkin's multiple-Emmy history with The West Wing ensured him interest from networks and an audience at least curious to see what he was up to. I plead guilty to being an enormous and enthusiastic fan of Sorkin's career to this point, but something's not right with this show. A theme that largely goes ignored in Sorkin's work is that of taking one's job seriously. The anchors and producers on Sports Night and the pols in The American President and The West Wing were all endowed with a seriousness of purpose that might have been annoying in real life but made them attractive as characters. Studio 60 heroes Matt Albie (Perry) and Danny Tripp (Whitford) have the same quality, but this time Sorkin has tackled a more difficult subject: the creative process.

Some suggestions:

Stop talking about religion - In the pilot, network suits kill a sketch called "Crazy Christians," prompting producer Wes (Judd Hirsch) to flip out on the air and get fired. Perry's character Albie is the author of the sketch; he and Whitford's Tripp are quickly hired to take over the show. Albie seems particularly obsessed with the Christian right; his ex-girlfriend Harriet (Sarah Paulson) is a born-again Christian whose appearance on The 700 Club ended their relationship.

We don't see anyone's life outside the show enough to how or if Harriet lives her beliefs. She's around to give Albie (through Sorkin) a target for his venting and to serve as a possible love interest. Harriet's activities on the show (we're told she's a major star) don't seem hindered at all by her Christianity; her beliefs are essentially a third arm, something for her fellow cast members to politely ignore or treat as an oddity. Let's move on, Aaron.

Lose the smugness - "What's happening here is important," says the hotshot visiting journalist (Christine Lahti) doing a glossy Vanity Fair story on the show. Is it? Capturing the creative process on film is notoriously difficult, but there has got to be more to it than watching Perry's character stare at a computer and collecting backstage gossip (which is what Lahti's character does when she isn't listening to Sting play a lute). On last night's episode "The Wrap Party," cast member Tom (Nate Corddry) seemed amazed his Midwestern parents didn't care about the comedic history of the TV studio more than his brother in Afghanistan.

Give Bradley Whitford something to do - Whitford often looks as if he'd rather be somewhere else, but he's more than capable of carrying the weight. I refer you to the West Wing episodes "Noel" (Josh gets post-traumatic stress) and "The Stackhouse Filibuster" as examples.

I can't claim credit for this last one, but don't show the sketches. Not funny. (I have to acknowledge Best Week Ever for that idea).