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"Post-Op complications…" [Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip] |
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Wednesday, 20 June 2007 |
by Frederic Germay
Unfortunately I have never seen "The West Wing," Aaron Sorkin's other critically acclaimed drama, so when I first saw "Studio 60" I was completely blown away by the rapid-fire, witty, and utterly captivating dialogue contained in every episode. I would go as far as to compare it to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” trademark witty language. Dialouge aside, this engaging drama provides a highly interesting perspective on the stressful way of life behind the scenes of a “Saturday Night Live”-esque show.
Once it had been revealed that this brilliant freshman season show was going to be cancelled, Sorkin started working towards giving this under-appreciated drama the send-off it deserves. The most recent plot twist consists of one of the cast members, Tom Jeter, discovering that his military pilot brother had been captured by terrorists overseas, and they were broadcasting live footage of ordeal on television. To make matters worse, Executive Producer Danny Tripp’s wife-to-be,
Jordan
, had an emergency C-section and is currently experiencing post-op complications.
However, the brilliance of “Studio 60” is short-lived in some categories. What a show be without the boring soap-opera drama, and the Matt and Harriet relationship delivers just that. Even Sorkin is aware of how that particular relationship is being percieved by viewers, so he pokes fun at it by allowing some of the secondary characters to mention how irritating Matt and Harriet can be.
Tom Jeter is coping admirably under the circumstances, despite being held captive in an office by a rather obnoxious, yet likable, Military Captain who is understanbly unable to provide answers to any of Tom’s questions. Eventually the media uncovers that one of the hostage is the brother of Tom Jeter, and that only creates problems as the terrorist unearth the true value of one of their hostage. Once again the negatives are compounded when the media, in their desperate race to unearth more material for their story, start releasing false information about the relationship between the brothers by saying that Tom had distanced himself from his brother because he was in the military. Tom’s best friend and castmate, Simon Styles tried to correct the error, but instead he threw a tantrum in front of a bjillion cameras. Talk about making matters worse…
One element of the past few episodes that I didn’t really care for is the repeated use of flashbacks. What is this…Lost? Although the flashbacks are interesting, funny, and they do provide some reasoning for each corresponding character’s present actions, they take away from the intensity and rhythm of the current, present drama at hand.
Personally, I think that
Jordan
will die and since Danny isn’t the biological father of
Jordan
’s child, he probably won’t be allowed to father the baby. Too bad, he had already started to make a connection with the kid. On the other hand, I think it is quite likely that the slightly abandoned ‘K&R’ plan won’t work, and Tom will end up losing his brother. However, I’ve been wrong on innumerable occasions, so it’s very likely that the exact opposite will occur. Whatever the case is, I have complete faith in Sorkin & Co. to wrap up the remaining episode with continued excellence.
I give this episode an 8/10
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