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I was told I was in the Science Club in high school. I don't remember it. I bet it was wild.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

In Sweet Smell of Success, UberMensch Critic JJ Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) tells the lecherous publicity hound Sidney Falco, “You’re a Cookie Full of Arsenic.” JJ pretty much sums of my feelings about STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. It is sweet, chewy, addictive, and poisonous. Aaron Sorkin’s new show is acid as the inside of a broken carburetor I once refused to throw away: it operates on the kind of devil-may-care nihilism that usually drives punk rock and ironic garden parties, and then makes up for it by connecting every emotion dot to form a prime-time smiley face. It is brilliantly acted and written, even more brilliant considering the utter implausibility of its premise. But Sorkin, like Matt Perry’s character on the show, has the kind of magic-wandpen to keep a mixture of saps seated that includes those who hate it, those who love it. As the show keeps cancellation sirens, the question will remain as to whether or not those indifferent will ever start watching (or stay up past 9 PM, one).

What works about STUDIO 60? The acting. There are few weak links in this cast, though it is pretty hard to believe that Sarah Paulson is either as a) talented or b) sexy as the show makes her out to be. Minor characters played by Lucy Davis and Nate Corddry are consistently interesting. Top acting honors go to Steven Weber, the boring lothario brother of the boring straight-laced brother from the horrendous WINGS, finding new life as a sleazebag who struggles with his sleazebag convictions. The show-within-a-show also gives us a chance to see what it might be like to write against a weekly deadline, and the horrors and pratfalls of putting on a live show. And the Soap Opera is fine.

What doesn’t work? The politics. The premise. The preposterous asteroidical ticking-clock nature of each episode. Rather than give us a glimpse inside a TV show (which the writers seem to know about and are good at conveying dramatically), we are instead subjected to the constant contrived dilemmas of the “Will they or won’t they make it?”camp. I don’t know which episode was more ridiculous: the show where everybody got the flu or the show where a character gets arrested in a small-town that magically, symbolically becomes the personification of everyone who hates the show and everyone the show hates. Yet with all this drama, the show still struggles to find viewers. I blame the acid.

Also, I blame the much-maligned titular show-within-a-show. Too much has been written about this, but the complaint is simply this: it isn’t funny, and it’s supposed to be legendary. With the return of prodigal sons/comedy geniuses Perry and Bradley Whitford, the show is apparently in some process of revolutionizing television. How? With a skit where Juliette Lewis hosts Meet the Press? With something called “Crazy Christians” (which asserts, get ready for this, that Christians believe in a man in a sky! YOWZA!)? A guy doing a bad Nicolas Cage? With a comeback special involving an orchestrated song? We are supposed to buy the upward momentum that the show-within-the-show is creating, but its hard to believe when they have yet to produce a funny moment.

I’ll keep watching, but I may give up on it. I certainly won’t shed any tears if it’s cancelled.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS gets a lot right, but it gets more wrong. Two actors are exceptional, and they are so good that it makes you forget you’re watching TEXAS 90210, right down the key trope where 26 year olds playing 17 year olds. The two actors worth mentioning are Kyle Chandler as a Coach who hates politics and his shrill, awful wife (or at least he should; she’s a pest), and Zach Gilford, the 24-year-old playing 16-year-old Matt Saracen. Though Gilford looks like he should be finishing law school, he is uncanny is his ability to play an inarticulate kid who has trouble looking people in the eye but just so happens to be blessed with the tools of a great athlete.

When they are not on screen, we’re given a sultry, Brando-esque 25 year old playing the 18 year old fullback, a hunky 27 year old playing the 18 year old embittered, paralyzed quarterback, and a 26 year old playing a cheerleader who “gets around.” ** None of them are particularly good, as each alternates between brooding, moping, shouting, crying, grinning seductively for a shot destined to make a Seventeen cover or a James Blunt video, more brooding, and finally revelating (a word I made up that it is a key factor of all these DAWSONS CREEKS shows; it usually begins with, “There’s something I have to tell you.”)

At first, I was taken by how real the football seemed. But so far, all but one game has come down to a last second play. Two of the games have been won by trick plays. This puts it in the same lame-ass category as REMEMBER THE TITANS and OLIVER STONE’S MOVIE ABOUT FOOTBALL THAT WAS REALLY ABOUT THE EVILS OF CAPITALISM. There is a pretty good chance that every game will be won or lost by one of the four characters we’re supposed to focus on. Football is pretty hard to film, which explains why there is so little of it in the show. The rest is dedicated to the dopey soap operas of West Texas.

Unlike STUDIO 60, I’m pretty much giving up on this one. However, despite the relative mediocrity of both movie and TV show, the book of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS remains one of my five favorite books ever written. I have read it about four times and will probably read it again.

I have been enjoying 30 ROCK, because of how paradoxically inane and clever it is able to be. And MY NAME IS EARL and THE OFFICE are reaching their peaks. No matter what anyone says, LOST is still terrific. And I’ve been Netflixing “THE WIRE,” which is brutal but awesome. Any shows worth watching?

** - As you can tell, I have a real problem with this. Seventeen year old girls think they're supposed to be able to look like the aforementioned 26 year old actress/model playing an eighteen year old. The show markets itself to young audiences, and then casts them unrealistically. Besides the cheerleader, there is another "17 year old" who could turn around and conceivably play Jackie Kennedy. The argument has been made that adolescent actors just can't perform as well as these more-mature stars. My argument to the gang at FNL: try harder. I'm around high school kids all the time and they look and act nothing like the kids you're putting on screen. That's why "Young" Mr. Gilford stands out, because he manages to convey something of the growing pains of an actual teenager. The rest are like something concocted by someone who has only read about high school. Try to cast the show with actually 18 year olds; or at least actual 20 year olds playing eighteen year olds.

1 Comments:

Blogger Andytown said...

Thought I just had:

Isn't it odd how largely successful (and rightfully so) three of the main people from WINGS have become?

Tony Shalhoub - star of a good TV show, Monk

Steven Weber - Broadway actor, STUDIO 60

Thomas Haden Church - Academy Award Nominee, SPIDERMAN 2 STARRER

7:33 AM  

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