Studio 60 - The Cold Open
Sep. 27th, 2006 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenOh, I am falling so hard for this show. So, so hard.
And before anyone asks, the reason I keep typing out the title in full is still because it's so much fun to say. It is. No other show on television takes such joy in rampant alliteration. Anyway, moving on, I think this episode was miles better than the pilot, and now I'm properly gripped, and dear god I did not need another show eating my brain.
Still, it is a lost cause. This episode had me from the beginning. Specifically:
-The press conference! Oh, Matt and Danny are so cute and SO SLASHY that their own show slashes them! "Are they calling us Hollywood liberals or are they calling us gay?" - ohgod. Heeee. And I may be wrong, but I don't think I've seen a show before that was so happy to crack gay-sex-themed jokes. (The thing with Matt and Jack Rudolph and "the first time we made love" - heee, again.) And the mixture of the humour with Danny's painful honesty - I liked that. I liked it very much.
-Matt vs. the clock. Blatant narrative contrivance, but funny with it.
-I like Jordan. I appreciate I am in a minority, but I can't help it. I take immense joy in watching her verbally kick arse. I don't like Harriet. I think she's silly and insipid, and I agree with Matt over Pat Robertson. Also, I have a feeling she may only get duller with time. We will see, I guess.
-Matt ranting about clothes. Talk about displacement of anger. And it was such a cheap trick, for Harriet to come storming in and call him a "whoremonger with the sensitivity of a head of cabbage" (or whatever it was!), but hell, I laughed.
-the moment. The moment in Matt's office where they're getting it, the indefinable it, and the excitement is building... I was sat there with a big, ridiculous, silly grin on my face. It's just so good.
-Er, I'm guessing "spunk" means something different in the States to what it means here, huh?
-I think the praying, even with the "something heavy" landing on Matt's head, misfired a bit. It seemed a bit shoehorned in, a little contrived.
-the last countdown, and the final finger click. I'm a sucker for devices like that. They remind me that it's nice to watch shows that aren't about aliens and ghosts, once in a while.
-And, lastly, the song. I laughed. I laughed a lot. And the fade-out on Matt vs. the clock (again!) made me laugh, too.
In conclusion, this is a really awesome show. And now there are two problems. The first one is simple. This is an awesome show, it's funny, it's clever, it's got something to say, which means, naturally, that NBC are going to can it after thirteen episodes, just because.
Secondly, I'm going back to Oxford on Sunday. Which means I can't.. ahem... acquire the episodes the way I have been. 350 MB .avis are just too large to risk over the university ethernet. (I'm living in a college flat, which does have the advantage of free ethernet - the disadvantage is its being monitored, as all university networks are.) So I don't know how I'm going to watch it. (Ditto season two of Supernatural, but that's less of a problem given how it'll take me a while to polish off the first season.) Suggestions on apostcard comment - pretty please?
Other than watching Studio 60, today I went to work (quiet day, lots of customers, got called a "lady" by small child, was terrifying) and once I'd got back, did some academic work, too. I have decided I should probably get back into the swing of it before I go up. Making notes tonight, I wrote the following:
"In perfectionist liberalism, it matters that an individual choose well, for a given value of well. Such a state may not do more than bias - i.e., if so inclined, it may ban gay marriage but not gay sex. (Given its fundamental subjectivity, perhaps independent research would be necessary to sanction the value of gay sex to the liberal autonomy of the individual.)"
My brain in academic mode never ceases to scare me.
And before anyone asks, the reason I keep typing out the title in full is still because it's so much fun to say. It is. No other show on television takes such joy in rampant alliteration. Anyway, moving on, I think this episode was miles better than the pilot, and now I'm properly gripped, and dear god I did not need another show eating my brain.
Still, it is a lost cause. This episode had me from the beginning. Specifically:
-The press conference! Oh, Matt and Danny are so cute and SO SLASHY that their own show slashes them! "Are they calling us Hollywood liberals or are they calling us gay?" - ohgod. Heeee. And I may be wrong, but I don't think I've seen a show before that was so happy to crack gay-sex-themed jokes. (The thing with Matt and Jack Rudolph and "the first time we made love" - heee, again.) And the mixture of the humour with Danny's painful honesty - I liked that. I liked it very much.
-Matt vs. the clock. Blatant narrative contrivance, but funny with it.
-I like Jordan. I appreciate I am in a minority, but I can't help it. I take immense joy in watching her verbally kick arse. I don't like Harriet. I think she's silly and insipid, and I agree with Matt over Pat Robertson. Also, I have a feeling she may only get duller with time. We will see, I guess.
-Matt ranting about clothes. Talk about displacement of anger. And it was such a cheap trick, for Harriet to come storming in and call him a "whoremonger with the sensitivity of a head of cabbage" (or whatever it was!), but hell, I laughed.
-the moment. The moment in Matt's office where they're getting it, the indefinable it, and the excitement is building... I was sat there with a big, ridiculous, silly grin on my face. It's just so good.
-Er, I'm guessing "spunk" means something different in the States to what it means here, huh?
-I think the praying, even with the "something heavy" landing on Matt's head, misfired a bit. It seemed a bit shoehorned in, a little contrived.
-the last countdown, and the final finger click. I'm a sucker for devices like that. They remind me that it's nice to watch shows that aren't about aliens and ghosts, once in a while.
-And, lastly, the song. I laughed. I laughed a lot. And the fade-out on Matt vs. the clock (again!) made me laugh, too.
In conclusion, this is a really awesome show. And now there are two problems. The first one is simple. This is an awesome show, it's funny, it's clever, it's got something to say, which means, naturally, that NBC are going to can it after thirteen episodes, just because.
Secondly, I'm going back to Oxford on Sunday. Which means I can't.. ahem... acquire the episodes the way I have been. 350 MB .avis are just too large to risk over the university ethernet. (I'm living in a college flat, which does have the advantage of free ethernet - the disadvantage is its being monitored, as all university networks are.) So I don't know how I'm going to watch it. (Ditto season two of Supernatural, but that's less of a problem given how it'll take me a while to polish off the first season.) Suggestions on a
Other than watching Studio 60, today I went to work (quiet day, lots of customers, got called a "lady" by small child, was terrifying) and once I'd got back, did some academic work, too. I have decided I should probably get back into the swing of it before I go up. Making notes tonight, I wrote the following:
"In perfectionist liberalism, it matters that an individual choose well, for a given value of well. Such a state may not do more than bias - i.e., if so inclined, it may ban gay marriage but not gay sex. (Given its fundamental subjectivity, perhaps independent research would be necessary to sanction the value of gay sex to the liberal autonomy of the individual.)"
My brain in academic mode never ceases to scare me.
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no subject
on 2006-09-27 11:39 pm (UTC)*g* Yes. Here, someone with a lot of spunk has a lot of...spirit. Or nerve. Gutsy. That sort of thing.
no subject
on 2006-09-27 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-28 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-27 11:55 pm (UTC)This is an awesome show, it's funny, it's clever, it's got something to say, which means, naturally, that NBC are going to can it after thirteen episodes, just because.
Now there's a scary thought.
no subject
on 2006-09-29 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-28 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-29 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-28 01:10 am (UTC)*laughing* Yes. I mean, um, it can also mean that, but yes. And I loved, loved, loved that reference.
I'm really disappointed with the handling of Harriet thus far. I so wanted to like her simply because it's Sarah Paulson--I'm such a fan of Sorkin's practice of hiring theater actors. On the other hand, I completely agree with you about the brainstorming scene; that felt like classic Sorkin to me, and it was thrilling.
Heeee on your liberalism paragraph. I had trouble parsing it the first time around (because I am struggling through a Spanish short story and my brain is stuck halfway between two languages), but then I got it and laughed.
no subject
on 2006-09-29 09:41 pm (UTC)It took me five minutes to realise what I'd written, I swear. I can't parse myself!
no subject
on 2006-09-28 03:22 am (UTC)Also, my mother got me into the habit of watching TV with captioning many, many years ago. Because of this, I know the music that "Cold Open" (which you can download from
This is a fantastic continuing motif from TWW, involving Sam and Lionel Tribbey and a long-legged Republican blond sex kitten named Ainsley Hayes and "He is an EnglishMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" And Gilbert and Sullivan.
no subject
on 2006-09-29 09:42 pm (UTC)I have that same habit! And I knew I knew the music from somewhere - thanks for clearing that up. Eeee for TWW and Gilbert and Sullivan! I think I may love Sorkin.
no subject
on 2006-09-28 08:51 am (UTC)postcardcomment - pretty please?*cough* If you were to find such suggestions, would they perhaps be sharable?
no subject
on 2006-09-29 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-29 10:57 pm (UTC)