Directors: Timothy Busfield & Lesli Linka Glatter
Cast: Amanda Peet (Jordan McDeere), Timothy Busfield (Cal), Steven Weber (Jack Rudolph), Sarah Paulson (Harriet Hayes) Nathan Corddry (Tom Jeter), Matthew Perry (Matt Albie), D.L. Hughley (Simon Stiles), Bradley Whitford (Danny Tripp), Nate Torrence (Dylan), Simon Helberg (Alex Dwyer), Ayda Field (Jeanie Whatley), Julia Ling (Kim Tao), Lucy Davis (Lucy), Columbus Short (Darius Hawthorne), Edward Asner (Wilson White), Diana-Maria Riva (Lilly Rodriguez), Daniel R. Escobar (Jim's friend), John Goodman (Judge Robert Bebe), Michael Kostroff (David Langenfeld), Jay Paulson (Roger), Raymond Ma (Zhing Tao), Josh Dubose (Fan #2), Larry A. Macias (P.A.), Christopher Shea (Jim), Joshua Wolf Coleman (Det. Hillary), Chris Flanders (Det. Trentanelli) & Ron Ostrow (Richard)
After Tom is arrested in Nevada, some of the Studio 60 cast fly out to free him before Friday's show, but a smalltown judge complicates matters...The first two-part episode of Studio 60 appears to be entirely unnecessary nonsense; a humdrum storyline, armed with a flashback format designed to disguise its failings.
Events begin in Pahrump, Nevada, where Tom Jeter (Nathan Corddry) is dressed as Jesus and under arrest by local police, to the chagrin of various Studio 60 work colleagues, a corporate lawyer, and two Japanese execs. John Goodman (Roseanne) successfully chomps his way through the Teaser as Judge Robert Bebe, assigned to decide Tom's fate, although after a promising start, Bebe is pushed aside by the flashbacks that reveal what's been going on...
It's mildly amusing to see how circumstances conspire to have Tom arrested, although not nearly as interesting as Aaron Sorkin seems to think. Tom's a likeable character, but I'm not bothered about whether or not he gets out of jail to star in sketch show. As I've commented before, that's the main failing of Studio 60 for me: it's a peek behind the curtains of a TV show, but written much too seriously. Sorkin tries to milk drama from events that, to industry outsiders, don't seem very important. At all. When industy outsiders are 95% of the viewing audience, that's a worry...
This week's "crisis" revolved around the possible absence of a cast member days before a live show. Don't they have contingency plans for circumstances when people are sick, unavailable, or dead? Are there no understudies for shows like this? Obviously, you want to help your friend and colleague if he's in trouble with the cops, but it all seems like a big overeaction to me.
The inclusion of two visiting Chinese execs, a father and daughter combo, with the latter a massive fan of Tom Jeter, also seems added just to complicate matters. The episode is meant to be a light, skrewy, comedy misadventure, but it's nowhere near as funny or intricately plotted as it needed to be. Of course, maybe I'll be proven wrong if part 2 is a hilarious conclusion that builds on part 1's set-ups... but I doubt it.
As always, there are nice little ideas floating around the script, particularly some insights into US TV culture (you can't say "Jesus", "God" or "Christ" as a swear word on a primetime network!) and US culture in general (people will sue you for pushing them over!) Beyond that, the spark to Sorkin's dialogue is missing, or becoming so predictable it no longer registers in your mind as anything special.
Amanda Peet remains a cute, engaging presence as network president Jordan, with her idealistic attitude about to land her in trouble -- according to slimy boss Jack (Steven Weber). The skeleton in her closet (a book being written by her ex-husband about trips to nefarious clubs) is pushed along here, which is long overdue after weeks being ignored.
Jack gets a nice scene with Danny (Bradley Whitford) on their jet to Nevada, as they discuss Jordan's standing within NBS, but the show just doesn't seem to give Whitford anything interesting to do! He just locks horns with Jack, swoons over Jordan, stares into monitors and tries to out-wiseass Matt (Matthew Perry).
It was also mildly disappointing that Darius (Columbus Short), the promising new black writer, isn't given much to do beyond look naive. I guess it's just unfortunate Sorkin decided to do a two-part episode immediately following Darius' introduction last week. But, no such excuses for Lucy Davis (The Office), who has been hanging around Studio 60 for weeks now, and still only gets a few reaction shots and the odd line!
The episode ends with the threat that -- dum-dum-duuuum! -- Matt may have to rewrite the entire show if Tom isn't released from custody, before it just drags to an end. I'm sure I'm not alone in my disinterest to see how the situation is resolved.
Nevada Day, Part 1 marks a real lowpoint for an increasingly inconsistent and frustrating series. I have no issues with the actors, who all put in perfectly fine performances, but a ficticious sketch show just isn't a great environment for relevant drama. Why should ordinary viewers care about any of this? It's all a huge injoke.
Every week brings another monotonous argument about censorship and a contrived situation that puts the running of the show in jeopardy. Yawn. Sorkin could have commented on the state of US television far more succinctly with a movie. He's just labouring the point now.
6 September 2007
More4, 10.00 pm
