This?

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Studio 40

Well, finished up Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as threatened. I actually did it all yesterday, only getting out of bed three or four times to ingest and excrete. And I can kind of see why many reviews of the show said that it started out great but got shaky: the first two-thirds are really strong, but the last six episodes are a single story arc that must have been interminable when it aired in weekly installments.

I think it suffers from Twin Peaks Disease - that's when a show has an incredibly compelling central story and leads, but the secondary storylines and characters never quite grab your interest the same way. True, Studio 60 never gets nearly as dreadful as pouty biker man-meat James Marshall getting involved with the married woman outside of town, or whatever. But Studio 60 would have no doubt righted itself in the second season it never got - you can just sense it.

Ah, well.

Still, those first fifteen episodes were damn good. Give it a try next time you've got a rainy day.

D.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I have never watched either show. But listen- Twin Peaks was always pretty good, compared to most shows. The last episode was probably the best thing ever aired on tv.

I will always be Rorschach-like in my defense of Twin Peaks... as you point your Dr. Manhattan hand at me... "Do it!"

Dave Kopperman said...

I'm not asking you to defend Twin Peaks as a whole - but I'd just like to see you put together a compelling argument pro James Marshall.

D.

Unknown said...

Ah, they should have cast the late, great John Ritter in the role.

Dave Kopperman said...

How about Ritter as Windholm Earle? That would've been cool.

D.

Unknown said...

He could've been Bob. Now _that_ would've been creepy.

Unknown said...

It's an entire rabbit-hole we could go down... probably best left to a face to face... recasting Twin Peaks!