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I'm almost sorry to see Studio 60 go... almost.
As much as I've complained, bitched, moaned, and complained (yes, I said "complained" twice... that's how much I did it) about Studio 60, I never stopped watching the show.
The reasons why I did so changed over time. For a while, I thought I was "rubbernecking;" I just couldn't resist seeing what train wreck Aaron Sorkin wrote for himself each week, and then couldn't wait to get on to TV Squad and other sites to see the critics and the commenters ravage the episode. Then, for a while, I thought I was watching the show out of the hope that such a talented group of writers and actors could get their act together long enough to run off a streak of quality episodes. Finally, I thought I was watching merely for the fact that there was nothing else to watch on Mondays at 10, and I figured I could just watch it while I wrote my review for How I Met Your Mother.
Turns out it was all three reasons. And, now that The Black Donnellys is taking S60's place starting next week, I'm going to miss the show a little bit.
A couple of weeks ago, we did an analysis of which shows' episode reviews get the most amount of page views at TV Squad. At the top of the list were three shows you'd expect to see: Idol, Lost, and 24. They were followed by The Office, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Grey's Anatomy. But at the top of the next tier, above shows that get much better Nielsen ratings, was Studio 60. Given the number of comments any S60 post gets, that result wasn't that big of a surprise. But what it did show was that, despite the crappy ratings, the show still drew a lot of attention and discussion, from people who both loved it and hated it.
I guarantee you that The Black Donnellys isn't going to generate that kind of discussion. It's not going to be a show that's "polarizing," as NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly called S60 at his TCA press tour session last month (in response to my question, by the way...). Heck, I don't even think that I'm going to watch the show, despite the fact that the pilot that was sent to critics over the summer was pretty good. It just isn't the type of show that will hold my interest every week.
But, despite its many flaws -- and Bob very eloquently went over them the other day, even if he did so in a snide, defensive manner -- S60 was still compelling TV, mainly because Aaron Sorkin was the one writing the episodes. Sorkin himself is compelling, from his tendency to write all the episodes solo, to his history of substance abuse, to the fact that the characters on the show were thinly-veiled versions of himself and people who have passed through his life, to his weirdly jaundiced and outdated view of the part of the United States that is east of California and west of New York City.
People who were unabashed fans of his (coughBobcough) defended the show until the last, but even they had to scratch their heads at times about some of the directions the show went in, plot-wise (I mean -- people from Columbus, OH have never heard of Abbott and Costello? Seriously?). Meanwhile, people who were lesser Sorkin fans had a field day, ripping any misstep while secretly hoping the show could reach the heights of Sorkin's movies (A Few Good Men, The American President) and his peak West Wing years. Not even Lost at its most mysterious could generate debate like one anti-Christian rant by Matt Albie or a bad sketch like "Science Schmience" could, and I'm going to miss that buzz. A lot.
Let's hope that NBC plays out the remaining Studio 60 episodes, even if they don't review the show. And have them give Sorkin another shot at bringing his viewpoint to the airwaves. I've come to learn that it's always welcome, even by the people who hate him. Maybe he just needs to change his viewpoint a little bit... a John Goodman-led show about Pahrump, NV, perhaps?
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