David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. As NBC giveth, Fox taketh away
The Aaron Sorkin Schadenfreude Express ground to a halt today as NBC decidedly, finally, to pick up "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" for the remainder of the season.
Its timeslot competition, ABC's "What About Brian," also received an order for a complete season, despite even more anemic ratings. But both networks have bigger problems, so they'll attend to those and keep these folks employed for a few more months.
Meanwhile, "Justice" is dead, again. After getting yanked from its Wednesday timeslot and getting sat on the bench to think things over, it has now been relinquished of its Monday-at-9 timeslot, as well. "House" reruns will fill the space in the interim. ("House" repeats will soon be blanketing Fox's schedule.)
NBC's Kevin Reilly, in announcing "Studio 60's" pickup, told Daily Variety, "It's a bull's-eye at the core of our brand. I love the talent onscreen and off, and I want to give it the full season to work it out and fully discover its audience." Or, more precisely, allow the audience to discover it.
But I agree with Reilly on one thing - the cast is compulsively watchable. Unfortunately, what they're made to do isn't, always (this week's episode, with Nathan Corddry's character suffering through an escalating series of woes after defending Sarah Paulson's Harriet against an angry fan, clearly wanted to ape the mechanics of farce; unfortunately, Sorkin doesn't do farce. Also, it's interesting that so much time was devoted to a sketch that wasn't funny. Meanwhile, the (not so) big question was: Will they be able to put on a show? One of the things that's kind of cloying about "Studio 60" is its clinging to the notion that all involved are living in a halcyon age; you can already see them in the future all saying to one another, "Those were the days" - and maybe that's the trouble; maybe they need tougher roadblocks that really challenge their bulletproof natures). And yet despite frequent declarations that I'm through with the show, I keep getting dragged back.
But this hurts "Friday Night Lights," which proved two weeks back it could do better in a different time slot. Mondays at 10 ain't gonna be it.
Comments
Hey, I'm there. I really like "Studio 60." So, yay for the pickup!
Posted by: Suay Q | November 10, 2006 9:07 PM