Once more unto the breach
Short assessment:
Well, as an ex-girlfriend's grandmother used to say, hit your head against the wall . . . it'll feel good when you stop. They left the atrocious attempts at sketch comedy out of this one, so that was an improvement.
But . . . dear God how insufferable Aaron Sorkin must be in person if he writes stuff like this. The rube parents from the heartland whose cast-member son turns out to have been funding body armor for his brother's military unit in Afghanistan, the whole clichéd business about finding a new black writer . . . that concludes with the black cast member, Simon, informing the unsuspecting guy that he has just been hired, then giving him a condescending little "work hard" speech and throwing a "boy" in there for good measure. Charming. Normally the approach is to offer someone a job—is it impossible to write an entertaining scene where they treat the guy like any other talent they would be trying to recruit? When was the last time someone trying to recruit you took the approach that they were doing you a huge favor? Exactly. I'm embarrassed for the writers of this show, I really am. The irony is that on a meta level this plotline provides its own best proof of the point it wants to make about the need for black writers—I really doubt black people were involved in creating the "you just got hired" scene. (Oh, and Simon would still be guilty of conspiracy to commit murder since he certainly didn't meet the standard for abandonment. Small detail.)
Unintended laugh line of the episode: "You're standing in the middle of the Paris Opera House of American television!"
Sacrebleu!
Labels: Studio 60, television
posted at 9:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home