I’m only posting this so I can talk to people on the LJ comment feed about tonight’s Battlestar Galactica.
Category: Television
Court-mandated Studio 60 post
Okay, Sorkin. That time you set the bar.
Now clear it.
The Law of Meta
To do meta well, you must first do well the thing within. Checkerboard Nightmare did metahumor and it worked, because Kris Straub was already a skilled humorist; by contrast, almost all webcomics attempt it within their first couple of weeks and fail, because their creators haven’t developed any skill at comedy. So you can see why I’m worried about Studio 60.
Not that Aaron Sorkin’s not a funny writer–with Mitch Hurwitz out, he’s the funniest writer on network television–but he’s not a sketch writer. Sketch comedy is hard, and even harder to do consistently. The best writers in the history of the format have had a hit rate of maybe one in five; even in the age of viral video, the only success Saturday Night Live has found on the intertube was a fluke that relied on hip name-dropping and the tired joke of white guys and gangsta poseury. And that’s out of what, three hundred skits a year? William Hung has a better batting average.
Even if Studio 60 focuses mostly on the weekly downtime and not the show proper, eventually it’s going to have to back up its premise that Matt Albie is good at his job. That means showing us a sketch at least every few episodes. Last night they went as far as showing us the cold open, and it was just a joke they made five minutes earlier repeated to music. It was a nice dramatic moment, with the orchestra and the bold statement of purpose. But it wasn’t funny the second time through, or the third, or the tenth.
A special case of the Law of Meta is the Law of Writing A Character Who is a Writer. The law is: don’t. Doing so almost invariably turns into massive self-indulgence and, worse, annoys me. Even Sports Night couldn’t escape that toward the end. And given that Studio 60 is already nicking from SN (homage to Felicity Huffman, fights with Standards and Practices, I understand next episode the power goes out), well, you understand why I’m worried again.
But I want to see the next episode now.
Rob Thomas has been invited to my birthday party since 1998, of course, but I’m a little surprised myself that Jason Dohring is the first actor from Veronica Mars to be invited. Okay, that’s all. I’m done! I promise not to post about Veronica Mars anymore, even though it’s ALL I THINK ABOUT WHERE ARE THE NEW EPISODES WHERE WHERE
Also, added “my birthday party” to the War on Clarity.
Fuck the Olympics.
Tonight, pizza at 7, show at 8. Our place. You’re invited. Arrested Development: The Wake.
The shooting scripts for Firefly. I borrowed a book on television writing a while back and never read it; I think these will be more valuable.
I talk about television too much now.
The WB and UPN will merge in September, creating a new network called CW (because it’ll be jointly owned by CBS, which owns UPN, and Time Warner). Presumably this means a bold new vision of alternating teensoaps with incredibly-low-production-values “urban” sitcoms and wrestling. Also maybe Star Trek?
This actually is a fairly big shakeup in the electromagnetic spectrum–a lot of areas have stations allocated to both UPN and the WB. The WB reliably does better than UPN, so that’s probably the station where CW will reside in most markets. I think it’s obvious, when all the factors are considered, that the leftover stations should go to: me.
Seriously, the first thing I thought when I read that headline was “but–but–what will happen to Veronica Mars?”
Pop culture reference explosion! No links! BE YOUR OWN NAVIGATOR
For better or worse, (Ultimate) The Office is the new Arrested Development. The Tuesday Night Ballers gave it up after four episodes last year, when it came on after Scrubs; the first season was like watching a Christopher Guest movie with all the jokes surgically excised. But Yale, persistent fan, got Maria and me to try it again last week. And it got funny! Funny and poignant! They put the jokes back in!
It’s not as edgy or fast or thick as AD, and probably no show on network TV will be again. But it’s self-aware, filmed with handhelds, and clever. It’s good.
Also, I think Jim from the show is the subject of Jimmy Eat World’s name. Not because he eats the world. Because he angsts charmingly.