August 2006

There were 12 posts published in August 2006 (this is page 2 of 2).

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – Complete Pilot Episode

Aaron Sorkin has a new show debuting on NBC in a few weeks. It’s a sort of “behind the scenes at Saturday Night Live” show with the terrible title Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Now, I’ve complained a lot about Aaron Sorkin in the past. His dialogue is mannered. His characters all have IQs of 185. He steeps his stories in politics. But the thing of it is: I love his work. For all its annoying flaws, I love his writing. Nobody on TV writes like he does.

Someone on YouTube has posted the complete pilot to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Kris and I watched it tonight before NBC had a chance to cease-and-desist it. (Who knows, though? Maybe NBC actually seeded it there. That would be some smart marketing, I think.) Here are the five files that make up the show. So long as they’re still posted at YouTube, you’ll be able to watch them here:

The pilot has its moments. Kris and I were both giving each other looks over the Network-esque opening, though it would have been nice if the show didn’t devote thirty seconds to telegraphing this homage to the general audience. (Come on, Sorkin — you’ve trusted your viewers in the past, do it again. We see it. We see it.)

The pilot has some rough spots, too. I like the woman who plays Jordan, but she doesn’t seem strong enough somehow. “It’s because she’s wearing that dress,” Kris told me. But it’s not. It’s just her voice isn’t strong enough. Give me Natalie from Sports Night! Or Felicity Huffman.

Speaking of which: one of the joys of an Aaron Sorkin show is watching his ensemble, that group of actors that follows him around from place-to-place. It’s like being with old friends. Hell, this whole show is like being with old friends.

Currently I watch a grand total of zero television shows. (I download Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who and sometimes NBC’s The Office.) Beginning September 1st at 10pm, that number will increase to a grand total of one.

(Will you look at this, NBC? Somebody posts the damn show early and I devote and entire blog entry to promoting it. That’s free advertising, you idiots. Free advertising! Stop the presses! In a sign that Big Media might finally be “getting it”, NBC has released the pilot episode on DVD to Netflix subscribers — this YouTube plant may indeed be their own.)

Not Writing

I feel like my life is so busy that I ought to have plenty to write about.

I could write about Kris’ tom-astrophe last night — all of her ginormous tomato trees collapsed under the mass of an overhead watering, which resulted in a panicked and futile attempt to stand them up again — but she’s prohibited me from mentioning it.

I could write about poor Tiffany’s nightmare evening — she came home to find big, lovable Porter (my favorite of her four cats) with some sort of respiratory failure, rushed him to the vet, learned he had lymphoma, and had to put him down — but the thought of it makes me sad.

I could write about my sleep problems — I got a new mask for the C-PAP machine but it sucks, I haven’t been getting to bed on-time, and my rest has been fitful — but that bores even me.

I could write about all of my weblogs — Animal Intelligence is now up and in testing, Get Rich Slowly was on Metafilter yesterday (which makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside), and Four Color Comics is experiencing a re-birth — but I write about that sort of stuff enough already.

I could write about how I’m starting another diet, about how the kittens and the chicken continue to live in harmony, about how Simon climbed on to the roof of the house, about how I’ve been rather busy at Custom Box lately, about how Kris and I have learned we need a picnic table at Rosings park, about our upcoming trip to San Francisco. I could write about all of that.

But I’m tired. So I won’t.