Another Heroes/Studio 60 bitch-fest
I’m done with Heroes. Done. As in, “I’m not going to watch Heroes anymore.†Nothing happens, and when when it appears like something is happening it’s usually cloaked in so many layers of pseudo-mysterious nonsense that you walk away wondering why it is you decided to watch television that night in the first place. There’s too many characters. When we follow the good ones, things seem promising but then we leave and start following around the professor’s son and that girl who looks like a low-rent Ginnifer Goodwin and I’m simultaneously infuriated because they couldn’t be more boring, even if they are trying to save the universe, and because every word that comes out of their mouths sounds like it was written by George Lucas when he was nine. And is it just me or does anyone else want Greg Grunberg to just be funny?
Of course, it couldn’t just all end there, allowing myself to wash my hands of the whole mess. No, the last two minutes had to include a reveal of Claire (man, they’re even ripping the names off from Lost), the cheerleader who owns no other clothes, awaking on a surgery table after getting a stick jammed through her head, pulling the stick out and then realizing that her entire chest had been removed during some sort of autopsy. That, my friends, was god-damn awesome, and even though I’m DONE with Heroes I might check back in next week to see what happens. Y’know, just to make sure she’s OK.
Studio 60… wasn’t as infuriating. The show is still week-to-week with me, but I found myself entertained enough to want to see another episode. Others, it seems, are a little more on the verge of jumping ship, but they also seem to know much more about Mr. Sorkin’s past than I. Though if you find yourself bored with this version of a fake SNL, here’s a fun game to play: in all of the scenes with “Ricky and Ron,” the two hacky writers, just stare at Carlos Jacott (the one with hair) and his almost freakish absence of lines. I think he has maybe said two things since the show started a month ago.
Whatever. 30 Rock starts tomorrow. Let’s focus on that.
October 11th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Studio 60 is so frustrating for me. They never should show any “complete” comedy on the show … ever. It’s been a mistake from day one and will continue to be a mistake until they stop it. Not only are the jokes and sketches being presented to us, the TV home audience (not just the Studio 60 in-studio audience) as being hilarious, not hilarious, they shouldn’t be presented to us AT ALL. The comedy is terrible. (Simliarly, see Love Monkey with respect to music.) And if you don’t buy the hilarious comedy that is supposed to exist in this universe, it makes the whole universe, even the cool parts, so hard to swallow.
Take a cue from Larry Sanders, and show “half jokes.” You show a sketch idea being worked out, then cut away before the premise is finalized. You show a punchline, or half a punchline but not the setup (and then, as an added bonus, you can get a Family Guy joke). I never watched the West Wing, but I’m told that they never showed that sweeping Campaign Finance bill in action after the compelling fight to get it approved. Stop. Just stop. Stop it. (Or, if you’re going to continue down this path, hire more comedy writers than just Mark McKinney to write your “comedy” for you).
The plagiarism thread was interesting. But that’s what they plagiarized? That’s what Matthew Perry’s supposedly brilliant character thinks is funny?
Conversely, I really liked the 30 Rock pilot. The tone is great. I could do with a little less Tina Fey, but whatever. They do present “comedy” on the show, but they frame it with self-parody, which makes the “comedy” irrelevant. I’m pissed off. Sorry for the rant. Who’d've thunk this would be the better of the two? Certainly not I (before). Probably I now.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Well said.
I haven’t seen 30 Rock yet, you sly devil, though I read that Tracy Morgen starts to take the show over in the second episode. Tracy Morgen: rated, or underrated? Thoughts…?
October 20th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
[...] All week at work, people have been coming up to me asking, “SO! Didja see Heroes this week? Didja, didja, didja!?” See, my work is what I would consider a network-television-executive’s wetdream, as we have text-book “water-cooler talk.” Its seems that the ultimate goal in this day and age of serialized super-dramas is the hope that people will talk about your show the next day. Ratings? Well, that’s important too, but really what everyone seems to be after is buzz, which conveniently enough, can lead to ratings. Heroes, for all of its missteps, definitely has buzz. It also, unfortunately for NBC, seems to be the only new show people are watching. Either way, I had extremely high hopes for this week’s episode, especially given the fact that two weeks ago I swore I was done with the show altogether. My thoughts are available in convenience “word form” after the jump… [...]