Have you ever had a band that you loves so much during their prime that you found yourself continuing to buy their new albums even after you’ve admitted to yourself that they suck now? Well, that’s how I am with “Studio 60″. I still feel compelled to watch it even though it’s obviously a mediocre show, but luckily for me, NBC is probably going to put me out of my misery :
One month later, it appears “Studio 60″ will be lucky to last the season. Since its premiere on Sept. 19, the pricey series has been shedding viewers weekly, and those who once saw Aaron Sorkin as the Arthur Miller of network drama grumble about the poor quality of the show’s comedy and the characters’ endless back-patting claims that said tepid comedy is in fact boundary-pushing, hilarious, edgy fare.
The latest episode featured a toothless, unfunny parody of Nancy Grace which was painful to watch. Hell, with the way Grace foams at the mouth every time someone accused of a crime is found “not guilty”, her show should be easy to parody, but the “Studio 60″ sketch was the Christian chick (a bland label for a bland character) wearing a wig and using a bad accent badgering someone about a lost cel phone. Not ready for primetime, indeed.
What was even more pathetic was the musical guest. For a show that is supposed to be “edgy” (or at least heading in that direction), why the hell would they feature Sting performing selections from his album of 16th-century lute music. It seemed like a third of the episode was Sting hyping his album while the various cast members stood around admiring his brilliance. Uggghhh…what’s wrong, were Bryan Adams and Eddie Money too busy to help contribute some of their cutting edge cred as well?
Speaking of horrible shows on NBC, can we talk a little about how horrible “Deal or No Deal” is? First of all, they took one of the all-time greatest game shows ever, “Let’s Make A Deal”, and squeezed out every drop of personality the show had. Instead we’re stuck with something that looks like a mishmash of every other primetime gameshow phenomenon, but without even the slightest bit of skill involved in winning the game. No trivia, no strategy, no challenges, it’s just trying to guess where that guy who used to put rubber gloves on his head is hiding the money. They might as well have a double-or-nothing, coin-flipping show or fast track “What Number Am I Thinking Of?” as a mid-season replacement.
Of course, the reason people get glued to the show is manufactured drama of deal-making, but even that aspect of the program is simple-minded and stupid. How can anyone watch more than ten minutes of the show before figuring out that “The Banker” is just counting the remaining cases and offering sums based solely on the odds. For example, if there are five cases left, you’ve got a one-in-five chance of winning the money, so they’ll offer you slightly less than one-fifth of the grand prize. It fairly simple math and it’s not much different than the way a casino’s games and allowed bets are always designed to give the house a slight edge. If “Deal or No Deal” were being played in Vegas, it would be like watching a stranger play a slow-motion craps game with only one bet and no dice.
Oh well, at least Heroes is good.