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Eric: Two things to know.
Hey gang. It's your old pal Eric, with some notes for you!
First and foremost, please be advised that for the foreseeable future, there will not be actual content laden posts on the weekends over here. (At least from me, and Weds is pretty darn slammed for time these days, so....) I'm clawing my way back into the light from the darkness, but that doesn't mean my days are completely open, and I'm going to need the weekends to get brain back, work on other things, spend (for the moment, telephonic) time with Weds, go to see movies with planes and snakes -- that kind of thing.
I am trying to hit each and every weekday on Websnark, moving forward (so long as I have something to actually write about. This isn't my job, and I'd rather miss a day or even a week than... well, suck. I hope those days are behind me, now). The weekends, not so much. However, for as long as I continue to have the will to keep the Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark going, this time, there will be updates on the weekends as well. (Right now, we're written and composed up through next Wednesday. By the end of this weekend I'd like to have a two week buffer going.)
Secondly... thanks to the power of Netflix, I have seen the pilot episode of Aaron Sorkin's next project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Aaron Sorkin still has it in spades.
And he is unafraid to laugh in the face of a network that ousted him, then came begging him to return two years later.
That is all. We'll see you on Monday.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at August 19, 2006 12:23 AM
Comments
Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at August 19, 2006 10:23 AM
Dude.
Comment from: John Troutman posted at August 19, 2006 10:51 AM
I dunno. Studio 60 has me on the fence right now, and I ADORED the West Wing (even, yes, a good deal of the "fucking Welles seasons"). If you look at the pilot for WW, you'll notice that - in addition to the great story and drama, there's a LOT of laughs. Studio 60... well... I can count the times I laughed on one hand. I just found it kind of dull. I'm hoping he gets into the swing of things by the next couple episodes, but one tends to expect Sorkin to be batting a thousand right out of the gate, and he really isn't so far.
Comment from: BigNickNewt posted at August 19, 2006 12:33 PM
Finally, working at a crappy third-rate NBC affiliate paid off and I was able to watch the pilot for 'Studio 60' a couple of months ago.
Originally I was worried that it would be a letdown compared to 'The West Wing' because it seems like a step down in scope from politics to television. One of the things I loved about WW was that so many times dealing with certain topics, you could feel how weighty they were and I found that I liked it more and more as the show went on, it heightened the drama that much more.
While 'Studio 60' *is* a step down in scope, it doesn't lessen the drama of it, thanks to the writing on Sorkin's part.
There were only two complaints I had about the show and since all I saw was the pilot, they could turn out to be relatively minor.
The first is the lack of an older, wiser character, a la Leo McGarry in WW or Isaac Jaffe in 'Sports Night'. While there was Judd Hirsch's character, he's ousted in the first ten minutes of the show and from what I've heard, there will be only sporadic appearances, if any.
Secondly, I was hoping to see a little more done with Timothy Busfield's character, Cal. Like I said earlier, I work at a third rate NBC affiliate, more specifically I work on the production side, ie. running camera, audio, floor manager, directing type stuff, so I identify a little more with his position and place in the show.
Another reason I was hoping for more with Timothy Busfield was because, hands down, Danny Concannon was my favorite WW character. There was just something about the way that Busfield played him that had the character speaking to me. You can't beat a rumpled, little bit cynical, though really rather sweet newspaper journalist.
Outside of those two things though, I have absolutely no complaints about the show and wouldn't be too surprised if it wound up being better than WW, though that would be a tough act to pull off.
Comment from: Lewis Powell posted at August 22, 2006 8:36 PM
1) Timothy Busfield desparately needs his beard back.
2) The plot of the pilot, relative to your description of Sorkin's departure from the network is reminiscent of the time he added a plot about how forumgoers are crazy because he tried to post in the TWoP forums and people didn't receive him well.
3) A Sorkin related post is a good excuse to mention that if you weave any more Sorkin-jargon into your snarking, I recommend "If you haven't seen X, then you haven't seen Shakespeare the way it's meant to be done"
Comment from: larksilver posted at August 23, 2006 10:29 AM
It's a new Aaron Sorkin show. I'll watch it.
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