Premier pick: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I took me awhile, but a few years ago, I finally "got" Aaron Sorkin. I'm not saying it all made sense, or looked nice, or felt good, but I was there. I was with it, there, in the moment.

The show was The West Wing, and after a four-hour marathon, I was hooked. Unfortunately, it was his last season on the show, but after going back and seeing those first incredible seasons, I knew I had found a writer I would follow almost anywhere. Not an actor, or a concept, or a genre, but a writer.

So is it any surprise that as soon as I heard about Studio 60, I was waiting in rapt anticipation? Not really.
Is it any surprise that as soon as I found out you could get the pilot from Netflix it went to the top of my queue?
Again, not really.
Was I disappointed?
Not really.

Here's what I like about Sorkin. It doesn't have to be original material, but it sure feels that way sometimes. A Few Good Men- it's a courtroom drama, we've all seen it, but it twists and turns the definition of guilt and responsibility around and up until it hits the ceiling... and breaks through. The American President- a romance. Pretty cliche until you start adding the politics and image sculpting in. Relationships are hard, policy is harder, both can be impossible.

And while we're on policy and politics, let's look at that good 'ole West Wing. I have NEVER seen a show on the silver or small screens that has made politics look as hard and as easy as that show did. It was fast, it didn't grind to a halt every time something had to be explained, it kept moving and somehow we all kept up. It made you think, and didn't assume you're a child. We're not talking about programming for the lowest denominator and how many shows can say that today?

But let's move on to the focus of this post, shall we?

The premise is simple, a show with-in a show. This is simple. Get the show on the air, keep the show on the air. Period. End of story. Beginning of drama. We've seen it in sitcoms (Murphy Brown) we've seen it in drama (Network) and now we get to see it in both. Because like all TV a la Sorkin, there is plenty to laugh at in Studio 60, and more drama than you can shake your remote at. It's been said before, and I'm sure will be said again, but what Sorkin did for politics in The West Wing, he's doing for TV. Is he preaching? Um, yeah. If you've seen Judd Hirsh's on-air rant you catch on pretty quick, and to say that Sorkin and his co-exec and director Tommy Schlamme are bringing a little real-life baggage to the project is an understatement, but who said truth was any less strange or fascinating than fiction?

The casting. Ensemble, if we're banking on anything, we're banking on Sorkin's name, not the cast's. Not that they're nobodies. Timothy Busfield and Bradley Whitford are Sorkin vets, and any one who hasn't seen Friends and Matthew Perry during its run has been living in a world without TV for over a decade now and I can't help you. Stephen Weber is a solid actor, as are most of the others.

Our weak point here is going to be Amanda Peet. Not that she's bad, I think she just has the farthest to go. Her character's a hard one, the executive who's going to be the push and pull on the show. She's going to be defending the Whitford and Perry characters while trying to keep them from going too far at the same time, and that's not a easy feat to portray. And she's young, as her character is written, and that adds another level of difficulty. Do I think she can do it? Yeah, but I think she's going to need an episode or two to get the kinks ironed out. Also to watch: The characters who play the "Big Three," or the three lead actors on the show, D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson and Nathan Corddry. We didn't see much of them in the pilot, but they will have a huge influence on the upcoming plots as they seem to have a great deal of influence, if not outright pull with their fellow castmates and the network.

I'm hooked, and I'm OK with that. But I'm picky and I have very high expectations for this show, as do most of the critics I've read. It's a long fall... let's hope we don't go over the cliff.