Okay So Here’s the Problem with Studio 60
October 3rd, 2006 by Evil Beet
It’s the same as the problem with Saturday Night Live.
The sketches aren’t funny.
Aaron Sorkin, we learn, has a weakness — other than crack cocaine, of course — and it’s sketch comedy. What makes the Sorkin thing work — fast-paced, pedantic, clipped dialogue — for whatever reason just doesn’t translate in the sketches on S60. I can’t quite pinpoint the problem, but I have a feeling Sorkin relies too heavily on an audience’s relationship with and empathy towards his characters, and you don’t get to build that in a sketch. Or maybe Sorkin himself relies too heavily on his own relationship with and empathy towards his characters, and he can’t write solid one-liners for two-dimensional characters he’ll never see again.
I gave him a pass last week on that Pirates of Penzance unfunniness, thinking he just had to get his feet under him, but it happened this week, again. I really, really like everything else about the show, but if the sketch comedy doesn’t actually become funny at some point, I’m going to have a lot of trouble tuning in each week to suspend my disbelief. Maybe time to change up your own writing staff, Aaron?
Update: America agrees with me. S60’s ratings are down 30% from its premiere, 17% from last week.
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