But? There's always a but. When this is over, can we have a big 'but' moratorium?

Fred ,'Smile Time'


Natter 47: My Brilliance Is Wasted On You People  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Amy - Oct 24, 2006 4:40:04 am PDT #5249 of 10001
Because books.

Matthew Perry is totally the yum. It's surreal to watch reruns of Friends on TBS for the hour preceding Studio 60, in a fun way.

I got the war veteran stuff as you explained it, but I guess that was my point -- there *was* no point to it other than to outline things we're supposed to know about these characters. And it was done in a monologue rather than through action, which grates.

And the bit about the networks fearing government censure, and blah blah? Yawn. I don't know why it matters so much to me, but as others have said, they're not saving lives. It's TV. It's sketch TV. It's ... art about art. TV about TV. And it's boring me.

Also, I was never a West Wing fan, so this is the first Sorkin show I've ever watched.


sumi - Oct 24, 2006 4:50:51 am PDT #5250 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!

You know, stuff happened on the West Wing. Nothing really happens on this show.


sarameg - Oct 24, 2006 5:06:53 am PDT #5251 of 10001

From Tom's article

"Once, when we radioed her to please leave the lecturing and hypothesis-making to the mission project team, she responded by forming her robotic arm into an obscene gesture," Banerdt said. "That arm contains a state-of-the-art spectrometer meant to provide crucial mineralogy data."

lori!


Jessica - Oct 24, 2006 5:16:49 am PDT #5252 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I would really like S60 to be cancelled so I can stop watching it. It's not even a love/hate relationship at this point, it's an unhealthy-fascination/hate relationship. And I haven't even seen last night's ep!


§ ita § - Oct 24, 2006 5:31:50 am PDT #5253 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Jessica, you've got to start being more responsible with your television intake. You're watching for two now.


amych - Oct 24, 2006 5:42:08 am PDT #5254 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

What ita says is true, but I really think you do them a disservice by overprotecting them too much -- If they're not exposed to some bad early on, they'll never build up a good immunity and learn to snark properly!


bon bon - Oct 24, 2006 5:44:10 am PDT #5255 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

Oh thank god we're on similar pages regarding Studio 60. I should say, Bob and I watch it religiously in the Sorkin sense, in that we're stupefyingly obsessive about a show we despise. It takes about an hour and a half to watch because I have to pause it every minute to laugh hysterically and/or put my face in my hand and let Bob do bits.

Last night when the parents from Columbus said "we felt like bigshots!" I turned to Bob and said, "oh, I get it, that's because they're from Columbus, but they are from Columbus in the Depression! My thought was confirmed when two people from Columbus (1) were incredibly thoughtlessly racist (2) birthed one of the three biggest stars on a broadcast network's flagship show (that airs on Friday, when everyone's watching television!) and didn't know what show he was on (3) thought that a Gypsy Rose Lee reference meant their son was hanging out with strippers (4) didn't know Who's On First, not to mention Abbott & Costello and (5) all of this was because they had a son who was a soldier. Because that makes sense.

But then when Eli Wallach showed up and apparently Bud Friedman had influence over someone who was paid to make people laugh, not to mention booked a comic from the 1980s, I thought "this is some sophisticated narrative where they're showing the events from the POV of a bunch of time travelers from the 30s, 50s and 80s!"

I had to change my mind when one of the most powerful women in Hollywood turned into a Sorkinesque bundle of need in front of her employees; the only black character turned out to have been almost involved in a murder from the ghetto; three women in Hollywood had no idea what a director, writer and executive producer were; a $300K contract was given to a man who couldn't write funny standup, let alone sketches, because he was black and talked about race (hey, look, I found someone who is a funny black comedian in LA, it's not hard at all: [link] the youngest member of a sketch show had his parents show up to a wrap party and then claims in all seriousness that Who's on First will make someone laugh for days and days-- that's when I realized that it's more the case that Sorkin doesn't know anything about people, places, and things.


tommyrot - Oct 24, 2006 5:44:14 am PDT #5256 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

What ita says is true, but I really think you do them a disservice by overprotecting them too much -- If they're not exposed to some bad early on, they'll never build up a good immunity and learn to snark properly!

Yeah, whatever doesn't kill them makes them stronger.


shrift - Oct 24, 2006 5:45:02 am PDT #5257 of 10001
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty

I'm behind on Studio 60. Last night I chose to watch Torchwood instead.

The giant cup of coffee I consumed please to kick in any time now. Aaaaany time...


Jessica - Oct 24, 2006 5:45:20 am PDT #5258 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

If they're not exposed to some bad early on, they'll never build up a good immunity and learn to snark properly!

Oh not to worry -- we're still watching Survivor, after all.