Sketchy Sorkin

Near the beginning of last night’s Studio 60, network exec Jordan McDeere—after finding out that responses to a focus group question about the fictional comedy show’s patriotism split down party lines—asks something to the effect of “Since when did Democrat and Republican become demographic characteristics that television networks cared about?” It’s a good question, one that showrunner (and writer of last night’s episode) Aaron Sorkin might ask himself. Because, after three episodes of a show allegedly about the behind-the-scenes drama at a sketch comedy show, we’ve barely seen much that’s really about sketch comedy.

When Sorkin’s West Wing cast ran around D.C. spouting overly eloquent monologues in favor of liberal idealism, it made sense, because, well, it was a show about professional liberal idealists. (Whether Democratic operatives are actually such people is another question, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.) You expect a show about the inner workings of a Democratic Presidential Administration to be chock full of fluffy lefty boosterism; it goes with the milieu.

But now Sorkin’s writing a show about television—something into which you’d think he’d have some insight—and yet the characters spend a surprising amount of time engaged in dorm room cultural bull sessions that have little to do with the business of running a television show. From the three episodes we’ve seen, you’d think the single dominant challenge to getting a weekly sketch comedy show produced was prudish red state moralists making cranky calls to the local affiliates.

I loved Sorkin-era West Wing; I really did, and even though I strongly disagreed with 90% of the show’s underlying political assumptions, I loved that it was clever and earnest and made a genuine argument for the value of being smart and cultured. And when that show tried to make it seem as if many of the major difficultywith running the free world was the obstinacy of Republicans and capitalist goons, it made sense, because, from the perspective of a White House Democrat, it probably was.

But Studio 60 hasn’t bothered to change up the challenges with the setting, and as a result it’s coming off smug and kind of clueless. When Sorkin actually gets into the business of running a 90 minute live weekly TV show—surely not an easy task—it’s great. Mostly, however, his bashing of the political right feels forced. That’s not to say that I care a bit for our country’s legions of letter-writing, station-calling conservative scolds or that I’m a huge fan of Bush—I’m neither. But I do care for strong, smart television, and the gratuitous—and really, rather tired and uninteresting—politicization of entertainment that Sorkin’s engaging in is killing what ought to be a fun show.

Addendum: And come on, isn’t there plenty of juicy L.A./Hollywood material for him to scour? Do actors and actresses really sit around engaging in cutesy discussions about the plays high schools are banning? Or, more likely, are they out getting into trouble, making gossip headlines, engaging in prima donnaish antics, demanding absurd salary raises, and generally making mischief like the entitled and spoiled stars and starlets of the left coast glitterati they are? Or is a little Hollywood sin and turmoil too much to ask of Sorkin and his hopelessly blinkered belief in the essential goodness of people (or at least liberals)?