caz963 | Studio 60 1.04 - The West Coast Delay

Well, I think the ‘funny quotient’ was definitely higher this week. Possibly helped by the fact that we didn’t see too many lame sketches on the “show” itself. And by the fact that, as a teacher, I found the “ADD, ADHD” stuff highly amusing, because, well, yeah… I can’t honestly say I haven’t found myself thinking the same thing sometimes!

This, for me was the episode where the show really found it’s stride. It seemed sharper, there was plenty of funny and it really zipped along. Not that I haven’t enjoyed what we’ve seen so far, it was just that for some reason, this was the first time I’ve really sat up and thought “yes!”

Loved the scene where Harriet gives Matt the baseball bat - an “unromantic present”. She wants closure (yeah, right) and to move on – and he’s her boss which she says he sees as an “insurmountable obstacle” to dating her (hm… sound familiar?) The thing with the phone number was funny – “you gave me a used cocktail napkin, basically.” (bwah!)
Tom wants to be Matt’s wingman on the path of romance – and Matt can’t talk to Danny about Harriet because he (Danny) already thinks whatever’s going on (or not) between them is a problem. Tom has the stellar idea (!) that Matt should go get a stiletto boot signed by one of “The Bombshell Babes” to make Harriet jealous.
Matt’s so neurotic (in the midst of this, he’s thinking about punctuation!) – about Harriet and about the fact that he still has 12 minutes of material to write - that he thinks it’s a good idea! Luckily for him, he realizes it’s not.

ETA Thinking about this later, I do wonder where on earth Sorkin's going with this relationship. It's obvious they both care about each other, although at the moment it's more obvious on Matt's side. At some point, surely, Matt's either got to let it go, or let it rip him apart (his claims to showing leadership skills aside). Usually with two exes on a show, they're either still secretly pining for each other, or one is and one isn't or something like that, but this is absoutely not secret on Matt's part - she knows, everybody knows - I just wonder where it can go from here.

We saw what Ricky and Ron actually do this week, running the writers room, putting their hands up to the cock up with the news segment but refusing to give up the geek responsible – they’ve made their peace with Matt and Danny at last. Well sort of.

Tim Busfield directed – that made me happy. And I thought Cal absolutely rocked this episode. He has a great nonchalance about him – nothing seems to faze him:
Loved this exchange with Jordan after they discover the plagiarism and decide to cut into the feed:

Is this gonna work?

Sure.

You’ve done it before?

A hundred times. Well really no, never… but I can’t think what the problem’d be.

What could possibly go wrong…

There ya go!

It’s all in the delivery which was perfect.

No Danny until about half way through this week (don’t do that again, please!) although I guess I can live with it seeing as Brad more than made up for it when he finally showed up! Can someone please explain to me how he can make playing around with a stapler sexy? (Okay, okay – rhetorical question; answer – the same way he makes everything else he does look sexy…)
And I can’t think of a better way to describe the look on Danny’s face when he meets Martha than the way

bexatious said it, so I hope she won’t mind my quoting it – it was Brad’s I’ve just had sex with you in my head and now I need to go change my pants look. Although he clearly knows he’s been set up when he tells her “Nice rack, by the way – tell Jordan I’m not fifteen,” (I can’t help it, but the phrase “nice rack” coming out of ‘Josh’s’ mouth is just so wrong, despite his inner frat-boy!) – but Matt’s reaction next was perfect – introduced to her he just stares at the rack for a second before looking at her face!

It sounds as though Martha might be a recurring character – and it occurred to me – in the original script for the pilot, Danny’s date to the awards show was a journalist named Martha (I think). I wonder if, when that was cut, AS decided to keep the character to re-introduce later (or vice-versa) – in any case, there was a considerable amount of flirting going on, so I won’t be surprised if we see her again.

ETA (again) I've been told she is going to be a recurring character - good, because I liked her... but then - isn't this a big enough cast already?

In the light of all the recent talk about ratings and demographics… the stuff about the Vanity Fair “alpha” consumers seems very appropriate! “One of her readers is worth five of our viewers.” Heh.
Banter about the bat… Matt smashing the window… funny and another reason I thought the show was really on the mark this ep.

Brad and the baseball bat… Josh flashback – “Dude!”

And another one – making the Dean’s list… although Matt apparently made it eight times in a row…

Matt walks in on Harriet and the baseball player snogging. Poor baby – he looks utterly crushed. So pwned.

I really enjoyed the final section where they find out about the plagiarized sketch and have to re-do it – it was pacy – and Danny in complete control was, you know, hot! Danny slamming Ron against the wall… also hot. “I want someone’s ass on my desk!” (*jumps up* - me! pick me! – what do you mean he didn’t mean it like that?! damn!)

Danny tells Harriet to stop Simon eating the desk… and to stop making out with baseball players in front of Matt. And he’ll brook no argument. (= hot. Again.)

Tom – “Someone’ll tell us when the show’s over, right?” Fab.

But everything works out okay when they find out that the material wasn’t plagiarized at all and that Studio 60 owned the material in the first place. “Get Jordan a drink - send Jack Rudolph a nice thing of balloons.” Hee!
And a great last line. “This is not the comedy we intended to do when the week began.” Heh.

Loved it - and really think it's found its feet this week. Keep it up, Aaron!