Watching Studio60

As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from Studio 60’s fourth episode, “The West Coast Delay.”

Ricky: Ninety seconds. That’s what he’s asked for. Ninety seconds of material from the writer’s room. Was the request patronizing and a veiled insult? I think so.
Ron: I don’t think the insult was that veiled.
Ricky: Me neither. But not being able to contribute 90 seconds to a 90-minute telecast is a good way to demonstrate that we’re people who should be insulted.

Ricky: If we’re going to do a sketch calling the president of this network a drunken sex addict, I’m not going to be the one to write it.
Writer: It’s self-deprecating!
Ron: Self-deprecating would be if we were drunken sex addicts.

Ricky: (reading from Hal’s computer) “At schools today, all the kids are diagnosed with stuff like dyslexia, hyperlexia, ADD, ADHD. In my day, you were just stupid. ‘What’s wrong with my son? Oh, him? He’s stupid.’ Next! America’s the most overweight nation in the world. We’ve got so much food here, we drop it on people along with bombs. If you really wanna mess with somebody’s head, drop a cruise missile and a couple of tons of Hot Pockets on their ass.”

Harriet: I want you to tell me that you have no intention of trying to win me back.
Matt: Well, we have a problem there.
Harriet: Yes, I know. You’re a northeastern Jewish liberal atheist and I’m a Southern Baptist who believes that you’re going to burn in hell.
Matt: Two problems.

Harriet: So, we have closure.
Matt: Yes.
Harriet: We are closed.
Matt: You feel alright about it?
Harriet: I’d feel better if you appeared even a little ambivalent.
Matt: I’m extremely ambivalent. What I’m exhibiting are leadership skills.
Harriet: Well done.

Harriet: That’s his phone number?
Matt: What did you think it was?
Harriet: I just thought it was his uniform number. You know, they sign their name, and then write the number.
Matt: Yeah, they do do that. You thought his uniform number was 3,106,786,5– He was asking you out!

Matt: You gave me a used cocktail napkin, basically.

Harriet: I didn’t give it to you on purpose!
Matt: You put a ribbon on it, knocked on my door, and handed it to me.

Matt: He’s a pitcher! You know what his job is when he comes to the plate? Stick out his bat and hope for the off-chance that the ball will accidentally hit it on its way to the catcher’s mitt.

Harriet: Are we done?
Matt: I’m certain we’re not!

(more…)

We’re taking a second look at “The West Coast Delay,” the fourth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on October 9, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in tomorrow for a listing of memorable lines, and Saturday for five questions.

Apparently, Matt took Danny’s directive from the last episode to heart, because he’s asked the writer’s room to contribute to the coming week’s Studio 60. Well, to contribute 90 seconds worth of material. But hey, you gotta start somewhere! Ricky and Ron are aware of the need for those 90 seconds to be top-notch if they’re ever going to get 90 seconds more, and when one of the writers submits a little “News 60″ rant for Simon, it seems they’ve found their material. Boy, that was easy. Maybe … a little too easy?

Not easy at all is Harriet’s effort to get some relationship closure with Matt. She brings him a peace offering — a baseball bat, signed by a pitcher. Unfortunately, though, said pitcher also wrote his phone number upon it, and is now going out with Harriet. Matt pays plenty of lip service to the notion that he shouldn’t date Harriet while he’s her boss, but the bat makes him batty. Not much closure going on there.

Jordan wishes she had more closure with her former husband, who’s opened up their past and his imagination to profit from embarrassing stories about his exec ex. She talks about it over lunch with her friend Martha O’Dell, but unless they’re on the record, Martha gives no advice. So they’re on to the business at hand, which is that Martha wants to do a backstage story on Studio 60 for Vanity Fair, and that involves full access and the agreement of Matt and Danny. Jordan has an idea that if Martha just buttons her blouse a few buttons lower, the OK will be easy to get.

Matt does give the OK to the 90 seconds Ricky and Ron bring him, and presents it to Simon. Since the whole cast is gathered in Harriet’s room at the time, and there’s the usual amount of awkwardness between her and Matt, Tom decides the time has come for him to guide Matt on the ways of women. He’s got lots of alleged experience based on his breakup with a woman named Paula, and his advice somehow involves both Strindberg plays and a singing group called the Bombshell Babies.

(more…)

Last night, I continued my DVD episode-a-week viewing with “The West Coast Delay.” Did you join me? I’ll share some initial thoughts here, then continue with a recap, memorable lines, and five questions as the week goes on.

After a little break from Matt-Harriet bickering last week, their ongoing love-hate relationship blossomed anew in this episode. Those crazy kids just can’t leave each other alone, can they? It was worth it, though, to see Tom tagging along as Matt’s “wingman.” If Tom’s your wingman, you’re in more trouble than you thought, I think. You don’t have to find yourself getting a stiletto boot autographed to know that.

“The West Coast Delay” marks the debut of the Martha O’Dell storyline, which sort of went nowhere but allowed for the amusing presence of Christine Lahti. Didn’t do them all that much of a favor when she found that online video, did she? Maybe if it had taken more time to find it, and they hadn’t been able to break into the West Coast feed, the whole runaround could have been undertaken more privately.

But the technical demands did make for some fairly adorable Cal scenes. I just love Timothy Busfield’s unruffled acting and “oh, well” tone when things keep going wrong. Nice to have somebody who’s not going to panic in charge of the panic-worthy side of the show.

Poor Jordan’s having the wind knocked out of her by this ex-husband thing, and just when she’d built up such a nice amount of speed. This is why I could never be a celebrity or high-profile personage: The possibility of significant public embarrassment would make it impossible for me to get out of bed in the morning. Jordan and Danny sure are continuing to be cute together, though, in these small doses. I’m still buying the after-the-fact revelation that Jordan fell for him from the start.

And way for the writer’s room to drop the ball when Matt finally tosses it to them. Would have been nice to take advantage of Ricky and Ron’s offer to resign, but they’ll be gone soon enough. Along with everybody but Lucy. Good riddance to ya!

What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Studio 60, NBC, The West Coast Delay, commentary

It’s about half an hour away from 10 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast, at which time I’ll be continuing my trip through the Studio 60 DVD with a replay of “The West Coast Delay.” Watch it with me, or at whatever delay suits you, and come back throughout the week for a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

To kill these few minutes ’til showtime, here are some excerpts from reviews of The Farnsworth Invention. Sounds like the standard-issue Sorkin complaints, the kind of pans that make it sound like I’d kinda like it. If you’ve seen the play, share your review in the comments.

“You’re likely to leave ‘The Farnsworth Invention’ feeling that you have just watched an animated Wikipedia entry, fleshed out with the sort of anecdotal scenes that figure in ‘re-enactments’ on E! channel documentaries and true-crime shows. This two-hour play is a fast-moving sequence of reflex-stimulating information- and emotion-bites. It never pauses long enough to find depth in any of them.” — New York Times

“Breezy and shrewd, smart-alecky and idealistic, the quick-moving drama presents two sides to the still-contentious story behind the invention of television. Sorkin is positively gooey-eyed about the scientific and entrepreneurial buccaneers in America between the world wars. As the creator of ‘West Wing,’ arguably the best expository political fiction on popular TV, he manages to relate both to the purity of the little guy and the corrupting happenstance of big-foot corporate power.” — Newsday

“Chronicling the birth of television and the ensuing patent war through the clash between an enterprising scientific genius from Utah and a Russian immigrant turned hard-nosed corporate honcho, ‘The Farnsworth Invention’ tells a fascinating story. But despite Des McAnuff’s stylish production, tells is the key word here, not dramatizes. Aaron Sorkin’s first new play since ‘A Few Good Men’ in 1989 was originally conceived as a screenplay. The plot-heavy drama is light on fully fleshed-out characters or subtext, making it likely to play more satisfyingly when it inevitably reverts to being a film or cable project.” — Variety

“The Farnsworth Invention, Aaron Sorkin’s new Broadway play about the genesis of television, is propulsive, pedantic, occasionally gimmicky (and always unashamed when it is), very clever (though a crucial 5 percent less clever than it thinks it is), hokily grandiose, and blaringly self-aware. The drama, with its bits of verbal brilliance and its throbbing narcissistic flaws, is of a piece with Sports Night and The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the series that have made Sorkin a household name in certain demographically desirable households.” — Slate

“Fans of The West Wing are familiar with Aaron Sorkin’s fondness for smooth talkers, rat-a-tat dialogue, and trivia from the margins of history. And Sorkin’s new play The Farnsworth Invention — his first on Broadway since his explosive 1989 debut, A Few Good Men — seems to be built entirely from the sort of anecdotal aside that Josh or Toby might have relished: A mostly self-educated Utah boy named Philo T. Farnsworth (Jimmi Simpson, resembling a younger Christian Slater) invented most of the technology behind modern television, but then lost the credit — and the fortune — in legal wrangling over his patents and died a broken man. His story is told in counterpoint to that of the budding telegraph-radio-television mogul David Sarnoff (an engaging Hank Azaria). — Entertainment Weekly

Amanda Peet, who played network honcho Jordan McDeere on Studio 60, is set to appear as a different sort of suit in the new X-Files movie, due out some time next year. She and rapper Xzibit will team up as FBI agents working with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, in their well-worn roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

According to an E! Online report, not much is known of the new film except that it will focus more on solving a specific case of unexplainable activity as opposed to extending the mythology of the series, as the first film from the franchise did. The only other cast member announced thus far is Billy Connolly, in a role that has not been announced.

Peet was seen recently in Martian Child, which sounds like it could be a case for the X-Files, come to think of it. The domestic drama with John Cusack didn’t exactly burn up the box office or make a big impression critics. I’ll admit that, though I was very interested in seeing it, I didn’t make it to the multiplex. I’m hoping now to catch it on cable.

Also on Peet’s upcoming movie slate, according to IMDb, are Five Dollars a Day with Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone; Safety Glass with Hillary Duff; Defunct with Shannen Doherty; and Real Men Cry with Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo. Making movies with Hillary Duff and Shannen Doherty doesn’t sound to me like a real strong career move — but then, taking a series with Sorkin should have meant longtime employment, so there’s apparently no accounting for what will make a hit.

Studio 60, NBC, Amanda Peet, X Files

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the second Studio 60 episode, “The Focus Group”:

1. Are people really that interested in the salacious pasts of network executives? It’s hard for me to imagine a book about life as the spouse of a network president would gain much traction in a world where big names like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are willing to embarrass themselves pretty much at the drop of a hat. I could see him self-publishing as a book, but getting people to pay for it on the internet? Not unless there were pictures.

2. Does Jordan really look like “one of them”? That’s what Danny said — “You look like one of them, but you talk like one of us.” But I don’t know. I mentioned last week that her work wardrobe was unsuitably un-suit-like, and it continued this week with that … what was it, a blouse with a sweater tied around her neck? And her dress at the wrap party didn’t read all that “big powerful boss lady” to me, either. Interesting wardrobe choices, I guess. I don’t know that she looks like one of us, but she doesn’t look like one of them.

3. Why is Shelly such a sourpuss? What an unpleasant woman. She obviously can’t stand Jordan, because she’s been sniping at her since that first dinner, when Jordan was so bold as to compliment the caterers. But she snipes at Jack, too. Maybe that’s why her character sort of disappeared somewhere along the way.

4. How many hits did the Wikipedia entry for “commedia dell’arte” get on the night this aired? I’m thinking a whole bunch of critics wanted to at least make sure they were spelling it right. And that they could criticize its use in the show while still placing it in its proper historical context.

5. Did they have to pay Gwen Stefani to use her name? It was announced that she was the musical guest, we saw Rob Reiner introduce her, but unlike, say, Sting in a later episode, we never saw her sing. Are you allowed to just allude to the presence of known musicians and actors without compensation, or did they have to pay some kind of name-checking fee? Who knows, in these days of product placement, maybe Stefani’s people paid them.

Studio 60, NBC, The Focus Group, commentary

According to the More4 site, “K&R Part 2″ was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in June in the U.S. For those who want to read what was written about this episode when it was first broadcast, here are links to reviews, recaps and forum discussions on:

• Entertainment Weekly
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “K&R Part 2″ six months ago, it was the second of three “K&R” episodes — “K&R” meaning “kidnap and rescue,” and referring to the abduction of Tom’s brother by terrorists in Afghanistan and the possibility of NBS paying ransom to get him back, abetted by the blonde lawyer who’s been hanging around flirting with Matt. But despite being the 2 of K&Rs 1 through 3, this was actually the third in a five-episode arc that started with “Breaking News” and ended with the series finale, “What Kind of Day Has It Been.”

And yes, I did pick up the preceding paragraph pretty much verbatim from last week’s look back at Part 1. This whole blob of episodes really flow into each other, both in plot and in my memory. So that story description above keeps on working pretty much through the very end of the series, and I’m going to stick with it.

The biggest development differentiating this episode from its fellow plot puzzle pieces is Simon’s stupendous PR implosion. He was just supposed to step outside the studio, speak to a friendly reporter to correct a story alleging that Tom and his brother were on the outs, and step back inside. But he got caught by less-friendly press vultures, and by the time it was over, he was pretty much blaming the American public for the war and allying himself with the Taliban. Well, not really, but sound-byte-wise, totally. Hey, thanks for helping!

Meanwhile, Jordan’s still in the OR, having complications and no screen time; Harriet and Matt are giving Danny moral support, in a bickering sort of way; the flashbacks to post 9/11 comedy qualms just keep a-comin’; and we’re still hanging from that darned cliff.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part 2

As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from Studio 60’s third episode, “The Focus Group.”

Jordan: Can I also say L.A. focus groups are the most useless? Listen to them. Those are unemployed writers and directors in there who are trying to impress me because they know I’m standing back here. They’re unemployed for a reason, and they’ll stay unemployed. Even if they could properly place commedia dell’arte in 17th-century Italy.
Jack: There’s no other television network at which this conversation is taking place.

Jordan: We pay people $40 and a sandwich to tell us how to do our jobs?

Danny: Can we get her a witch’s hat that’s not two sizes too big?
Harriet: This is how we’re wearing them today.

Matt: Harriet, you say a word, any word at all about God not liking to be mocked …
Harriet (in Holly Hunter voice): You know what? I think you’re the devil.

Simon: Where did we get these candles from?
Harriet: The PAs ran out to the store.
Simon: Did they go to the Phantom of the Opera House of Crap?

Ricky: How are our two new anchors?
Simon: I’m scared out of my mind.
Ricky: Well, you should be. News 60’s been the centerpiece of the show for twenty years. It makes or breaks stars and the show lives or dies with its success or failure. Plus, Simon, you’re the first black anchor we’ve ever had.
Simon: I meant I was scared of the dark, but now it’s what you just said.

Ricky: You think there’s any chance you might come down off your horse and stop being pissed at us for something that happened four years ago, and work with us?
Matt: Not a big chance, no.
Ricky: You want us to quit?
Matt: Badly. You think it’s going to happen?
Ricky: Not a big chance, no.

(more…)

We’re taking a second look at “The Focus Group,” the third episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on October 2, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in tomorrow for a listing of memorable lines, and Saturday for five questions.

The episode starts with the familiar Studio 60 closing music and goodnights, but we’re not at the end of the live show. We’re at the end of the show being shown to a focus group, from whom opinions are now solicited on what they didn’t like. The first commenter starts out by saying he thought the show was terrific, better than ever, but surely the guy in charge will get him to hate something. Before we can hear much more, though, we’re in another room watching Jack and Jordan watch the focus group, with Ricky and Ron (Evan Handler and Carlos Jacott, above) in attendance as well. Because she’s not a cynical suit but someone who’s for real, Jordan is annoyed by the whole focus group process, as well as by the fact that nobody seems to be able to properly place Commedia dell’Arte in theatrical history.

The four of them walk and talk their way back to Jack’s office, where there’s more discussion of the focus-group process, the results from other groups already surveyed, the split response on the question of whether Studio 60 is sufficiently patriotic, and the need for Ricky and Ron to take the results back to Matt and Danny, and make sure they pay particular attention to that patriotism question. Jordan would probably have something to say about that, but she’s distracted by the sight of her mug shot on the TV news. True to Shelly’s word, her enemies are already digging up dirt.

And now, there’s a title card telling us it’s Monday, and we’re onstage at Studio 60 watching a sketch called “Science, Schmience” take shape. Rob Reiner is onboard as guest host, and in this sketch he’s playing a rabbi on a panel with a Muslim cleric, an evangelical college student, Tom Cruise, and a witch for a game show that capitalizes on their contempt for science.

It’s a funny sketch, but Matt’s still changing lines, Danny would like wardrobe to find a witch hat for Harriet that doesn’t cover her face, Harriet would like to do the whole thing in a Holly Hunter voice, the voice work of the cast member playing Tom Cruise could use some work, and, oh yeah, the power is going on and off randomly. Just another stress-free day of putting on a show.

(more…)

So, I wonder what the focus group results looked like for Studio 60. More comedy? Less tortured romance? More behind-the-scenes? Less preaching? A lot of let’s-put-on-a-show got packed into “The Focus Group,” without any significant Matt-Harriet bickering over faith or fidelity.

Well, alright, Harriet did say she thought Matt was the devil. But she was using her Holly Hunter voice, and I’m pretty sure she was kidding. Mostly. Probably.

“Science, Schmience,” the sketch we saw taking shape throughout the week, seemed pretty funny. The Commedia dell’Arte sketch seemed unlikely to be funny, but it also sounded like the sort of obscure thing they might have done in the early days of Saturday Night Live, so I’ll buy it. It was fun watching The Big Three working together on the news, especially with Harriet’s powers of electricity on display (a nice use of the religion theme). The closing montage, with everybody laughing hysterically over the show, seemed kind of gratuitious, but did give us a sense of the show in its entirety.

We also got a good sense of why Ricky and Ron are so hated. What jerks! I get that they’re in an awkward situation with Matt, and maybe it’s a little unfair. But giving Jeannie the focus group information, especially after Danny had said no one in the cast should see it, was just mean. And the revelation of what Ricky said when Matt was under fire four years before — which Ron remembered word for word, so maybe things aren’t so peachy between the two of them, either — explained a lot about why Matt would rather work himself into the ground than put anything those two write on the air.

Poor Jordan. Is one really obligated to reveal the presence of evil ex-spouses in a job interview? I guess so, if one is going to get right down to the business of making enemies. The news about him shopping a book really seemed to take the wind out of her sails, for the first time since she started this downhill-fast job. She did get some good bantering in with Danny, enough to maintain the “they were sweet on each other from the start” momentum. But she also got smacked down by him pretty hard at the party over her DUI vs. his cocaine addiction. Still, the conversation ended with his, “You look like one of them, but you talk like one of us,” so the spark’s still there.

Plenty of Matt-Danny chemistry on display, too, as Danny manipulates his friend into overcoming his fear of being political. Planting some bait in the focus-group data, which he knew Matt couldn’t resist looking at, was a sneaky move on Danny’s part, but openly taunting him really did the trick. It all culminated in that funny fight on the beach, starting in rage and ending in embarrassment. Where were the tabloid cameras when that was going on? Might have knocked Jordan off the front page.

All in all, I thought this was a really fun, strong, smart episode, with great lines being flung around and a good display of what goes into putting on the show. What did you think, watching it again? Share your thoughts in the comments, and come back tomorrow for a full recap.

Studio 60, NBC, The Focus Group, commentary

Well, it’s a little later than planned, but Aaron Sorkin’s new play, The Farnsworth Invention, is finally getting its opening night tonight, December 3, according to Playbill. (That’s Sorkin above with, from left, stars Hank Azaria and Jimmi Simpson, and director Des McAnuff.)

Farnsworth was originally slated to have its formal debut (after weeks of previews) on November 14, but the Broadway stagehands’ strike scuttled that. The strike settled, the show went back on November 29, and an extra performance was added tonight for the rescheduled opening. I guess people who had opening-night tickets have to have opening-night tickets whenever opening night ends up being.

Monday night’s an appropriate night for a Sorkin show, though, since most of us had it reserved for Studio 60 last year. And this year, too, if you’re following along with my rewatch the DVDs on Monday plan. Up tonight is “The Focus Group,” the series’ third episode, originally broadcast on October 2, 2006.

It’s the one in which the network insists on allowing a focus group to weigh in on the new Studio 60, and Danny tries to keep the results from Matt. And it’s the one in which Shelly’s prediction that the Rapture radicals are going to find some mud to sling at Jordan comes true, with an old DUI making new news. It’s also the one where there was a great deal of discussion of a sketch referencing Commedia dell’Arte. And Rob Reiner was the guest host, though I have absolutely no memory of that.

Watch it tonight, and let’s jog our memories together. Unless, what, you have tickets to a Broadway opening or something?

Then tune in tomorrow for a quick review, followed through the week by a full recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

Studio 60, NBC, The Farnsworth Invention, The Focus Group, Aaron Sorkin

If Matthew Perry was suddenly a teenager again, would he look like Zac Efron?

That’s what the makers of the movie 17 would have us believe. Efron’s been attached for a while to the role of an adult who — through a reversal of the kind of movie-magic familiar from films like Big and 13 Going on 30 — wakes up one morning to find himself 17 again.

So if Efron’s the guy post-youngification, who was he originally? A recent casting announcement reveals, he was Matthew Perry. Perry’s signed on to the presumably bookending role of Efron’s character in middle age.

And … okay. Happy to see Perry getting movie work. Efron’s presence is likely to make this one a hit, which is always good. Get known by a new demographic. But, do you think there’s any resemblance between the two of them that makes this at all plausible?

I’m thinking of how much that little kid in Big looked like he could conceivably grow up into that movie’s version of Tom Hanks. Easier finding a little-kid doppleganger than a grown-up one, I guess. But, Zac to Matthew? Really?

I’ve had plentiful exposure to the Efron Phenomenon through my daughter’s obsessive viewings of the High School Musical movies and decoration of her bedroom with Zac posters. He’s awfully pretty, for sure. I thought he acquitted himself decently in the Hairspray movie. But at this point, I haven’t seen any depth of personality in either his portrayals or his off-camera persona.

So even more than physical looks, I’m trying to think of what kind of … soul Efron would have to impersonate to look like someone who would grow up to be a Matthew Perry character, or how indescribably bland Perry will have to play it to look like he started out as Troy Bolton.

It makes me more interested in seeing the movie, anyway. Like I’m going to have a choice.

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the second Studio 60 episode, “The Cold Open”:

1. Is there really such a thing as Rapture magazine? A quick Google of the title brings up only references to Studio 60 and “The Cold Open.” If you know of a similar publication that Sorkin was maybe referencing here, mention it in the comments.

2. Did Danny set up the Matt-Jeannie thing to take the temperature of Matt-Harriet? It seemed kind of strange that, when Harriet was obviously upset about Jeannie being at Matt’s house, Danny didn’t say he sent her there. Maybe he really was paying so much attention to Jordan earlier that he didn’t pick up on any of Matt’s concern. Or maybe he wanted to see how things would blow up, and that’s what prompted him to have the conversation with Matt later. They’re in trouble because Matt’s still in love with Harriet, and vice versa, I think.

3. Does Jordan not own a business suit? Hey, I know she’s a maverick and all, and the dress she was wearing later in the episode was businesslike enough. But that shirt and skirt she was wearing at the press conference looked like something I would have worn to high school in the ’70s. Dress to intimidate just a little, lady.

4. Was it a mistake not to show the “Crazy Christians” sketch? I remember when this episode first aired, there was a lot of criticism by those inclined to be critical that we heard oodles about “Crazy Christians” but never actually saw the thing. Personally, my feeling was always the fewer sketches we saw, the better. I know the old adage is “show, don’t tell,” but if it’s Sorkin doing the telling, I’m okay with that. I’m more interested in the behind the scenes than the on the stage, and I’m willing to suspend whatever disbelief is necessary to just accept that Matt’s a genius. Did you feel you needed to actually see what all the fuss was about?

5. Couldn’t they put the Gilbert & Sullivan parody in Sarah Paulson’s range? It seemed a little low for everybody, really. But the fact that she a) had the first solo and b) seemed to be struggling with it and c) is supposed to be an acclaimed singer made Harriet’s performance particularly unfortunate. If Paulson really can’t sing spectacularly, then perhaps a solo singing scene should have been skipped — maybe a case in point for the “I’m okay with telling, not showing” above. And if she can sing, give her some notes she can belt!

[tags]Studio 60, NBC, The Cold Open, commentary