Watching Studio60

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “The Harriet Dinner Part 2″:

1. Is Wendy the anti-Harriet? That is, somebody with a bad-girl image, but who knows how to be nice to Matt, even when he’s being a jerk? She’s certainly got an unquestioningly patient way with the guy, putting up with the stiletto boot nonsense, and then letting him down gently when he reacts to being eviscerated by his true love by asking Wendy to be his girlfriend again. She’s a good friend, anyway. (A bit of trivia that I may be the last person to have figured out: While I knew that Wendy’s group, the Bombshell Babies, was supposed to be a takeoff on the Pussycat Dolls, I didn’t know that the actress who plays Wendy, Cyia Batten, actually was a Pussycat Doll. So she’s got some experience with the slutty costumes.)

2. Was Harriet purposely talking about wanting to sleep with Luke to hurt Matt? Talk about your acts of cruelty. She had to know that was the deadliest weapon in her arsenal, and the way she deployed it just before he went onstage was pretty brutal. Maybe she just got carried away; maybe she wanted to see if it would affect him, or thought it would not. But if it was at all deliberate, then I think he gets to take the victim high ground now for a little bit.

3. Did Harriet’s other bidder get his money back? The snowboard kid paid as much as Matt did to date the dinner honoree, but Matt seemed to have all of her time and attention. Then again, maybe he got an earful of their conversation and fled to another table. Given how loud they were arguing during Natalie Cole’s song, I’m surprised people at nearby tables weren’t pelting them with dinner rolls.

4. Does Kim know that her dad speaks English? You’d think so, but she goes to an awful lot of trouble to translate for him, even when she seems to be annoyed with him. You’d think at least once, she’d have said, “Forget it! You know as well as I do you can do this yourself!”

5. Why do neither Jordan nor Danny have an actual pen on them? I guess maybe Jordan just had an evening bag with makeup in it because she was planning to go to the dinner, but Danny was working and intending to stay working. Seems like they might have had a better writing utensil between them than Chanel Sable. Sure, it made for a nice little reveal at the end, but considering the length of the note Jordan wrote to the economically challenged gentleman earlier on, I’m surprised there was anything left of that liner for them to keep on writing. Maybe along with a new Hide-a-Key rock, they need to stock the roof with some sharpened Number 2 pencils.

Studio 60, NBC, The Harriet Dinner Part 2, commentary