Second look at Episode 2: “The Cold Open”
Just for the record, I am not writing this in my pajamas. I am writing this in a sweatshirt and sweatpants covered with dog hair, but at least I have some professional standards. In fact, by the looks of it, my normal blogging attire wouldn’t be out of place in the Studio 60 writer’s room — at least, before Matt made his “We will dress in a grown-up way even if we cannot conduct our romantic affairs in one” speech. Actually, I might need some sort of funny hat to really look like a professional.
Tom’s little rant about the tyranny of uncredentialed hacks was another visit to a Sorkin pet peeve, and kind of cute for that. The biggest problem with criticism today isn’t bloggers in their bathrobes chain-smoking Parliaments, though; the biggest problem, as it has always been, is that it is enormously easier, more fun, and more satisfying to write a nasty review than it is to write a glowing one. This is particularly true if you are on deadline, and it is equally true if you are a nobody on the Net trying to get some traction on Digg or a “credentialed” critic trying to get some cutting quotes out there. In the end, criticism is always just the sharing of an opinion, and I’m not sure any one opinion is more valid than any other. What’s more annoying to me than any old viewer having their voice heard is when people whose voices are taken seriously misuse that power. Sorkin’s not the only one who was settling scores with Studio 60, is all I’m saying.
Off the soapbox now. One thing I really enjoyed about “The Cold Open” was how different Danny Tripp is from Josh Lyman. I never watched Friends enough to be able to judge Matt’s differentness from Chandler, although I’d think the jump from sit-com to drama would necessitate that anyway. There’s something about Danny’s kind of low-key confidence that’s worlds away from Josh, though, and it’s nice. Whitford’s playing a full-fledged grown-up this time, the guy instead of the guy the guy counts on. Interesting to see two characters created by the same writer for the same actor showing different colors. Sorkin mentioned in the pilot commentary that he made a real effort to do this, and to get Whitford to abandon the mannerisms that had been encorporated into Josh, and I think they both did a great job.
It’s interesting, too, watching these early episodes now after seeing the way the Danny-Jordan relationship turned out. We have Jordan’s comment about having fallen for Danny from the first, and Sorkin’s comment that Danny started falling for Jordan when she told Matt to run the “Crazy Christians” sketch, and here’s the chance to see if those comments are really borne out. And you know, I think they are. I don’t know that I noticed it the first time, but in retrospect, I think it holds up. Danny’s attention to Jordan’s good press conference performance on the one hand, and Jordan’s absolute refusal to go back on her promise regarding the sketch, can be seen as going a little beyond professional interest. I’m looking forward to tracing this through the rest of the pre-romance episodes.
I really love the fluidity of Schlamme-directed shows, the way we see a scene from so many angles, traveling effortlessly in and out of different rooms and groups and viewpoints (well, effortlessly for us; I’m sure it’s effort-ful in the extreme on the technical end.) This was particularly apparent in this episode during the press conference scene, where we moved from the stage with Jordan, to backstage with Danny and Matt, to the S60 control room, to the dressing rooms, pausing briefly for conversations that put the conference in the background and then letting it come forward again. Very cool.
The big closing Gilbert & Sullivan parody at the end worked better than I remembered. I’m so pleased to find that true of the whole episode, really, that the bad press really was bad and the work really was good. Are the opinions of bloggers still not valuable even when they’re positive? Aw, you know, never mind, I’m just gonna keep writing anyway.
Tune in tomorrow for a full recap, and later in the week for memorable lines and five questions raised.
Studio 60, NBC, The Cold Open, commentary
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