Watching Studio60

While I’m impatiently waiting for Barnes and Noble to send me my long-awaited Studio 60 DVD set, already, let me distract myself by writing a little more about a show with an oblique S60 connection, Pushing Daisies.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about Pushing Daisies, that connection is Kristin Chenowith, who plays a slightly unhinged waitress in the show, and sometime girlfriend of Aaron Sorkin for real life, as well as allegedly being the model for Harriet Hayes. For fans of the later years of The West Wing, she’s also familiar as PR pro Annabeth Schott. Before the show premiered, I was mostly interested in it because of her. Now, I wish they’d cut down on her scenes and just show more of the really completely adorable leads.

I was surprised by how much I like this show. I thought it was going to be way too quirky and cutesy even for me. But so far, it works. The narration may get old eventually, and likewise the Mary Engenbreit-like set decoration, but again, have I mentioned how completely adorable Lee Pace and Anna Friel are? They are. Adorable. Completely.

What’s even more surprising is that my husband likes the show, too. And he is most certainly, most completely NOT a fan of the quirky and the cutesy. I am a million times more likely to like that sort of stuff than him. But the sarcastic undercutting of Chi McBride’s character works for him, as do the mystery stories. And he finds the rest of it enjoyably smirk-worthy.

I understand the show’s due for a little jolt from the third episode on, due to cost overruns from all that cutesiness. Quirk don’t come cheap, apparently. It will be interesting to see how much it makes a difference. For now, though, I think I have my first new-show crush of the season.

What new stuff are you watching? I’ve been watching Private Practice out of loyalty to Kate Walsh and Shonda Rhimes, and it’s … okay. Adorable, but not completely adorable. Dirty Sexy Money I gave up on pretty quick, and never looked back; I don’t like those people, and I don’t want to spend an hour with them every week. There’s really nothing else that I’ve sampled very consistently. Share your finds and failures in the comments. While I go check the mail. Aren’t my DVDs here yet?

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, Pushing Daisies, ABC, Kristin Chenowith