Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (pilot)

83

I am not yet ready to call Studio 60 a great show, but it may just make the sting of the West Wing being gone, that much easier to bear. Beautiful production values (especially for TV), interesting camera work (lengthy, continuous steady cam shots, unique vantages), fast-paced, intelligent (sometimes) dialog, and good music were all hallmarks of The West Wing and they are all here in Studio 60. There is even a few "homages" slipped in to make sure West Wing fans feel the love ("What if she's for real?" recalls the question surrounding Bartlett in his first campaign for President)

This is review of the pilot episode (you can get the pilot early through Netflix) of the series and not a judgment on the entire show, yet.

"The creator of 'The West Wing' is about to do to TV... what he did to the White House!" claims the voiceover guy in promos for this new NBC series and by the looks of it, he ain't lying. Aaron Sorkin has had a good record in making memorable (if not always successful (TV programming). The West Wing was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, while Sports Night could only claim the former. Some of the similarites of the three shows are illustrated here.

Some of the themes I expect this show to cover in the coming season are the news media, Christian right and other vocal groups and their influence on free speech, greed vs. principles, and the lifestyle that is Hollywood (drugs and sex). I will review the full season once it is over and we can see if it builds to crescendo like West Wing did, or loses momentum.

More info on the series can be found on it's Wikipedia entry and at the show's official site.