Got a sneak peak to tonight's episode:

A good wrap-up to the 2-parter from last week. The cast are really inhabiting their characters now, and their interactions are feeling more authentic.

I liked it until Matt's "that should of been me" speech at the end.

Good to see Lucy Davis getting more to do.

The show seems to be hitting its mark more often now - good to know that it will be here for the entire season, and hopefully build a bigger audience.

I guess I'm no Agatha Christie because I don't know what 2+2 Judge Goodman put together to explain Jeter's speeding.

His brother is stationed at the nearby military base, so it's okay that he's speeding around at 120mph. Huh?

My Tivo did not record this - said it was a duplicate.

Edited to add: ok, looks like it recorded on my other Tivo so I am now happy I get to watch it.

I'm officially giving up on this show.

For starters, it's completely unrealistic far too often. Take the scene with the ADA - the guy didn't have a trunk in his car? Couldn't have taken his gear off at the court house across the street? Nope - apparently he *had* to enter the diner in full paintball regalia, including goggles and armor. And then there's John Goodman's "logic" in dismissing the case... which I'm still scratching my head about.

But all of that's not why I'm giving up. I'm giving up on the show for the same reason that I give up on all of Sorkin's shows: the dialogue is simply unrealistic, especially in the case of "Studio 60". It's all well and good for people in the White House to constantly have arguments over policy, religion, conservative vs. liberal, or other issues. We *expect* that from a show like that. But that just doesn't work with "Studio 60". Apparently the writers on "Studio 60" are so busy having arguments over gay marriage and religious fundamentalism that they just don't have time to, ya know, write comedy. No wonder Matt was called in. Still... given that the show is supposedly based on SNL, I find it completely unbelievable that Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo would waste time backstage arguing over secular Judaism vs. fundamentalist Christianity instead of doing some lines, chasing chicks, and trying to be funny. And - given what I know about the behind-the- scenes world of SNL - I'd be right.

Maybe it's just that Sorkin picked the wrong vehicle for his latest crusade. Whatever the case may be, I'll take "30 Rock" over "Studio 60" any day - even though I know that one's a drama and the other's a sitcom - simply because I find the behind the scenes stuff in "30 Rock" more believable than "Studio 60".

My problem isn't that it's unrealistic, rather that I always know what to expect. I suppose I've watched too much of Sorkin's work and know too much about him personally to really enjoy the show. I definitely think the show would be better if it was centered around the work that Ed Asner, Stephen Weber and Amanda Peet's characters do rather than the show with "comedy" skits.

If this show weren't always so damn_grave about the ideological debates, the discussion about Harriet being blacklisted in Hollywood would have been prime for an old "Gay Mafia" joke.

Could someone explain to me why Crappy Comic thought calling certain people 'sir' is somehow a "White People" thing?

I don't know and I don't care, because the "I'm not white, I'm English" line was classic.

It's official, I can't stand Harriet. Or Simon, for that matter. Both just grate on me and I can't explain why. I still greatly enjoy watching Danny and Matt, as well as Jack and Jordan. It was also good to see some of the lesser-known cast members get something to do this week instead of standing around in the background. I still don't understand how Tom got off the speeding ticket - was he driving his brother? Or trying to get away from the protest after it got broken up?

I liked it when Danny came back, walked in the room, knew exactly what the English girl was saying, and fixed it. "See how I did that?". I'm really liking that line.

Enough of Matt and Harriet.

Danny's strength is knowing how to read what his people need from him, instead of letting them yammer on about their issues, he allows them to channel it productively (and minimizes the time spent on their issues so he can keep the show running smoothly).

Yeah, I'm lost too. What happened?

I got the impression that Tom was speeding to the base to say farewell to his brother. And the judge pointed out, he's playing Russian Roulette and Tom didn't want to miss his chance to see him off. I got the impression that the judge was very pro military and that softened his heart on the speeding ticket. I don't know if I put the pieces together correctly or not, but it makes sense, so I'm sticking with it.

That was my take on Tom's urgency to the military base as well.

I agree with the poster a couple of about this. I just removed it from my tivo last night. The show could really be great, the cast is good, Sorkin is a good writer, with a behind the scene type of show they have a lot to work with in the way of stories. But come on enough about Matt and Harriet which means enough of Harriets faith. One of the reasons I loved Sports Night was because they actually showed some of the behind the scenes politics. I do not really remember them focusing on politics that much either.

You know have some posts about all different types of faiths, that is great and can be really funny. They had an opportunity to actually go into people wanting more screen time last night when Simon was going to possibly miss the show. But everybody did not want to take the seat away from Simon. I am not sure but that just seems a little unrealistic. Maybe that is because I have never worked on a show like that, but I do just not know. Show the writers fighting to get their stuff on the screen, show actors actually using their fame to get women or men, and It would be really cool if they actually showed Jack and whats her name (the network exec) dealing with this show. Just some of the things that they could do to actually make me want to watch. Of course alot of people might like the constant harriet and her faith versus matt, just not for me.

I think you're probably right, but it was just piss poor writing.

It would have been much funnier (and IMHO more accurate) if the judge had kept Jack for contempt.

I'm still trying to figure out how Simon would be in any trouble in Nevada for pot he smoked in California. I'd think the copyright lawyer would be smart enough to get him out of that one.

Ugh. I want to like this show, but that was painful to watch.

I don't know about anyone else, but when S60 premiered, I was hoping there would be an episode where characters would debate gay marriage. After watching this episode and the previews for next week, it looks like Sorkin is going to force his audience to watch every fight he ever had with Kristin Chenowith (the real life inspiration for Harriet)

The resolution of the Tom storyline (the judge is moved after hearing about Tom's brother standing in a FIELD IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN, so he lets Tom go, while uplifting music plays background) is something I would have expected to see on one of those "stupid" TV shows that the characters on S60 would make fun of (while at their "Nations" viewing parties).

Again, Jack's rant was the best part of the show. Unfortunately, it was ruined by the throwaway "bad translation" joke.

The in-show ideas and sketches are hitting home for me more now than earlier in the season. The Lifetime Network Emmy nominees and the Nobel Prize: Red Carpet Pre-Show had me laughing......

Kill this show now.

The only funny part was with the mis-translation between the daughter and the exec. Its not a good sign when the best part of a dialogue driven show is in another language.

D

Careful, David E. It's getting a little preachy in here.

das

Stop watching this show now. Some of us are enjoying it and I fail to understand why it should be canceled because you don't like it. Perhaps you could explain that.

it's not supposed to be a comedy.

I love how people keep pretending that nothing in this dramedy is intended to be funny.

Get rid of Sarah Paulson - and by extension the religion/politics debates - and this show would work much better.

I at first said that I did not even notice her lisp.

I said that by way of you guys mentioning it, that made me hear it.

In this episode, no matter if it had ever been mentioned or not, I heard the HELL out of it and it overshadowed everything she said.

How can someone who speaks like that be an actor? God bless her, but.....jeeez!