Aaron Sorkin (Pt 2)

So, Aaron's got a new show this season. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be as big a hit as West Wing was. I think West Wing got a big boost from the presidential election that year, and it was the right show at the right time, I guess. I mean, the two shows have the same creator, the same smart writing, even some of the same actors! While one is a behind-the-scenes show about the presidency, the current one is a behind-the scenes look at Sketch comedy show. However, while West Wing had 4 glorious seasons and 4 not-so-good ones, Studio 60 is in the middle of a heart attack.

Why is that? Well, one reason is that the skits within the show just aren't funny. Aaron should either a) hire a better skit-writer or b) not even show any skits, just mention them in passing to the viewers (or do anything else, but please spare us from having to endure lame jokes and the actors fake-laughing as if it's the funniest thing they ever heard. Actually, that's a perverse pleasure of mine, is to hear Tim Busfield do his fake chuckle and shake his head. That's probably the funniest unintentional laughs.) The second reason I think the show is doomed is because of its religious content. In the TV series so far, we learn about: a sketch titled "Crazy Christians" (even though the viewer doesn't see the sketch, the premise is pretty obvious), actors praying before every 'show', the lead actress is an evangelical Christian, and that an evangelical group is a major percentage of the viewership (apparently Rapture magazine has more subscribers than Vogue). Aaron's point? TV networks are very concerned about Christians.

And, I think, they should be. A prime example: look at one of last year's shows that bombed miserably, Book of Daniel. It was a mid-season replacement (It aired its pilot in January) and only showed 4 episodes before it went away. The reason NBC pulled it was due to low ratings. Digging deeper, Christian groups had spoken against the show, despite not even seeing one episode. As a result of that backlash, several TV markets didn't even air the show at all. Advertisers were also unwilling to be associated with the show as well, and pulled out their ads. Aaron addresses this very issue in the second episode of Studio 60. In the episode, the head of NBS programming was informed that if she let the show do a skit called "Crazy Christians", several TV markets would not show it. Her reaction? Do it anyway. And, this being a fantasy show, it worked, and the show got even higher ratings.

However in the real world, it's just the opposite. Every week, the show is losing more and more viewers. And, I think it's because Christians can't laugh at themselves which is a very sad thing. Apparently, Black comedians can make fun of Black people, gay comedians can ridicule gays, but Christian comedians can't poke fun of the Christian facade. I think it's time we, as Christians, get off our high horse, with our attitude that we're too holy to be made fun of. It's another reason why the world doesn't like us, and not in the good, Satan-hates-us, Bible-sense either. It's more like in the bad, hypocritical, We're-holier-than-you sense.