30 Rock – Season 1 + Studio 60
On The Sunset Strip – The Complete Series (DVD-Video)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B-/C+ Extras: C+/C- Episodes: B-/C-
How about
a hilarious sitcom about the dark underpinnings of television network
production? It could have a good cast of
actors doing funny things, sometimes being funny as their characters when they
do not know it. It could even be a
hit. Well, two such shows launched at the
same time and only one survived. 30 Rock was the underdog with truly
funny Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live,
Mean Girls) creating and co-starring
as a TV executive trying to hold production together at NBC. Alec Baldwin (in great form) and Tracy Morgan
(more talented than he gets credit for) would lead the cast. Studio
60 On The Sunset Strip was another Aaron Sorkin show with supposedly more
money to throw around and a larger cast including Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet,
Steven Weber, D.L. Hughley and Timothy Busfield.
Everyone
thought Sorkin had the hit and Fey’s show would never last six weeks. Of course, to the supposed shock of those
“experts” on TV, her show was the hit, won the “Best Comedy” Emmy and Sorkin
had the bomb. Why? Energy is one reason. Where as Fey’s show is funny, has energy,
cast chemistry and even some irony, Sorkin’s show is tired, muddled, stupid,
boring, lacks chemistry and Perry in particular is so out of place that he is
the fatal miscasting that kills off what little worked on the show.
Sorkin’s
show is also arrogant in some odd way, acting like it knows it all about the
behind the scenes world, yet never feels real or palpable. Fey’s has surprises all the time and is
actually memorable. Another fatal
mistake is after The Larry Sanders Show,
Sorkin thought he could do the idea of funny happenings behind the scenes of a
late night talk show. Guess some of the
devoted TV critics really just missed the HBO hit. Both of those were made by Time Warner.
As for
Matthew Perry, he needs to take a long break from acting, a big risk in his
career or go away for good. Any of his
smiling looks forced and he looks bored, just walking through scene after
scene. e looks so burnt out in these shows and any smiling looks
forced.
In
fairness to him, anyone in his role would have had trouble, but he makes a bad
role worse. Sorkin needs to try
something more original and think things through next time.
Both have
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 images, but Studio looks softer, rougher and the transfer is substandard at
times, while the Rock transfer has
limited motion blur, better composition, color, depth and clarity. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes for both
dialogue-based shows are new recordings, yet Rock is better with more depth, soundfield and clarity, while the
dialogue on Studio can be
problematic. Extras for Studio include a making of featurette
and creators Aaron Sorkin & Thomas Schlamme on an audio commentary for the
pilot, while Rock offers several
audio commentaries, deleted scenes, shorts, behind the scenes featurette and
wrap party with bloopers. Rock simply has more energy, which is
why it survived.
- Nicholas Sheffo
