Wow, two nights in a row. How about that? A first in a long while…and another first. I normally don’t write reviews or write any commentary on movies I’ve seen or television shows that I watch, but tonight brings me to put the first. I’m not sure if I’ll write any more..but who knows.

Tonight is the first “real” Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip episode since its long hiatus. Last week’s episode was pretty much a standalone episode, so, I won’t comment on it.

Now I’m not going to write a straight out review of the episode. No, not at all. I think I’m just going to write my observations about the show.

Tonight’s episode: Breaking News is a very interesting one for me. It tackled quite a bit of things. Sure it had some elements that another Sorkin show, Sports Night had, and that was the whole rating issue. Tonight’s episode tackled other issues, drugs, and the war.

What piqued my interest in tonight’s episode is I wonder how much of tonight’s episode is Sorkin dealing with the situations that he has to deal with in real life along with his commentary on the war?

It’s no secret that the ratings of the show had dropped considerably since the critically acclaimed and damn good pilot. I enjoyed the pilot; quite a bit. It was smart writing, fresh, and what I wanted to see from a Sorkin ensemble a la The West Wing or Sports Night. But then, the shows went downhill from there. From par episodes to bad episodes and there were only a few gems and moments in between. The show couldn’t live up to the spectacular pilot.

Again, tonight’s episode is the first real episode back from the hiatus and I wonder if Sorkin wrote the episode to address these concerns. The ratings are falling on the “beloved” skit show due to the poor writing of the head writer, Matt Albie. It can be said that the Albie character is Sorkin. He’s the head writer of the show, mostly writing the whole show by himself. It is no secret that Sorkin has a little drug problem, whatever is his drug of choice. Maybe it is a little self reflecting in the sense that he’s blaming his bad writing and the failure of the show due to him writing high? The ratings are slipping and it’s mostly due to the writing. There isn’t anything to harp on on the acting, for it is good and solid. It’s just the scripts.

It seems that Sorkin is having difficulties balancing the drama and the comedy. He’s done it so well in Sports Night and The West Wing. But again, those shows knew what they were. Sports Night was a half-hour comedy show filled with drama and The West Wing was a one-hour drama filled with comedic gems. Studio 60 seems like it wanted to be a comedy, because of the skits, but it turned out more like a drama filmed like a comedy. It just doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t flow well.

Tonight’s episode felt different. It had a fairly somber tone throughout. Looking at it as a drama, I can’t fault it. It hit its marks. Looking at it as a comedy, it sucked. It wasn’t funny at all. I guess, again, Sorkin just couldn’t decide what he wanted to do with the show. He couldn’t find the right balance and now he’s done.

A big part of Studio 60 is it’s politics and democratic righteousness. It falls in line with the idealism of “The Bartlett Presidency”. It’s just pure Democracy. Sorkin is saying quite a bit about the war and about our current Presidency. He’s just not a fan of it and the war. He’s not hiding it.

The “Breaking News” in tonight’s episode is that one of the show’s character’s brother is a POW in the Iraqi war. The fate of this brother and his two comrades was never shown, left for another episode. He’s showing us the ugliness of war. He’s showing us the pointlessness of this war; losing lives, not just the lives of any people, but the AMERICAN people. I’m very interested to see where Sorkin goes with this. I watch quite a bit of television, but I sure don’t watch nearly enough to know if another show has done a similar storyline where a family member is held as a POW in the war. I do wonder where Sorkin is going to take this. The fear of the family and friends. The fate of the POWs. Where is he going to go?

Sorkin has a deep and profound idealism about him, especially in politics as shown in The West Wing. But I never had known him to pull any punches. There’s a part of me that wants him to take that route; that dark path of killing the POWs. That would be powerful. That would be great drama.

So Mr. Sorkin, surprise me. Blow me away. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an episode of your show. Last week’s episode was a small fluff piece, building up to tonight’s episode. Again, as a drama, tonight’s episode worked. It worked on so many levels that I had to write about it. I’m sure tonight’s episode in a sense is your therapy for what has happened with your show. I don’t know if you are trying to quit drugs, but I do know your ratings are slipping and I do know that your show didn’t get picked up. Did you write this episode believing that you still had a chance? The war is still ongoing and from all the episodes you’ve written so far, you were never afraid to tackle it and the politics. I am interested to see how far you are willing to go. Just please don’t disappoint me. Just don’t.

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Now I have to comment on the “new look” of my journal. It was a mistake. I tried to fix something and I couldn’t go back to how it was. This was the closest style that I can choose that matches my old style. My, how much I do miss my old style, but I am stuck with this.

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Starting tomorrow, June 1st, I get to start my new script. It’s going to be a “re-imagining” of A Chinese Ghost Story. I have most of the first couple of scenes worked out, but quite a bit of stuff still elude me. Maybe I’ll be able to flesh things out as I start to write. I get to start on it soon, and I am honestly quite excited about this. I can’t wait to write my first words. I can’t wait to write that first scene, then the next one. It’s going to be a fun ride. Hopefully, I’ll finish and fulfill my scriptfrenzy.com duties. We will see.