New Freedonia

I watched the “Xmas Episode” last night…it were not all that bad.

There were little bits in there that really felt like West Wing moments. Patter, character…they were there.

I think that’s part of what’s been detracting from my enjoyment of the show…it’s direct relationship and similarity to West Wing. Maybe they should have found some different cast members, maybe they actors need to learn a different delivery…dunno.

But I enjoyed it…sort of.

Yet again the biggest annoying point, and the point that continues to puzzle me is the Harriet Hayes character. I don’t find her at all to be the character they’re trying to push her as…and it’s not the character…it’s the actress. The talentless, one-expression, one-dimentional actress who needs to be told she is not as talented as her character is supposed to be. She actually needs to do something.

But who am I kidding…the character is a clear “homage” to Christian Chenoweth, who was pretty talentless when she was on WW, so I guess I shouldn’t expect anything different for her fictionalized version.

But geeze…every time I see Sarah shot with soft light or through gauze, I have the burning image of Sorkin dry-humping a set piece.

I’m a big fan of Mandy P. (I miss Chicago Hope and Dead Like Me), and I’ve only recently seen that he’s featured on Criminal Minds on CBS.

So is this thing any good? I’ve kept away from the crime-drama things on CBS because…well…I’ve just not found them all that good or entertaining.

Opinions?

I had rather high hopes for this show. While I didn’t think it was going to approach the quality of The West Wing, I thought with Sorkin aboard, we were going to see some quality drama and wit.

I was…wrong.

It started strong enough, powerfully even. I thought getting the mains “back” into the show was handled well and executed in a somewhat reasonable fashion. And hey, I liked seeing Matt Perry back on TV, he can be fun to watch.

Each subsequent episode though…not so much.

Part of the problem here has got to be actually writing the show within the show, or the show for the show. I just don’t buy the “talent” these guys are supposedly bringing to the table. The few scraps of skits we’ve seen…yeah…they’ve recreated SNL pretty well…if they’re going for the current suck-factor. And someone please tell Sorkin that G&S isn’t comedy gold?

And Harriet? Just not funny. Sorry, I don’t buy the fact that this woman is the uber-talent of the cast. She can’t pull it off. She’s actually become annoying in the short amount of time she’s been on screen. Nothing she says or does indicates funny.

The best part of about the show thus far? The writer’s room. They’ve been “shut out” of the production since Matt and Danny come back to town, but so far, they’ve been the only ones on the whole show to provide a consistent funny.

If it’s around next season, I may look in on it again, but for now it’s just become a waste of time.

Monday night is yet again a TV wasteland..that is until Anthony Bourdain gives us some new episodes in Jan.