(no subject)

[serene]

Going to bed in a minute, but wanted to get this down before I forget:



I should say right up front that I like Studio 60, and liked tonight's episode a lot.

Still.

These guys used to piss me off on The West Wing when they created female characters who were WAY too dumb, especially women who behaved inappropriately in professional situations. Ainsley Hayes dancing around her office in the West Wing in her bathrobe? Hel-LO?

They're still doing it.

Tonight was a really egregious example of this, if you ask me. From the three women -- women *actresses* -- who were too stupid to know what a WRITER does? Um, what? to the NETWORK PRESIDENT who goes around from lackey to lackey begging them to be her friend. It was really cringingly bad.

This is not to say there aren't good female characters on the shows, both of them. Hell, Ainsley was a good character. But must we have C.J. Cregg do a pratfall on her treadmill over some guy? Must we?

Comments

[baerana.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 1000%. I've posted about this before - on all three of his shows, he's done that. He'll have a powerful woman, president of a network or producer of a tv show or press secretary for the white house - and he'll have his other characters SAY "oh, she's so great, she's amazing, wonderful at her job, she gets amazing results, etc." but the women don't ACT like that. They ACT somewhat crazy or just really silly. CJ pulling a reporter into closets to kiss him? Mandy driving up onto a curb to scream at her boss in public?


The thing about him is, it seems he likes women, but he kinds puts them on a weird pedastal thing - women are amazing and wonderful but extremely crazy and it's ok for them to be very unprofessional... something like that...

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, the three airheads *were* over the top, for certain. I kinda got the imrpession that it was a bit drunk out for Jordan, which may explain her behaviour.

I loved this episode though, for the old-writer-guy plot, and for the Tom's parents plot, and for the black comic plot. You put three really good stories like that in one episode, and you'll make it hard for me to remember the stupid bits later.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Huh. This was my least favorite of the episodes they've done so far. I hadn't analyzed why, but I think Serene nailed it. There's bimbos and then there's the three balloonheads we saw. Jordan has no friends? I find that unlikely--and didn't find her drunken antics funny either.

Didn't much care for the Tom's parents plot either, but maybe that's because I've seen that dynamic a million times before. Kid trying to impress his disapproving father while mother tries to make them play nice. (Though I have to agree, I find it hard to believe Tom's parents have never even HEARD of the "Who's on First" routine....)

[(Anonymous)]

You know at first I wanted to defend Sorkin. I wanted to say things like; yeah they're airheads, they're *supposed* to be or he has the men do stupid stuff too. But you're right he has this "blind spot" or something. He writes these capable, smart, powerful women and then seems to feel compelled to undercut them by having them do something completely idiotic. Yeah Peet's character is drunk, but come on! Its even more egregious because he does everything else so well. This latest episode could be my favorite because of all the other storylines. Loved how Danny dealt with Eli. Loved finding a new writer. Although its been done to death, I even loved the guy with his parents (Especially the part in the car).

And along side all that, three impossibly stupid women. Peet's character looking for friends? *sigh*

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

Duh, this was me.

[leback.livejournal.com]

You are so right about the actress characters. Sorkin's got some lunkhead male characters on there, but they're not so played up, and they don't get half the screen time. Wonder why that is...?

I suspect that Jordan's goofy/unprofessional behavior was intended to show just how far out of control her drinking is right now--I think we're supposed to perceive her as a very smart, very competent character, who could only possibly behave that way if something were *very* wrong--but I think the point could've been made without going so far over the top.

And meanwhile, Harriet's busy being goofy over Matt (who, granted, is a bit goofy over her, too) while Simon and Tom are getting in touch with their baggage in moving and profound ways, Cal's doing brilliant detective work in the other room, and Matt's discovering an intellectually-exciting new *male* writer. The depiction of Tom's mother makes her sensible enough, but hardly brainy or profound. Winds up seeming like the women in this episode were pretty much just screen dressing and comic relief.

I'm not actually sure that I like Studio 60 that much. This last episode was as good as it's gotten for me since the pilot (which I did like quite a lot), but still not entirely compelling, especially now that you've got me thinking about it from this angle.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Sorkin has, for better or for worse, set the bar for himself impossibly high with The West Wing, and while I like Studio 60 I find that it has a lot of his irritating tics without being as gripping -- but of course WW dealt with issues at a level that there's no way this show can approach. Actually Studio 60 is more like a revisit to his Sports Night, which I actually think was better, in part perhaps because it wasn't trying so hard.

I'll confess I hadn't thought about it, but I see your point about the three stupid women. I'm not wure they were really supposed to be actresses -- I got the impression they were actress-wannabes, presumably a fairly common species in LA -- and the point is more that Danny is trying to distract Matt from Harriet, and failing miserably, but yeah. To be that dense about what a writer "does"?

I have to say that I don't really get Jordan's character. She doesn't seem like my idea of a network president at all.

Yeah, it was annoying that C.J. had to have those goofy moments. It doesn't seem to me that he ever did anything like that to Abby Bartlet, though.