In the increasingly vapid world of modern television - exemplified best by reality TV - producers, writers and actors face pressure from above and below to compete in an environment that has less and less use for them. After all, "reality" has no need of writers, or even actors. In a clever twist, Aaron Sorkin's new NBC drama reveals the reality of this situation - except it's scripted.
Sorkin, formerly of "The West Wing," gives audiences a backstage pass to a fictitious 20-year-old Friday night sketch comedy show clearly modeled after "Saturday Night Live" but called "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" on NBS, a fictitious television network.
It is the night of brand new NBS president Jordan McDeere's (Amanda Peet) celebratory dinner, but she hardly has time to compliment the caterer before she inherits her first problem: "Sunset 60"'s producer, Wes (Judd Hirsch), has interrupted the opening George Bush sketch with a mental breakdown reminiscent of Howard Beale's meltdown in "Network" (1976).
Disgusted by the FCC's trampling of the First Amendment and a do-anything-for-a-buck attitude on the part of NBS's rival networks, Wes Mendell promises the live studio audience that "tonight's show won't be very good" and urges viewers at home to "change the channel" - as if anyone could possibly tear himself away from the heart-wrenchingly earnest rant riddled with frustration and despair over the state of today's programming.
To take attention away from the humiliating debacle, Jordan is forced to make her first executive decision: Yes, she'll fire poor, disgruntled Wes, but she'll rehire two controversial ex-"Studio 60" writers, Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) - and give them complete control of the show. Matt and Danny will be able to exercise their right to free speech by airing the kind of cutting-edge political and social satire that Wes had longed for the past 20 years.
Will the brilliant team be able to save the network's slump? Will Danny be able to kick his cocaine addiction? Will Matt be able to reconcile with his easily offended ex-girlfriend, a member of the "Studio 60" cast who is now, awkwardly enough, his co-worker?
Amongst the star-studded cast that includes D. L. Hughley, Steven Weber and Sarah Paulson, Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet shine in their juxtaposing roles as the cynic and the idealist, respectively. Perhaps their chemistry has been marinating since they first co-starred in 2000's "The Whole Nine Yards" and the forgettable sequel four years later, "The Whole Ten Yards."
Smarter than "Frasier," more fast-paced than "Gilmore Girls," and laced with the painful poignancy of "The West Wing," Sorkin's brilliant new show smacks with such obvious personal experience that it makes the audience feel like they're watching something they are not intended to see.
It's no secret that Matthew Perry has had his share of drug problems in his life, so it's no surprise to hear his character drop references about pain killers and anti-depressants more times than Elliott Stabler (Christopher Meloni) talks about his children on "Law & Order: SVU."
As any economics major will tell you, the greater the risk, the greater the profit. And Sorkin is not a producer to skirt away from risking revealing the ugly side of Hollywood if it yields a television drama better than anything NBC has seen in years.
