Time for some mention of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” – a TV show surely dedicated to people who love alliteration.
I’m probably one of the few people in the Western world who didn’t watch “Friends”, the long-running US comedy. I therefore never saw Matthew Perry in the show, and so when he turned up on Studio 60 as one of the main characters, I was seeing his work for the first time.
And he is really good. Funny, ironic, annoying, but his best turns are the serious, even anguished ones, which perhaps gives him a whole different area to play from that of “Friends”. Having been away on holiday, “Studio 60” was probably the main thing we wanted to catch up on, given his character’s pretty serious relationship break-up just before we went away. That’s a lot more anguish waiting to spill out.
It’s not really about the anguish. Perhaps even more so than on the writer Aaron Sorkin’s previous show, “The West Wing“, the characters seem to have permission to be human – real characters, with good points, flaws, working in an industry that shows up both aspects in equally extreme ways.
Both shows have characters working in highly pressured environments. Yet in “Studio 60”, Sorkin seems to be taking even more opportunity to make different sections of American society meet head on.
The characters of Matt (Perry’s part) and Harriet are perhaps overly unlikely to be together, so different are their values, their mindsets.  With Harriet as the Bible believing Christian, Matt plays devil’s advocate with fair venom at times.
But still, the scenarios they face as characters, together, and apart, do help to question what makes a ‘good’ person. For all of Matt’s ability to mouth off about various sections of society, there are other areas in which he is determined to do the right thing.
As a Christian myself, it makes for interesting viewing. There are plenty of times where I’m in situations – at work, with friends, in a social setting – where it’s not always clear what is the ‘right’ thing to do.
The show reminds me how everyone is facing the same complications, whether they have a faith to guide their values or not. And perhaps some of the environments which are less likely to be seen as moral – such as the entertainment industry which is the feature of “Studio 60” – have in fact some of the most compelling dilemmas to face.
It’s perhaps even more frustrating, then, to know that “Studio 60” was only given one season to run. So even if this is a short-term Friend, I’ll be continuing to tune in, while these debates, and story lines, continue to twist and turn.