Try To Keep Up

Okay, so like everyone else, I've been checking out some new -- and some "new to me" -- shows. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip so far seems like an exact cross of Sports Night and The West Wing, and as such, but at least from the pilot, it seems like it might have West Wing's oversized sense of importance. One of the things I liked so much about Sports Night was that it could touch on serious subjects without necessarily taking itself too seriously. Studio 60 seems to take itself way too seriously. Plus, I'm not convinced Amanda Peet can handle the pace of Aaron Sorkin's snappy dialog, which is unfortunate, because I kind of like her as an actress. Or like to look at her, I don't recall exactly which. Matthew Perry, on the other hand, seems to be right at home, which I would have never figured based on his involvement with that stinking pile o' crap that was Friends.

And I watched Numb3rs for the first time over the weekend. While I'm still enamored by the premise, it's definitely in that white hat/black hat world that I don't particularly care for. Speaking of which, Smith seems to be trying to hard to make us like the bad guys, which messes up the moral ambiguity angle the same way Thief did on FX last year. Jericho lacks a certain edge that I've come to expect from watching a lot of Fox, WB and cable dramas -- it's a little too paint-by-numbers so far.

After seeing a couple of really positive reviews, I also checked out Heroes, and it certainly has potential. One comment I saw about it that really resonated was that it was well-cast, and I think that ends up being the good drummer/bad drummer axis for television. A good cast can make a flimsy premise work, while a bad cast can bring down a good premise. And when you combine a good cast with a strong premise, then you've definitely got my attention. At least if there's moral ambiguity and/or no laugh track.