Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Episode Rating: A-

This was a very strong episode, and the first one that I think really approached The West Wing level of quality (and the first one which I've given any form of an 'A' too) It was definitely funny, I love the baseball bat stuff. I was a little confused by the whole Bombshell Babies (that's what they were called, right?) stuff but the whole phone number/jersey number confusion was hilarious. As was Tom deciding to be Matt's wingman. Tom is a great character, sort of a mix of Sam Seaborn and Jeremy Goodwin. I enjoy him immensely. I wish we saw him do more but right now he's my favorite character after Danny and Matt.

Speaking of Danny, he really wasn't in this one too much which is a shame as he's my favorite but when he was he was entertaining. I really enjoyed "Nice rack, by the way. Tell Jordan I'm not fifteen." Danny has a very enjoyable sense of self-confidence but it doesn't come off as cocky as Josh Lyman was. (Not that I minded Josh's cockiness as he was my favorite on his show) but still... I like that I'm at least getting a definite sense of why Danny is different than Josh, even though they do have plenty in common.

Martha O'Dell did not do it for me. I think Christine Lahti played her well enough, but just in general her as a character didn't 'knock my socks off' to use a now S60-ian term. Which is odd because I really liked Martha Moyer in the pilot who I'm sure is the basis for O'Dell. And in this episode I got hints of a Martha/Danny pairing which I didn't like for numerous reasons as Lahti's about a decade older than Bradley Whitford (and I know, I know, Whitford's pretty much equally older than Amanda Peet, and the "guy being older is acceptable" thing is a double standard, but some things just feel weird and some don't.) and also as her character just doesn't seem that cool. Hoping we see limited amounts of her.

The main plot of the story was nice and definitely served to add some layers to the as-of-yet-bland Ricky and Ron. So yeah, the whole loyalty aspect was nice. The last act also gave a very heightened West Wing feeling of anxiety which I enjoy too 'cause there never seemed to be enough pressure to equal the pressurized feeling everyone appeared to be under.

And how funny was it for Jack's appearance to be in the form of his shouting voice on the phone. I like very much that they had Steven Weber do that and we could clearly identify it as him.