My new favourite TV show – it started the same season as Studio 60 on Sunset, and while both shows are about behind the scenes machinations of a comedy variety show, they are very different (NB both do have a feisty black comic who clashes with a studio black writer, both have the show producer clash with a network executive, both have an attractive blonde female comic as one of the show’s stars). Sorkin’s show is a lot more serious but Tina Fey’s the more successfully realised – it seems to get its tone right. Fey is in fine form playing a role based on herself and she’s surrounded by a trio of brilliant support performers – Jane K-thingy as her bubbly best friend/star, Traci Morgan (what a discovery) as a crazy black star surely partly based on Martin Lawrence (love his expressions), and best of all Alec Baldwin as the corporate boss.
The secret to success of the show is all these characters are impossible, really but they are never mean and always trying to help at some stage. Also the fact that most of the characters except Fey are “out there” means the comedy is consistently unexpected and surprising. The one character who doesn’t really work is the bald producer character dude – do they need him in the show? He doesn’t seem to earn his keep apart from being a more sensible friend to Fey. But to compensate there are some stunning semi-recurring support characters: Dr Spaceman is my favourite.
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