Rejoice, all ye faithful, for Aaron Sorkin has returned to us. For those concerned that Studio 60 would prove a stark departure from the wonkery and social consciousness of The West Wing, fear not: Last night's episode was entirely focused on the culture wars -- in this case, personified by the influence of the Christian Right. Come to think of it, Studio 60 echoed the first episode of The West Wing, which chronicled Josh's attempts to keep his job after offending the Christian Right. Conversely, in the first episode of Studio 60, Wes Mendell, the legendary executive producer of the Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy show actually gets fired after going all Howard Beale in response to the network killing a sketch that would offend the Christian Right.
Indeed, much of the show is really about Christianity, with a smattering of Aaron Sorkin's battles with and thoughts on drug addiction thrown in for good measure. So yeah, it's a bit heavier than you might have expected. First the Christians scare off a brilliant sketch, then it's revealed that Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), one of the main comedians of Studio 60 is devout, and then it's exposed that her and Matthew Perry (playing the prickly, brilliant writer who's brought back to helm the listing ship) broke up because she promoted her CD of gospel songs on loathsome The 700 Club (which apparently mirrors the real life end of the relationship between Sorkin and Kristin Chenoweth). Got all that?
That said, I think Jonah is a bit reductive when he puts it all in the frame of Christian-bashing. Perry doesn't come off well for having dumped Paulson. Paulson eviscerates a foolish junior cast member who mocks her for praying and was, it's explained, a staunch supporter of the skit. And while the censors at the network killed the segment because they feared offending their audience, the actual player there is a smarmy suit who represents corporate cowardice, not a Christian mob. Indeed, my criticism of Sorkin is always that he hints at the evil hordes beyond the horizon, but the actual, on-air representatives of those group are always rare, good-humored, unfailingly decent souls. In that way, Sorkin often lacks the courage of his judgments; he'll allude to them, but the show will actually undercut its own worldview. So while Jonah may be right that the show will end up seeming like Sam Harris wrote it, I suspect that Sorkin won't pull the trigger by writing in very many members of the fundamentalist wing, and will generally offer up a sort of liberal, urbane Christian who is rarely heard within the modern religious movement.
