Studio 60 Sinking Into the Sunset?

NBC's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP is dying in the ratings, and for good reason: as I wrote here when the show premiered, it's, well, a lousy show.

I've continued to watch the show with a sort of appalled fascination, as each week it does its best to alienate at least half its audience, with continued digs at the Christian right and conservatives.

The characters are filled with self-importance -- witness network president Jordan McDeere exclaiming in one episode that no one will tell her what to air on her network. Apparently the concept of responsible stewardship of the public airwaves got past her on her way to the network presidency.

Not long ago Time Magazine reviewed Peet thusly: "Peet drifts through with weird detachment, as if she were playing the princess of a small country." Dead-on. The rumored plan to write Peet's real-life pregancy into the show for her single character is problematic as well, given the show's strident tone against what might be called "traditional values." (I'll give the character positive points for not having an abortion...)

Robert Bianco of USA TODAY offers a prescription for a fix (subject link). He's right, but the answers for what ails the show are so obvious that I suspect if they haven't already occurred to Aaron Sorkin and Co., they're not ever going to have the ability to correct course.

It's a shame to see so much talent going to waste on what might have been an interesting series.