"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" Hits Roadmark!

Tonight's episode of Studio 60 struck an unforgettable road sign in the journey of the show. Everything up to this point has merely been momentum, as executive producer Aaron Sorkin hit full stride. His hands upon the helm purposefully steered the boat towards the horizon's storm - and a thunderous roar it will be.

Tonight, Harriet and Matt (Sara Paulson and Matt Perry respectively) arrived at a place in their antagonistic dance in which edged words and forced hands finally kinked his armor to the point of failure. And then one last stray blow cut deeper than he was ever prepared for. Divulging actual plot would ruin the experience, and the experience is what it's all for after all. It's enough to say that Sorkin is just beginning to tell his story.

To fans of this show and of his previous, it is barely secret that Sorkin is truly speaking of himself and his life in the television industry through the vessel that is Studio 60. That was apparent from the pilot's opening polemic speech against the destitute backsliding of the industry delivered passionately by the great Judd Hirsch. But the soul of the show over the first half of the its inaugural season revealed itself within the conflicted relationship of Matt and Harriet, two very opposites of the coin that is comedy.

You see, Matt is Sorkin. At least that is how this reviewer senses it. And Matt's heart has been made vulnerable and now injured, just as pickaxes dig and tear at the studio's stage. Planks yank away exposing an ugly hole, as if it had been shot through. Watch in the fading last shot of tonight's episode, and see in Matt's eyes that hole gnaw itself a wider and wider place inside of him.

The descent into the abyss will be both terrible and with casualties, but again, also purposeful. You must stare down the squall to reach calmer seas.

For those of you who by the calamities of fate have missed tonight's episode, it can be viewed free of charge online, courtesy of parent company NBC.

~ May good drama and worthy stories always have safe harbor on the small screen!