What Kind of Day Has It Been?

The final episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ran tonight (with the same episode title as the first season finales of The West Wing and Sports Night), and another brilliant-but-cancelled show has hit the scrap heap.

I'll be realistic and admit that of Aaron Sorkin's television creations, this was the weakest. I suppose if that's any mesasure, than it's appropriate this show ran only one season compared to the two years of Sports Night and seven of The West Wing. Still, weakest among that company is not faint praise.

While I do wish the show were continuing, I also have to admit that I don't feel the disappointment I felt over the end of some other favorite shows (such as Firefly, or the recently cut down Veronica Mars). I suppose I'd accepted the end of Studio 60 a long time ago, and it did get to play out its full season.

It was a good full season. These last few episodes have really been great. I think knowing their fate was sealed, the creative team behind the show quit trying to make little adjustments to try and appeal to a broader audience. They simply told the stories they wanted to tell. Well, story, in the singular, really -- this multi-part continuing plot of the last few episodes has been very engaging. And rather reminiscent of the first two years of The West Wing, which would routinely engage in long stories over several episodes. Which is a pretty good model to follow, I think, because even though The West Wing stayed good for most (not all) of its run, those first two seasons were certainly the best.

Best of all, the long final story arc ended with real closure. Matt and Harriet, Danny and Jordan, all settled. We could imagine further rocks in the road for them, were the story to have continued. But it's basically all tied up. Sure, there are a few dangling plots from earlier in the season that were abandoned (the FCC fines, and the whole "deal with Macau"), but really it's the personal relationships of the main characters that mattered, and we saw that dealt with.

So, a good end to a good show. And we even got the official announcement this week that the complete series will be out on DVD in October. Maybe I'm a little disappointed, but beyond all that, I'm satisfied.