Ah, the flashback-reconstruction episode. This episode, part one of a two-parter, begins at the end: Tom Jeter is arrested and stuck in Nevada, and Jack, Danny, Simon, and some Asian people are futilely trying to get a redneck judge (guest star John Goodman). How did he get arrested? Who are the Asian people? Why are we in Nevada? Jump back a week in time and awaaayyy we gooooo.....

In terms of plot, I liked the episode and thought it was up to par with the rest. In terms of theme, we're still getting a very loud dose of Sorkin Editorializing. Case in point this time is John Goodman's judge. Clearly the villain, and the Studio 60 people's worst nightmare: a guy with a southern accent!

Yup, in Sorkinville that means he's the judge in a small town, he's a churchgoer, he has a big family, he's insuffrably arrogant, heck, he even just got back from a fishing trip. Luckily for me, this is a perfect example of Sorkin's hypocrisy I've been whining about: he claims to present both sides of the blue state/red state divide (which just plain doesn't exist anyway), but when he gives the Christian Right their moment, they appear as travesties: crude caricatures like the judge.

Alas. It's fairly well publicized that the show has gotten very poor ratings, so my love/hate relationship with it may not last for very much longer. I just feel if the show's Big Theme hadn't been about evangelicals and liberals and politics, but actually about, oh I don't know, something to do with the backstage goings-on of a sketch comedy show, it would've been a lot better (and maybe slightly more appealing to the masses that have rejected it). But we'll never know.