I saw a promo for Monday night’s “Studio 60” episode and couldn’t help wondering: Is this the week that the show–to coin, or at least adapt, a phrase–jumps the cross?
As you probably know, “jumping the shark” has come to refer to that definining moment when a good TV show has gone bad, reached its peak and started downhill, pulled a stunt so absurd that it smacks of out-of-new-ideas desperation–like the Fonz water skiing in leather jacket and jumping over a shark, the archetypal and defining “jumping the shark” moment. To adapt the phrase, I’d like to propose jumping the cross as that defining moment when a TV show trying to cater to the coveted Christian crowd proves beyond a doubt its lack of authenticity, that its religious commitment is only skin deep, drawn up by secular writers without a real clue what it means to write authentic spiritual characters and storylines.
In the case of “Studio 60,” fans were disappointed when Harriet–the Christian character central to the show–voiced unapologetic support for premarital sex. But that was a throw-away line to a reporter and hasn’t been picked up again in the show. This coming week, however, Harriet apparently agrees to, or at least considers doing, a lingerie photo shoot. I have a feeling that, if she goes through with it, or even considers it seriously, Harriet, and “Studio 60″ as a whole, will lose whatever credibility it has among religious viewers, and that will be a shame. The cross will have been jumped.
I’m still a fan of the show, and of Harriet, so my money is on the promo being over-sexed, and overselling that storyline. It’s hard to believe that the show’s creators would be that clueless; they’ve carefully crafted Harriet as a hip, fun, intelligent, and imperfect character who is also a passionate Christian and voice of morality and compassion–and I can’t believe they’d throw that away for a cheap lingerie-shoot episode. (It would be great to see her wrestling with temptation, as long as she maintains her essential, core values and isn’t too gleeful about the opportunity she’s considering.) But it is sweeps time, and I am sure others, including some of my fellow Idol Chatterers, would disagree with me on this one.
posted November 19, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Ah, but if Harriet is the fictional Kristen Chenoweth, then it’s not a huge surprise the lingerie episode is airing–Kristen had a rather racy photo spread in Maxim magazine a few months back…
posted November 21, 2006 at 3:56 am
what is unchristian about a lingerie shoot?
posted November 21, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I wish I could say that there’s no cross-jumping in this show’s future. But the fact that I loved it so much in the first three episodes and have since even forgotten to tape it means that it didn’t grab me the way I’d hoped. And if it’s not grabbing me, an SNL-junkie and fan of Sorkin, then I fear it’s not long for this world. As to the Christian lingerie photo shoot, I think it speaks to today’s relativism of religious commitment. In the Jewish world, I know men and women who are considered religious, but do things which I think would be objectively considered unreligious, in cases, impious, and more overarchingly, inconsistent with their otherwise conservative traditions. I try not to judge it, but I certainly don’t understand it either. Morality and compassion are not incompatible with lingerie shoots. And when it comes to religion, everyone draws his or her line in a different place. But when you’re framing your every action within a conservative Christian context, a little consistency would be easier for most people to understand.