One of the great things about the Simpsons is that you don't really know what any episode will be about until ten minutes in. You think it'll be about Marge and the new toll road, but it turns out to be about who Homer's real father might be. I call this: The Simpsons Turn and I think I just saw one on #104 of Studio 60.
I'm sure there are many better writers than me out there that saw the turn coming. But when I watch some shows the critical software turns off, and the act turn totally surprised me. There I was thinking, it was going to be about Matt and Harriet and knowing that he was going to see her and her new beau smooching, and wondering how Sorkin was going to make that fresh. Or it was going to be about Ricky and Ron and "the piece" and, what, were they gonna take credit for it? How were they going to try and turn this small success to their advantage?
Nope. With that act turn discovery, they made the episode gave our hero's their monkey paw wish: Ron and Ricky are offering to quit and Matt gets shaken out of his Harriet slump and is given a reason to concentrate on the show.
And not only that, the Turn actually gave the last piece of the show's theme puzzle-- what does it mean to call something "yours", and in doing so gave me a new way to think about writing About Something.
The show ended a little neatly for my taste but, I gotta say, Best Episode Yet.
