Wait, people don’t like Sarah Paulson?
Wait, what? According to TV Squad, a lot of people didn’t Sarah Paulson as Harriet Hayes. I find this perplexing, because Harriet is one of the few characters on the show that I found really interesting as a character (rather than as an opportunity for an actor to perform Sorkin dialogue), and I thought Paulson did a consistently excellent job with the part. She was one of the big reasons to tune into the show. (Which I still watch on a regular basis, thank you iTunes — I try to get as familiar as possible with Sorkin shows.)
It’s hard to believe that we’re a full year removed from the glorious mess than was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It seemed that the split between “liked it” and “hated it” was about 50-50, but everyone wanted to comment. One thing I noticed in those comments was that, even among the people who liked it, there was a strong sentiment against the performance of Sarah Paulson as the Harriet Hayes. Most people just didn’t like the chemistry she had with Matthew Perry, and she didn’t manage to make us care enough about the plight of the über-religious comedian to root for her to connect with anyone.
So, for anyone who’s looking forward to the revival of Rob Thomas’ Cupid, the news that Paulson’s been cast as the female lead on the show has to be disheartening. She’s playing Dr. Claire Allen, the same role Paula Marshall played in the original series, opposite Bobby Cannavale, who is taking over the Cupid role from Jeremy Piven.
Totally perplexing. BTW, I’ve been watching ??American Gothic?? lately on Hulu — a favorite show of mine from years back, and I had completely forgotten that Paulson was in it as the ghostly/angelic/whatever dead sister of the protagonist. Awesome. I’d also forgotten that the doctor was played by ??Medium??’s Jake Weber…