The Writers' Room

As produced it is more like a trip to the zoo, with the scribes imported into a set that suggests a writers' room (white board, bulletin board, index cards, big table, coffee) as a lion cage might simulate the veld. Even so, it feels like a glimpse of the real thing. Rash makes an excellent host-moderator.

The Writers' Room winds up more anecdotal than explanatory. Heavily edited/compressed, it makes for a breezy half-hour if not necessarily revelatory disclosure, at least in the three episodes sent for review.

Because Rash speaks the same lingo as his subjects, The Writers' Room has the potential to provide real insight into the process of making great TV.

Each episode is essentially a glorified DVD box set extra, but fun and informative enough to appeal to anyone interested in the increasingly respected field of TV writing.

The Writers' Room is a fun look at the mostly unknown faces who have created some of the best shows on TV, though The Writers' Room might not have been wrong to expand the format and really delve deep into the nuances of the creative process of the specifics of certain shows, even at the risk of alienating viewers who weren't intense fans.

There's a casual, informal, willing-to-take-chances tone to The Writers' Room, which works most of the time but in the second episode, devoted to NBC's "Parks & Recreation", the show suffers from too many people trying to be funny.

The no-frills approach--people sitting around a table BS-ing--relies heavily on the wit of those participating, but in terms of celebrating TV’s best and brightest, it’s still an interesting exercise of navel-gazing about the creative process.