The Newsroom.
- Thread starter Guy Gardener
- Start date
Well, he had his on and off days. Two Cathedrals respected the intelligence of the audience, it was a great character episode, it contained an unsubtitled rant in Latin, and it ended with a cliffhanger that wasn't really a cliffhanger if you had been paying attention. It was followed up by Isaac and Ishmael, an episode that was literally a lecture to schoolchildren about how not all Arabs are bad. When Sorkin focuses on characters and drama he can write some magnificent stuff, but when he decides to impart a lesson on his audience all his flaws come to the surface.
That would be the ''Sept. 11 reaction'' episode? In which Sorkin went alternate-reality for the first and only time and showed the Bartlet administration dealing with Al Qaeda?
Many disliked this episode, but not me. They made a point where blowing up skyscrapers was ''dumbass'', then ended by reassuring the younger characters they would be protected. The one thing I did not like was Bradley Whitford's smirking during the episode intro, promising to ''keep our egos in short order.'' Gee, thanks, considering the situation at the time. Maybe I just can't stand Josh Lyman's smugness and tantrums...particularly those AFTER his new Prez Jimmy Smits won his election. Stop being a tyrant and enjoy the victory.
Many disliked this episode, but not me. They made a point where blowing up skyscrapers was ''dumbass'', then ended by reassuring the younger characters they would be protected. The one thing I did not like was Bradley Whitford's smirking during the episode intro, promising to ''keep our egos in short order.'' Gee, thanks, considering the situation at the time. Maybe I just can't stand Josh Lyman's smugness and tantrums...particularly those AFTER his new Prez Jimmy Smits won his election. Stop being a tyrant and enjoy the victory.
Wasn't this a mirror universe episode?
The problem is that we are those kids, the lecture aimed at them is really aimed at the audience, and that's particularly a problem when Sorkin only half-understood what he was trying to talk about anyway. I understand his desire to do something on the subject at that point in time, but if he wants to talk down to his audience like that then he needs to find a way that's less transparent.
That's the bit you have a problem with? Not Donna's excruciating "And I get a boyfriend"?
Hey, after all the shit that girl went through, she needed the love of a...
Wait?
Christain Slater dolled up as a sailor?
Wait?
Christain Slater dolled up as a sailor?
Sadly, Sorkin has become less and less adept at telling a good story over lecturing his audience over not adhering to his particular brand of the Wisdom of the Patriarch.
Meanwhile:
You all should read the Tumblr called Hey Internet Girl.
An example:
So am I the only one invested in the hokey love stories?
Supposedly Studio 60 was a thinly veiled adaptation of his rancorous love affair with Kristin Chenoweth. Is this more of the that same courtship, or is Aaron on about another girl now?
Supposedly Studio 60 was a thinly veiled adaptation of his rancorous love affair with Kristin Chenoweth. Is this more of the that same courtship, or is Aaron on about another girl now?
Mm-hm. Because from that moment on, Lyman was totally intolerable, while Donna was too forgettable to get worked up about.
Studio 60 was a thinly-veiled adaptation of Aaron Sorkin's life, which is part of the reason why it was insufferably smug, because every time someone talked about how brilliant a writer Matt was you knew that it was actually Sorkin writing about how brilliant he was. The sad thing is that Sorkin can be brilliant, just not when he's writing about how brilliant he is.
So you came to find Josh intolable because of something the character didn't actually say in an episode that exists outside the series canon? Interesting.Mm-hm. Because from that moment on, Lyman was totally intolerable, while Donna was too forgettable to get worked up about.
Indeed I did. And though that might have been unfair, Whitford became even more intolerable through his nonstop obnoxiousness. So my decision seemed retroactively justified. I'll take John Spencer or Richard Schiff over him any day. For the same reason, I refused to watch STUDIO 60.
Supposedly.
I did like the scene on the roof between Maggie and the editor guy (forgot his name), though. But I see them more as friends, really. However, I would like to learn more about Maggie's relationship issues and whether her relationship with 10 o'clock news guy (again, with the names) is really sort of unhealthy and mentally abusive as it was suggested in the episodes we've seen so far. The scene on the stairs from the last episode paints a different picture. Also, 10 o' clock news guy's compromising about meeting her parents in the first episode, now that I think about it.
It's very much like what was happening in the beginning of the Office, or every 80s romcom ever made, with respect to gender.
Up until last night's episode, I've actually enjoyed this series somewhat. West Wing it is not, but I do like the writing and the characters. Last night I found to be a little more ponderous, however, than previous episodes. I found the rather clumsy pretext of the gun control argument (as a seemingly random selection of "what we forgot to report about last year") leading conveniently up to the Giffords shooting a bit contrived. Talk about telegraphing the punch. I'm personally a pro-gun Libertarian, but believe it or not, I didn't find the actual "messages" to be all that irritating, as there was nothing new there with regard to that old chestnut. I also found the (very true) statement of how this administration has actually become more pro-gun (by design or not) than the previous one to be absolutely hysterical. I just really found the not-so-subtle segue into the tragic shooting to be extremely weak in its foundation. I'm curious how they'll handle the Holder/Fast & Furious debacle.
I'm also starting to get a bit irritated that we have to be also not-so-subtly reminded that the lead character is a "registered Republican" in order for it to be okay for him to speak on traditionally liberal boilerplate issues, and to prove that he's not a Tea Party sycophant.
His line about hurricanes this week was quite priceless, though.
I've found all previous episodes to be in the B+ to A range, but this one is a solid D for me this week. Hope they get better again soon.
I'm also starting to get a bit irritated that we have to be also not-so-subtly reminded that the lead character is a "registered Republican" in order for it to be okay for him to speak on traditionally liberal boilerplate issues, and to prove that he's not a Tea Party sycophant.
His line about hurricanes this week was quite priceless, though.
I've found all previous episodes to be in the B+ to A range, but this one is a solid D for me this week. Hope they get better again soon.
Huh, weird. I thought this was the best episode, so far. I laughed at a lot of the dialogue (man, Sorkin was on fire when he wrote that episode) and some of the scenes in the Will's awkward dates storyline, especially the scene with economy lady's crazy girlfriend. ("Is it wrong that this is turning me on?" 
)
I must say that I really appreciate Will McAvoy as a character. I feel that he's already a much more layered and deeper character than most on West Wing. He's an untypical Sorkin hero in that he's kind of a broken man in regard to his personal life. This episode made this very clear. I also like that he's a little crazy.
By the way, economy lady is an awesome character, too. I love her wit and quirkyness.
Loved the emotional end where they were all dramatic, using a lot of fucks. I guess Sorkin remembered the show's airing on HBO.
)I must say that I really appreciate Will McAvoy as a character. I feel that he's already a much more layered and deeper character than most on West Wing. He's an untypical Sorkin hero in that he's kind of a broken man in regard to his personal life. This episode made this very clear. I also like that he's a little crazy.
By the way, economy lady is an awesome character, too. I love her wit and quirkyness.
Loved the emotional end where they were all dramatic, using a lot of fucks. I guess Sorkin remembered the show's airing on HBO.
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That hit the spot.
I ask for romance.
I get romance.
God is listening.
I ask for romance.
I get romance.
God is listening.
Well, that and an unhealthy obsession with Gilbert and Sullivan.
Deride it if you want - and it's not an episode I ever get a hankering to re-watch - but that was an important message for this country at the time. There were a lot of people that believed it, and there's a well-known Congresswoman who apparently *still* believes it.
And it's really quite impossible to divorce that episode from the time and the place it aired. It was a noble effort, and I think it was worth trying.
Jon Stewart made a Newsroom reference on last night's show. In a segment about Romney's tax returns they pretended to have those returns. Jon said, "How did we come into the possession of these secret files? We made them up. Suck on that, Will McAvoy!"
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