The Newsroom: Sorkin's HBO Joint

this thread has made me resolve to watch Sports night. i watched a few eps when it was airing but i didnt 'get it' back then, im sure i'll be more receptive now

i started it this year, i didn't get addicted to it but i liked it. i also noticed the weirdness of the laugh track - it felt like the most reluctant laugh track ever.

overall, i found the 90s-tv vibe a bit distracting, tbh. not the show's fault.

Haven't seen it in a long time but might have powered through some bits because of massive crush on Sabrina Lloyd at the time.

90s-tv vibes are a plus for me these days. though its probably not appropriate for what SN was doing

This episode was filled with hokum but I dunno I kinda liked it.

Sam Waterston is more loopy than usual and I approve of this.

The Jesse Eisenberg cameo on the phone was fun.

The reveal about Emily Mortimer having the signs was hilariously dumb. If that was her, how did she keep changing her face? Is she a Lorathi like Ja'Qen?

didn't catch the Eisenberg cameo!

I mean ... I'm pretty sure. It sounded exactly like him.

it was, he was reported beforehand to have a "small voiceover part" in the pilot.

The reveal about Emily Mortimer having the signs was hilariously dumb. If that was her, how did she keep changing her face? Is she a Lorathi like Ja'Qen?

― polyphonic, Monday, June 25, 2012 7:58 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah smh

To me the whole premise is flawed. Does anyone watch TV news anymore?

^^^

do they still make tv news?

http://gawker.com/5920929/dan-rather-reviewed-the-newsroom-for-us-and-liked-it

I kind of suspect that nobody who currently watches TV news would watch this, and nobody who watches this would watch TV news

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI&feature=player_embedded

Alec Baldwin is a handsome man.

haha i'm pretty sure i've said "can we have a civilization???" irl. because of the sorkin. on the other hand, i hate that "breathing guts" thing he does.

I kind of suspect that nobody who currently watches TV news would watch this, and nobody who watches this would watch TV news

You left out people who work in TV news.

how do people do those supercuts? i feel like it would take like weeks and weeks

ctrl + f on transcripts & then just snag whatever episodes you need off a torrent site?

i'm just guessing but that would prob take you like 8 hours if you worked really hard

ya but like finding the sorkinisms would prob take a while too?

and the actual editing

and by finding i mean figuring out which ones were used enough to be -isms

best case scenario, you come up wiht a list of like 25 "isms" and then ctrl-f however many HUNDREDS of transcripts there are, with his several tv shows and bunch of movies. you note where all of them appear. that would take a while! then you get the video files and actually have to find the clips in them. then you select those clips from each of whatever how many dozen video files you've winnowed it down to. THEN you actually have to assemble them and fine-tune the edit. that would all take WAY more than 8 hours!

i bet there's probably a few message board threads out there dedicated to listing 'sorkinisms' and that's where the person who made the video got the idea and culled most of their examples

anyway lol at s1ocki of all people going "that video thing, it looks like it took some work! how exhausting!"

lol

just belatedly, a bad part of this show was emily mortimer talking to jeff daniels & jeff daniels having to say NO, IT CAN'T BE DONE, NO-ONE WOULD EVER WATCH WELL-EXECUTED TV NEWS, SO MANY HAVE TRIED in order to facilitate mortimer's soliloquy.

anyway lol at s1ocki of all people going "that video thing, it looks like it took some work! how exhausting!"

― some dude, Tuesday, June 26, 2012 6:14 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i actually went to bed last night thinking about how much work that is haha

but ya otm about crowd-sorkining

bummed to discover the hbo isn't following newsroom with re-runs of girls and veep. I like the progression: "WHAT CAN WE DO TO SAVE THE WORLD?" "Hi, we're the youth." "oh well, fucking fuck..."

true blood at 8 even provides context for newsroom's concern about America's priorities

Sam Waterston is more loopy than usual and I approve of this.

― polyphonic, Monday, June 25, 2012

He's great! He's also straight up Robert Guillaume in SPORTS NIGHT.

But more obviously drunk, I guess, because it's HBO. Speaking of which, this here is a show that could actually benefit from some sexposition.

http://heyinternetgirl.tumblr.com/

Hahah I was just about to post that.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/grantland/player?id=8099523
louis ck on studio 60 in this ^^ (from about 7 min) is real good

i kinda dug this!

sorkinapologistsdid9/11

i kinda dug it too, but given the buzz about the pilot vs. the following 3 episodes i'm waiting for the other shoe to drop

yeah that's where i'm at

Sam Waterston is more loopy than usual and I approve of this.

― polyphonic, Monday, June 25, 2012

He's great! He's also straight up Robert Guillaume in SPORTS NIGHT.

But more obviously drunk, I guess, because it's HBO. Speaking of which, this here is a show that could actually benefit from some sexposition.

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Tuesday, June 26, 2012 11:52 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

okay, but, and i'm sorry to be all indie rock fan here, robert guillaume was way better. he just delivered his lines better. and portrayed a plausible human being better. in the beginning of the newsroom pilot, i was like wtf is with sam waterston? and then, during the conversation about him being easy to get along with because he's drunk, i was like, ohhh he's isaac jaffee. but guillaume was better and there are pretty much guaranteed to be diminishing returns on a character if you keep trotting the same one out.

yeah guillaume was the shit

Waterston seems to be acting more 'old' than 'drunk' IMO

David Denby steps into defend; ILX officially declares the show "a disaster".

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/06/in-defense-of-aaron-sorkins-newsroom.html

He is an ethical writer—a moralist, if you like. He’s neither ironic nor self-deprecating; he dislikes that part of our derisive culture which undercuts, as a ritual form of defense, any kind of seriousness. He’s a very witty entertainer who believes that there’s a social value in truth. I don’t think this belief should be confused, as it has been recently, with self-righteousness.

Pobrecito.

the one example of that refreshing dialogue denby gives

"There’s nothing that’s more important in democracy than a well-informed electorate. When there is no information or, much worse, wrong information, it can lead to calamitous decisions that clobber any attempts at vigorous debate. That’s why I produce the news."

who are the entertainers that don't believe there's a social value in truth.

watching The Sork interview on VH1 right now and he's all "it's a fun show, it's meant to be watched with popcorn"

Beats Whitney in that regard.

denby

DENBY

okay, but, and i'm sorry to be all indie rock fan here, robert guillaume was way better.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 6:58 PM

I don't think you need a "but" there, and that's not indie rock it's classic rock. Robert Guillaume in Sports Night was way better than almost anyone in anything.

and there are pretty much guaranteed to be diminishing returns on a character if you keep trotting the same one out

manic pixie dream dad