The Newsroom: Sorkin's HBO Joint

I think THR liked it, but I just read the first little blurb. I don't think Seitz has reviewed it yet, but he was tweeting that it was corny a few weeks ago but he seemed to be enjoying it.

Pretty sure it's gonna be shit though.

Mostly thinking of Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker review, though I've seen a few other pans as well.

its metacritic rating is mad yellow

such a huge disconnect for me between how much i expect from sorkin (esp w/ evidence like few good men, social network, west wing, sports night) and what he's been delivering on tv these days (studio 60 + now this). i don't think he's being lazy -- maybe he needs a few good editors?

the Slate piece touches on it but i definitely think he needs collaborators -- his recent screenplays that are adapted from real life source material and directed by people he doesn't typically collaborate with >>>>>>>>>> his recent TV stuff where he has full freedom to rehash West Wing and Sports Night to diminishing returns

think it's a potent combination of his own ego (and yes, lack of editors/filters) and the fact that his best TV work was at the cusp of the Sopranos/Wire/Deadwood/MadMen/Breaking Bad era that made us all expect a lot more. West Wing just had to be better than...ER.

Social Network was good because of Fincher working against the screenplay (sort of what that Slate article said, I think).

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/tv/blogs/the-stream/2012/06/how-to-write-a-monologue-like-aaron-sorkin.html

i actually like his speeches and enjoy the way he breaks down what he does there, but god his faux-Network speeches are getting so "you could kick a ball in the street"

MSZ digs its "Capra-corn"

http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/tv-review-the-newsroom-corny-but-inspiring.html

urgh ffs take away this guys copy of network

wouldn't do any good. he's memorized it like Fahrenheit 451.

this show looks like sixteen piles of crap

I really don't like the way it uses actual events/figures because it dates the show right away, and makes it even more of a facepalm than when it's blindingly obvious what the fictional events/figures are like they did in Sports Night and West Wing.

he's veering towards just straight-up Oliver Stone steez, ie being smashed over the head with a mallet while someone shouts DO U SEE every 5 minutes... if he's not there already.

tbh i think he's always been like that, but Josh Lyman had some lolzy lines so it was cool.

yeah maybe it's the players that made his material awesome

Krause and Charles <3

The players didn't make the meterial distinct, though--Sorkin did that.

yeah actors with comedy chops tend to be his salvation, and it seems like Newsroom wasn't cast with that in mind (like Jeff Daniels obviously has those chops but won't necessarily put them to much use)

xpost

so wow, these reviews are so bad i don't even think i'm going to watch it
http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/51842/the-newsroom-aaron-sorkins-toxic-mess

think I'm just gonna rewatch the Ken Finkleman series on Youtube instead

They should really put it up free, like they did with the Girls pilot, given these reviews.

Not that it simply isn't lousy, but i think there's an instinct among critics who got caught with their pants down lanticipating Studio 60 not to get embarrassed again.

Studio 60's pilot circulated for months and months ahead of airing, on Netflix and other places. and they (ok, we) all had pretty high hopes for it based on that episode.

Lolling at the trailer of Pullman throwing a stapler(?) at the camera. He gets into it like De Niro playing Russian roulette in the Deer Hunter.

Whenever I think I might want to watch this, i'm just going to rewatch Sports Night instead

that is what i do whenever i get a sorkin-y urge tbh. i like social network, though.

me too!

west wing, sportsnight is about it. social network is good but nothing like as rewatchable as WW and SN

Oh, Olivia Munn is in this? Sold.

west wing has some really good stuff, some really cringey stuff, some downright offensive stuff. sports night can be cringey but it just goes down easier than the west wing.

also dan rydell

yeah Sports Night is comfort food to me, i've run through the whole series on DVD maybe half a dozen times now

Olivia Munn makes me even less interested.

iirc josh charles and aaron sorkin had "creative differences" on the set of sports night and in retrospect i want to say that josh charles was one of the best things that ever happened to sorkin.

that's interesting, i haven't really read much of anything about the making of Sports Night since people are so much less likely to write about that than Sorkin's other stuff

yeah WW is not perfect, but I can't help it. the first few seasons are pretty good. Josh Lyman, Sam Seaborn, Will Bailey, Toby.
I want Josh Charles to have a sports show, even now

I follow him on twitter, he talks about the Bmore Raves ALL the time

i know; it's so annoying. josh charles + felicity huffman + josh molina= underrecognized sorkin golden age. plus it was the first time i saw most sorkiny conceits so they seemed fresh.

i don't really know anything about the substance of those creative differences fwiw. in general i sympathize with writers who get notes/revision suggestions from actors, but if that's why sorkin got annoyed with charles, i don't know, maybe he should have listened.

sarah and i have tried to start sports night twice, have yet to actually finish watching the pilot - the whole thing is so artificial and '90s it's unbearable

the pilot is much worse than the rest of the show fwiw

i would just skip it if i were you tbh

i like artificial though

yeah pilot is not good; it takes a couple of episodes for them to lose the laugh track and weird sitcom-y conceits, but if you can ride that out it's worth it.

I love the 90's-office with the glass-bricks everywhere

they don't lose the laugh track at all, even in the second season, i think? there are weird ghostly returns of it. that whole situation is inexplicable.

isn't the second episode the one where dan apologizes to his brother on-air? that's when the show gets good imo. /sap

no I thought it faded out after a few episodes into the first season, maybe more than 2 or 3. I'm pretty sure it's gone by the end of S1

oh god that brother apology is outstanding

i'm kind of amazed this show could wind up as self-parodying as it seems, considering how quickly everyone in the internet smelled self-parody

yeah the laugh track was definitely gone by s2

i'm kind of amazed this show could wind up as self-parodying as it seems, considering how quickly everyone in the internet smelled self-parody

― da croupier, Friday, June 22, 2012 5:14 PM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean...he may not have agreed with all the criticism of Studio 60 but you'd think he'd at least realize that repeating certain aspects of it were not going to go over well

this seems appropriate

http://www.funnyordie.com/pictures/58a52edd85/the-first-few-pages-of-aaron-sorkin-s-steve-jobs-biopic

As they say, "One man's Mede is another man's Persian."

oh man, this was actually p bad huh. the whole season is just gonna be emily mortimer's beseeching face & endless cycles of affirmation & reaffirmation & pledging & repledging of commitment to a non-specific noble idea.

schlump

Well make up yr mind which is it

Finished this, hobbes otm with summary rly

If you tried to take it as seriously as it wanted, more fool you id say.

The hamfisted smug arguments on all sides, well again if you choose to see these as things worth railing against sure youd get vexed but this was a zingy sexy sitcom about how much jeff daniels could try to get sorkin away with and i repeat macs blouse/skirt/winsome trinity is unbeaten

sorkin is lame is how i break it down to an extent