sorry, I thought it was funny :(
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 22 June 2012 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
"dang people didn't like studio 60...well, maybe i just picked the wrong kind of tv to be ridiculously self-righteous about"
― da croupier, Friday, 22 June 2012 21:27 (eleven years ago) link
"clearly the world is mistaken and needs to be shown more of my genius"
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 22 June 2012 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
you know what's cooler than a million ipods...?
― Mordy, Friday, 22 June 2012 21:36 (eleven years ago) link
Olivia Munn makes me even less interested.
Seconded. She is horrible.
― Simon H., Friday, 22 June 2012 21:41 (eleven years ago) link
Christ, Sorkin is such an unloveable prick:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-to-get-under-aaron-sorkins-skin-and-also-how-to-high-five-properly/article4363455/
He denies being either an ideologue or a modernist, agreeing only that the show is written in his voice, and that said voice is “authorial” (both my word and his). I’d posit that creating an authorial drama in a time of mumbling, precarious, voice-of-a-generation comedy almost absolutely constitutes an ideology, one both modernist and masculinist. But conveniently, at that moment, the interview’s over.“Listen here, Internet girl,” he says, getting up. “It wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while.” I’m not sure how he’s forgotten that I am writing for a newspaper; looking over the publicist’s shoulder, I see that every reporter is from a print publication (do not see: Drew Magary). I remind him. I say also, factually, “I have a New York Times subscription and an HBO subscription. Any other advice?”He looks surprised, then high-fives me. Being not a person who high-fives or generally makes physical contact with interview subjects, I look more surprised.“I’m sick of girls who don’t know how to high-five,” he says. He makes me try to do it “properly,” six times. He also makes me laugh; I’m nervous, and it’s so absurd. He loves it. He says, “Let me manhandle you.” Then he ambles off, hoping I’ll write something nice, as though he has never known how the news works, how many stories can be true.
“Listen here, Internet girl,” he says, getting up. “It wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while.” I’m not sure how he’s forgotten that I am writing for a newspaper; looking over the publicist’s shoulder, I see that every reporter is from a print publication (do not see: Drew Magary). I remind him. I say also, factually, “I have a New York Times subscription and an HBO subscription. Any other advice?”
He looks surprised, then high-fives me. Being not a person who high-fives or generally makes physical contact with interview subjects, I look more surprised.
“I’m sick of girls who don’t know how to high-five,” he says. He makes me try to do it “properly,” six times. He also makes me laugh; I’m nervous, and it’s so absurd. He loves it. He says, “Let me manhandle you.” Then he ambles off, hoping I’ll write something nice, as though he has never known how the news works, how many stories can be true.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 June 2012 15:12 (eleven years ago) link
chrrrrriiiiiist almighty. ugh
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 23 June 2012 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
“I’m sick of girls who don’t know how to high-five,”
amazing!
― blossom smulch (schlump), Saturday, 23 June 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
Since when is hi-five-ing some kind of important life skill
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 23 June 2012 18:22 (eleven years ago) link
When you're a frustrated middle-aged wannabe jock. And boy howdy does he just fucking OOZE that.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 23 June 2012 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
haha sorkin's interest in strong female characters/totally over-the-top condescension toward women/awareness of his own tendency toward sexist condescension is one of the most compelling nodes in his constellation of being incredibly frustrating to me.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 23 June 2012 20:01 (eleven years ago) link
yeah but how many of his heroines could have "knows how to high five" in their character description
― some dude, Saturday, 23 June 2012 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
btw how surreal is it that there's nobody named 'Danny' in this show
― some dude, Saturday, 23 June 2012 20:20 (eleven years ago) link
i couldn't make it through the whole episode
― buh, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:36 (eleven years ago) link
haters gonna hate and there's a lot of bad but there's some good but what really interests me is that it doesn't feel like it should be on HBO at all.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:36 (eleven years ago) link
Some good, yes, but it's mostly like a louder, more unpleasant Sports Night.
― to welcome jer.fairall, pie is served. (jer.fairall), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:41 (eleven years ago) link
i really wanted to like it. i loved west wing as much as anyone, but damn this was bad
inexplicably bad acting from waterston
― buh, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:42 (eleven years ago) link
what really interests me is that it doesn't feel like it should be on HBO at all.
that's because it feels like a worse version of shit he did on network tv
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:43 (eleven years ago) link
getting out of this show graciously may be hard for hbo, as the horses being beaten are already dead.
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:45 (eleven years ago) link
should i watch this guys?
― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
i must admit i'm intrigued by emily nussbaum saying each of the first four episodes is worse than the one before it
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:49 (eleven years ago) link
Waterston was way off, yeah. xposts
Clunky, Sorkinesque stuff with rousing speeches and an utterly lack of cynicism. It's axe-grinding, but not wholly unpleasant as of yet (I expect that will change *very* quickly). I'm interested to see how he's structured the season. I also totally and utterly believe in a lot of the ideas but it's cheap to re-do the BP Oil Spill with 20/20 etc.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:50 (eleven years ago) link
we reached for the stars, and we acted like men
― buh, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:52 (eleven years ago) link
That was pretty Sam Seaborn.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:54 (eleven years ago) link
felt like a parody to me. that schmaltzy music playing over it didn't help
― buh, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:56 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah but West Wing was never much better. Maybe it's *we* who have changed.... ~~deep~~
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 03:57 (eleven years ago) link
I never watched the West Wing when it was on, but after some Studio 60, The Social Network and this, I don't know how I could take it seriously now
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 03:58 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know what your problem with The Social Network was, at the very least in regards to the tone/corniness that pervades his other work.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:02 (eleven years ago) link
well you've already said "haters gonna hate" in regards to this, so i'm not surprised
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:05 (eleven years ago) link
well i didn't mean that in regards to my opinion on The Newsroom (it isn't good, fwiw), but TSN is a lot different because of FIncher (this has been discussed i know) so I was just curious.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:07 (eleven years ago) link
fincher definitely lit it better but the script was still pretty facts-through-the-sorkintron-3000
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:09 (eleven years ago) link
ah right, so it's the facts that bother you and not the tone/delivery/preaching/grandstanding?
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:10 (eleven years ago) link
xp, but it won't matter much
In re: Sorkin. I watched Moneyball in a theater. I watched The Social Network on dvd at home with my wife. Never watched The West Wing. Maybe two episodes of Sports Network or what ever it was called. That's it.
He appears to know how to write a screenplay so it has the requisite number of acts and can write dialogue that has a bit of snap. I was amused. I would watch something else he wrote. Probably.
His Achillean Heel is a simplistic sentimentality in his method of summarizing characters and their inner selves. This shortcoming will not hurt him with the general public. As a rule, sentimetality plays very well with the masses. He's no crappier than, say, Neil Simon in his later years, when the jokes got more formulaic.
― Aimless, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:12 (eleven years ago) link
"Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" still a perfect episode of network television imo.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:14 (eleven years ago) link
Gukbe otm
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:15 (eleven years ago) link
the social network was pretty entertaining, but the ways that sorkin changes the facts and the words he puts in their mouths fit pretty comfortably with his whole hackneyed chayefsky aesthetic, so it adds to my point that it'd be hard to watch the west wing already being familiar with his later work, even if fincher and cast sugared the pill.
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:17 (eleven years ago) link
I think TSN was a lot more ambiguous than that, because of Fincher and the performances, but yeah I wonder if watching The West Wing now for the first time would find it grating.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:23 (eleven years ago) link
I mean if this isn't sorkin tone/grandstanding/delivery/preaching...
Erica Albright: It didn't stop you from writing it. As if every thought that tumbles through your head was so clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared. The Internet's not written in pencil, Mark, it's written in ink. And you published that Erica Albright was a bitch, right before you made some ignorant crack about my family's name, my bra size, and then rated women based on their hotness.Reggie: Erica, is there a problem?Erica Albright: [Turning to talk to Reggie] No, there's no problem.Erica Albright: [Turning back to face Mark] You write your snide bullshit from a dark room because that's what the angry do nowadays. I was nice to you, don't torture me for it.
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:24 (eleven years ago) link
it isn't really
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:25 (eleven years ago) link
there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie, gukbe. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:26 (eleven years ago) link
like, a character being upset that the protagonist behaved like a shit and then was very verbose in her rebuke doesn't really fit the bill compared to a Sam Seaborn speech or Bartlett talking to the ghost of Mrs. Landingham or Chandler talking about True Satire or whatever
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:27 (eleven years ago) link
again, that's just verbose. that's not preaching/grandstanding.
but i see what you mean. like you've heard one Mamet script you've heard them all etc.... I respect that.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:28 (eleven years ago) link
i will admit my sense of what his aesthetic amounts to is based on the post-curdle end of his career, that and some of those early '90s "you can't handle the truth"/"i am god" hits
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:30 (eleven years ago) link
though if you don't think "You write your snide bullshit from a dark room because that's what the angry do nowadays" isn't grandstanding, you may be aaron sorkin.
― da croupier, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:31 (eleven years ago) link
this kinda gave me a rush during the broadcast part of the episode but it was largely really annoying
― J0rdan S., Monday, 25 June 2012 04:31 (eleven years ago) link
also i'm not really sure how they're going to be able to pull off this alternate history where a nightly news broadcast breaks news... the entire thing just seems so fossilized. but i guess that shouldn't really be a surprise.
― J0rdan S., Monday, 25 June 2012 04:32 (eleven years ago) link
every single character detail/relationship tension/loss of faith/renewal of faith plot point etc etc of this episode was lifted directly from sports night or the west wing.
― horseshoe, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:35 (eleven years ago) link
Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer's bickering is gonna get old real fast.
― to welcome jer.fairall, pie is served. (jer.fairall), Monday, 25 June 2012 04:36 (eleven years ago) link
― buh, Sunday, June 24, 2012 11:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah! i think he doesn't have the knack of sorkin dialogue yet. he's no isaac jaffee.
― horseshoe, Monday, 25 June 2012 04:37 (eleven years ago) link