New Sorkin Trailer

We caught up with the show this weekend. A perfect example of why Sorkin's writing annoys me sometimes comes from the 5/1 episode. They are sitting on the plane and Don and the 10 pm host realize that it is probably good news because the President is speaking from the East Room. Fair enough for two news vets -- but all Don has to say to Olivia Munn's business reporter is East Room and of course she knows exactly what that means.

 

I found that part interesting...just because I never thought of it before that. Good news = East Room. Bad = Oval Office.

 

Yeah, but the fact that she immediately knows what that means isn't realistic for the character.

 

Eh, she does have like PhDs. She's supposed to be dense about human emotions, not logical stuff.

Alison Pill, I've decided, is the Jar Jar Binks of The Newsroom. The shit where she and Jim were arguing about whether he should break-up with her roommate -- in the middle of the Bin Laden story! -- was the most annoying thing imaginable. I want a cut of The Newsroom that includes none of the relationship crap. My enjoyment would spike 25 percent.

 

I couldn't help but laugh when we got a psychiatrist scene, and also when Adam Arkin (the psychiatrist from West Wing) shows up a few episodes later (as the RNC guy's bitch). As has been pointed out, Sorkin is freaking brutal when it comes to reusing plot devices and actors. I'm already giddy thinking about where Joshua Malina will fit in. I also can't wait for an episode where one of the characters is writing a letter home and describing everything that's happening.

Seriously though, I like the show. Some of the Sorkin signatures detract from it and others add to it. In the end, I like it. Looking up Arkin's name reminded how great West Wing was, though, and Newsroom simply isn't close. Arkin's first episode as the doc in West Wing is "Noël" midway through the second season, when he's helping treat Josh for PTSD. That whole episode, from the plot to the writing (the exchange between Josh and Leo about the man in the hole) to the reverberating music and the way it all came together ... I smile at the end of Newsroom episodes. My heart skipped a beat at the end of West Wing episodes.

 

Agreed on all points. The difference is particularly clear to me as I'm working my way through The West Wing on DVD right now as well.

"Noël" is outstanding. I loved the way Sorkin used to fit small references to it in later episodes. A couple of times, they would make references to the way Josh connects certain forms of music and gunfire. And there is one point in an episode over a year later when Josh wants to do something for Leo. I forget exactly why. And Leo tries to guess, incorrectly, why Josh is doing it.

"Because there was this guy in a hole."

 

Haven't watched this Sunday's ep yet but caught a few back-to-back while catching up and while it has grown on me in a sense (I've given up on the notion that it's firmly based in reality, much like I did with the football scenes during the first season of "Friday Night Lights") the biggest issue I have is the abrupt tonal shifts. It goes from "super serious, we're saving the fucking world here people" to "OMG, Jim totally likes me" screwball faster than you can down a handful of 'shrooms.
I think that's where Sorkin benefited from working in commercial TV. Those 2-minute breaks allowed him to come back and reset. Here it just seems jittery.

 

Maybe, but I just finished watching his entire run on West Wing without commercials and it was still so much better than The Newsroom.

 

Moddy, does Sorkin know about Jim's singing talent? I fear he may begin plotting a Gilbert and Sullivan themed episode for season two the minute he sees your post.

 

I liked in the party episode when he was getting his ass kicked in Guitar Hero against Dev Patel's girlfriend (who also dated Tom Haverford in Parks and Rec. Is she typecast as a woman with a thing for Indian dudes?) and his response was "You know, I can play an actual guitar."

 

In that same episode, he and Jeff Daniels did a guitar/singing duet. Can't remember the song right off hand ...