Running Studio 60 thread (spoilers)

The problem with your argument, HH, is that Sorkin already proved with Ainsley Hayes that you could put a Christian conservative on television as a figure of competence and strength. It's the fact that a) the woman playing Harry is just an awful actress, and b) that the constant veering between she's-a-Christian and she's-a-hottie-who-does-baseball-players made the character incoherent.
That, and Sorkin's constant apologizing for his own politics, which came damn close to ruining TWW for me.

 

But the Ainsley Hayes character got disappeared at some point, right?

I mean, the Harriet character is part of the essential machinery. You'll get no argument, though, that Paulson was the wrong person for the job.

 

I just got caught up with Thursday's show. And, although I still look forward to the advancement of the storylines...

and I don't have the Matt-Harriet problems some others do...

and I do think Peet and Whitford have considerable chemistry...

The political preachiness just got too, too thick in this one. It's as if Sorkin is now flaunting that he can make us listen to his outlook on world affairs.

THAT'S the part that bothers me about the show.

 

In a sense, though, the whole series has felt like that.

And it promised more the first night, when Wes seemed to call out the current level of political humor by namechecking George W. and George Plimpton.

 

Sorry to bump this thread, but in the beginning of the show, with Harriet, I said, "If she prays, I'm going to puke."

 

The problem I've got with Harriet is the dual nature of her character. She drops to her knees and starts praying aloud in one scene, yet she has no problem with pre-marital sex.

 

I don't know many people who aren't hypocrites in one way or another. In my former religion, we called it Catholicism a la carte, and I think it exists across all denominations and ideologies.

 

Hypocrisy is one thing, it's the extreme nature of her hypocrisy that is jarring.

Being in the Bible Belt, I know a ton of Holy Rollers and Bible Thumpers. I can't imagine a scenario where one of them would immediately drop to their knees and start praying aloud like that.

 

Fair enough.

I can imagine it, though. I dated someone like that here in the Deep South. When we drove past a church one day and she waved and said "Hi, Jesus!" I realized I was not the guy for her.

 

So JD, just to be clear: You think the Harriet character is believable?

 

I'm not saying I believe everything about her -- just that I've seen that type of duality in a twentysomething Christian woman before.

 

I think we all have seen SOME duality in 20-something Christian women...but this much?

I'm with Inky...when she actually dropped to her knees in a crowded room and started praying out loud, I realized -- though not for the first time -- that Aaron Sorkin would much rather make his ex-girlfriend look like an idiot than create a realistic character.