Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom

Started by ono, May 16, 2012, 07:41:29 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ono

Aaron Sorkin is back with a drama that's hopefully a cross of The West Wing and Sports Night.  The optimist in me thinks it could be really good.  The pessimist says he's just rehashing old ground.  With Jeff Daniels on board, it's definitely gonna be worth more than a cursory glance.

Here's the teaser:

http://www.filmofilia.com/first-aaron-sorkins-the-newsroom-teaser-96508/

Some thoughts: the event is similar to that that kicked off S60, an on-air meltdown of sorts.  Sam Waterston's character, clad in bowtie, so reminds me of William H. Macy's Sam Donovan from Sports Night in demeanor, in just that one line, "get it together."  This could really be something.  I'm excited.

It premieres June 24th on HBO.

Pwaybloe

This certainly looks like familiar territory for Sorkin and company.  However, with Network being one of my all time favorite movies, it will be interesting to see if they keep their subject matter non-satirical.  It's hard to do. 

ono

HBO put the pilot online for free.  It's 72:52!



I really enjoyed it, but I expected I would.  I think the most exhilarating part was seeing these green people fly into action and succeed.  Really kind of inspirational.  Jeff Daniels plays such a compelling protagonist, and you find yourself anxious to get inside his head to see what drives him and how he got to this place in his career.  Still waiting for the other characters to be fleshed out.  They don't have the immediate allure of those from S60, but maybe that's a good thing.  The length of the pilot made it play like a short movie.  I wonder how liberal HBO will be with the runtimes of the rest of the episodes.  Anyway, I'm still learning about the characters and their names and whatnot so I don't have anything much else to say.  Just through I'd throw that link up there, see if anyone else digs it.

pete

that was pretty sanctimonious, right?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

malkovich

The whole thing reeks of Sorkin and his soapbox way of writing (especially in the beginning with the whole "Why is America the best country in the world" response, yeesh) but it starts working better halfway through onto the end of the pilot. To its credit, even when it's cringe-inducing, it is watchable in a fascinating sort of way. I think the show has potential.

©brad

Quote from: pete on June 25, 2012, 05:30:58 PM
that was pretty sanctimonious, right?
[/quote

And preachy and mawkish and so naive it's almost cynical and ultimately, pretty freakin' boring. And ugh that title sequence! This belongs on ABC, not HBO.

modage

I haven't seen Newsroom yet but this is pretty great...

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

diggler

Sure it's preachy, but what Sorkin isn't? I love seeing Sam Waterston use the F word.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

polkablues

Quote from: modage on June 26, 2012, 01:09:36 PM
I haven't seen Newsroom yet but this is pretty great...

That was astonishing.

And The Newsroom is pretty great so far.  If anyone but Sorkin tried to get away with this shit it wouldn't fly, but there's something so unapologetically bombastic about his approach to storytelling that I just plain dig.  I'm happy to have him back on TV.
My house, my rules, my coffee

©brad

Yeah I know the latter half of the episode picks up speed and I won't deny Sorkin's talent. I'm not a hater nor an apologist. But recently he made what is now an infamous quote that's driving me nuts: "I think I would have done very well, as a writer, in the forties. I think the last time America was a great country was then, or not long after. It was before Vietnam, before Watergate." Gawker did a much better job of debunking him than I could but come on, Jeff Daniels' character is obviously a mouthpiece for Sorkin, and that opening speech proclaiming this illusion of a past America that was somehow better was complete bullshit. Who in the motherfuck besides rich white guys really thinks the 40s in America or anywhere were better in anyway than now. Anyone who thinks that has either a screw loose or some thinly veiled bigoted/homophobic/misogynistic underbelly. And his unrelenting hatred of the millennials and the internet, it's all so antiquated. And he still can't consistently write a female character who's an actual human being to save his fucking life. Every woman in Sorkinville is there merely to serve a fatally flawed but infinitely more substantial and worthy man.


Brando

That 40s comment was stupid. There were people in the 40s saying the same thing.  Woody Allen made an entire movie about it!


I'm on the same page as everyone else seems to be saying. I thought it was the direction in the beginning that was at fault.  You had Sorkin's writing that needs to be fast paced but the direction seemed to be fighting it in order to have the momentum build as the news story hit. As the momentum of the show picked up the better it got.
If you think this is going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

pete

he's like a david mamet who is not a douchebag.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

polkablues

They're kind of both douchebags, though.  They're sort of opposite douchebags to each other.  Like if they ever shook hands the universe would implode.
My house, my rules, my coffee

pete

yeah but you know what I mean - a liberal douchebag vs proud new conservative douchebag.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Tictacbk

Man did this show take a nosedive for ep 2. Hope it gets better seeing as it just got picked up for a second season.