Sweet on Sorkin

I have always been a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin.  In high school and college, I adored the West Wing...even though I could only truly "get" about half of what was said.  His writing is so smart and so quick, that you (maybe just I) have to pay super-close attention or you'll (maybe just I'll) miss the whole point. SportsNight was good but I'd probably enjoy it more now.  And Studio 60 was high on my list of favorites for reasons other than plot...I kinda love Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford.

So imagiine my excitement when I heard that he was writing a new show for HBO: The Newsroom.  What I love about Sorkin and what most people find off-putting is that he's an eternal optimist, extremely intelligent and an uber-liberal. What is to most people, him being "elitist" is to me, a beautiful view of what the world could be.   The first episode had all the qualities of Sorkin that I love, but for once it was almost too much.  The episode was over-the top idealistic.  Jeff Daniels is brilliant as Will McAvoy and can easily pull off the Sorkin banter as well as the wordy diatribes he's so fond of.  But I wasn't sure how "exciting" a newroom could be week after week and I definitely wasn't sure of the people surrounding Will McAvoy.  Big names but not the greatest characters. 

Cut to 6 weeks in and I'm happy to say I was utterly and completely wrong.  The show has finally hit its stride and it's riveting television!  Sure, Sorkin reuses a lot of what he's written before (see the Sorkin video I posted a few weeks back) and I've already found at least 2 plot devices that were used in the West Wing.  But...if it's not broke, why fix it?  Jeff Daniels continues to astound me week after week.  He's truly an amazing actor  and I'm constantly wondering why I haven't noticed that before.  The other characters are finally coming together as well.  The classic Sorkin humor, word play and heart is all there.  Even the concept of the newsroom is being kept exciting by focusing on the biggest stories from the last 2 years.  I'm super happy with the direction this show is going in, and I'm so glad that I decided to stick with it. 

So what if he's idealistic, at least he's writing a story with an actual plot, and  actual characters with actual brains. He's a very bright spot in a sea of utterly trashy reality shows and competitions. 

So, I guess you could say, I'm a fan.

A pretty fantastic opening, and a classic Sorkin speech all rolled into one. (And all in all, fairly true...) PS: Language is a little strong so beware.