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Posted

i work at the white house.

 

do we have a west wing thread? 

if i'm ever in a shitty mood, 20 hours in america makes everything better.  possibly surpassing "somebody's going to emergency, somebody's going to jail" as my favorite. 

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Posted

i listened to whitford's wtf podcast recently, and although they didn't get into the show nearly as much as i would've hoped, he talked about sorkin writing 4 full seasons of network tv by himself (22 per season).  compared it to essentially writing 11 oscar-worthy movies.  by himself.  every year.  for four years.  ongoing, not like he had a bunch of scripts stocked up.  he wrote in real time.

we'll never see that again.

only this and mad men can i just watch great dialogue scenes over and over.

Posted
22 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

One of the best shows ever. I've tried to pick a favorite episode but have never been able to come up with just one. 

Every episode with Ainsley Hayes.

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Posted
sorkin writing 4 full seasons of network tv by himself (22 per season) ... by himself.  every year.  for four years.  ongoing, not like he had a bunch of scripts stocked up.  he wrote in real time.

we'll never see that again.

 

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

 

Posted
11 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

 

sam is so great in that episode.  "there are just certain things you're sure of, like longitudes and latitudes."  yeah, you may wanna talk to cj about that.

#bigblockofcheeseday

Posted

God damn it I miss that show and would kill to have a President Bartlett.

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Posted
33 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Amy Gardner episodes are nice too. It’s a tribute to the writing and acting quality that I am nowhere near liberal yet WW is one of my favorite shows ever. 

i think it was a good mix, because the people you rooted for believed a certain way, but in the show, they lost more often than they won.  if it got all high and mighty with "this is what we believe, and we're fighting for it, and we won, because it was obvious we were right", it wouldn't have worked.  it also wouldn't have worked as well if they were all on the far right and lost more often.  it was the perfect recipe for enjoyable television.

i think the issue (there were many) with newsroom, is that he tried to replicate characters from west wing, but in a cable news setting.  the problem was you had all these smooth talking, cocky, capable, sarcastic characters in the west wing, brilliantly played by great actors.  at times they would act all high and mighty (see my josh clip above) but shit, they worked in the west wing.  their job was to make the world a better place (in theory).  when you had not as great actors, not as great characters, acting that way when they essentially worked for msnbc, doesn't work so well.  it came off very self-important and made every character unlikable.  

right after this clip - "i read every word of that memo (points at charlie)"

Posted
20 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

i think it was a good mix, because the people you rooted for believed a certain way, but in the show, they lost more often than they won.  if it got all high and mighty with "this is what we believe, and we're fighting for it, and we won, because it was obvious we were right", it wouldn't have worked.  it also wouldn't have worked as well if they were all on the far right and lost more often.  it was the perfect recipe for enjoyable television.

i think the issue (there were many) with newsroom, is that he tried to replicate characters from west wing, but in a cable news setting.  the problem was you had all these smooth talking, cocky, capable, sarcastic characters in the west wing, brilliantly played by great actors.  at times they would act all high and mighty (see my josh clip above) but shit, they worked in the west wing.  their job was to make the world a better place (in theory).  when you had not as great actors, not as great characters, acting that way when they essentially worked for msnbc, doesn't work so well.  it came off very self-important and made every character unlikable.  

Agreed.  Josh is a great example.  He was an interesting character and likeable guy, and you find yourself rooting for him.  But at times the guy was so consumed by his own hubris you also wanted to bang his head against the wall.

And also agreed about The Newsroom.  That one felt less like an idealized view of what our leadership should be and more like a liberal circle-jerk, wet dream rant-fest.

Posted

great josh moment, when discussing (in s2) whether hoynes might actually challenge a sitting president for the ticket.

"to do that, he'd have to be the craziest vice president since aaron burr, and burr shot a guy."

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