You are among my heroes. (A huge hero.) I used to write letters to a friend which detailed how much I wanted to write like you. You were a huge part of my growing up and an enormous part of my personal television obsession.
Here's what's up: apparently right now you hate the internet, gossip and women. And, apparently they all go together. One of the things that I have always loved about your television work is that you show the families that we make for ourselves, particularly those that come from high pressure professional environments. Your TV shows demonstrated the ways that we make powerful relationships that we simultaneously choose and fall into; groups of people that spend endless hours together and share some interests, values, but hopefully still argue about interesting things. That was something that always appealed to me, maybe because I had little experience in the work environment. In theses families everyone made mistakes, had their moment in the sun and supported each other the whole way through.
However, The Newsroom is about a patriarchal family where the women screw up a lot, and Daddy swoops in to make everything better. Or, on the off chance that Daddy makes a error, the women step up and make sacrifices because of their deep (either dying or denied) love for Daddy. (There are several Daddies in this situation.) Mr. Sorkin, what's going on with the women in your life? Cause clearly something's going on and it's all coming out in your writing. (What's with that one character who so far has only clarified that you can in fact have sex in a bathtub?) There's write what you know, but you're still writing to entertain your audience. But right now, that's all you want to talk about. Except that it's not even now, you're obsessed with the now of eighteen months ago. (It should be noted that I thought that would be really cool, but it's turned into lazy writing and spitting on the work of real journalists.)
Dear sir, you are still one of my favorites, but I just watch old episodes of Sports Night after each episode of The Newsroom to make myself feel better. Start writing The Newsroom in a way that entertains and respects me or I will mistakenly send this blog post in an email to everyone you work with.
...because I'm a woman, and I don't understand the modern world or how to operate in it.
Also, don't ever use the word "bitch" that flippantly ever again.
love,
hannah
or, "Internet girl" if you please
2 comments:
I've been reading a lot about The Newsroom (and I'm a little worried at how much I'm enjoying seeing it fail--I don't know where that feeling is coming from exactly but it doesn't seem healthy) but you're the only person I've seen who's made a point about what we've lost or what might have been. Whenever anybody tells me about The West Wing all I hear about are the walk-and-talks or that scene where Martin Sheen lectures that woman about the Old Testament, but your point about the way he writes empowering workplace relationships is really interesting to me. I've only ever seen Moneyball, but I want to go back and watch Sorkin's old stuff now, so thanks for that! There's an expectation that when a network TV writer moves to cable they can really let loose and write the show of their dreams, like Vince Gilligan's transition from The X-Files to Breaking Bad. It makes me really sad that there's a kernel of a good show in The Newsroom, but it's squashed and drowned out by Aaron Sorkin's unbridled Sorkin-ness both inside the show and out. It sucks seeing one of your idols turn into a jerk--as a comic book fan I can attest to this--but at least The Newsroom gives us something to rally around and rebel against. The Newsroom is by all accounts bad, but it's a special kind of bad, the kind that makes people stand up and take notice. It's the crap we grow flowers in, and I'm excited to see the stories that start getting told in response.
"The crap we grow flowers in" is perhaps one of the most beautiful trashing phrases I've ever heard. I read somewhere that what used to make Sorkin's writing special was the shear amount of words and speech he crammed into an hour of television, and that was incredible. The author cited other shows like this, Gilmore Girls being another example I was drawn to. However, now TV has advanced as a medium for storytelling, so now what isn't said becomes more important than what is. I'm totally stealing all their ideas, but I thought that that was really interesting. Then I said, well, hannah, you're still drawn to the shows where people talk a lot. You're behind the times.
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