The anti-Sorkin backlash might be traced to shallow folk hating his smugness or smart people disliking his preachy side - or conservatives perceiving liberal bias hidden beneath the ostensibly Republican clothing of Daniels' character. But I thought it was bracing and consistently involving. When he gets too preachy, I just ignore the heavy-handedness and admire the eloquence. And I do love this cast already. Still IMHO, it'll have to go quite a ways to be better than "Sports Night."
On Jun 25, 3:13 pm, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]>wrote: > > > That kick-him-while-he's-down thing the Internet does so well as Wonkette > > gleefully reports the critical pans for "The Newsroom," premiering tonight > > on HBO: > > >http://wonkette.com/476247/a-childrens-treasury-of-brutal-reviews-of-... > > > And no Sorkin fan in the comments (as far as I can see) accusing the > > author of being an apologist for reality shows. > > I have avoided reading anything about this show until I had a chance to > watch it (which I just did this afternoon). I am a Sorkin Slut, so > predictably I guess I like it well enough. I am trying my best to > understand the apparent (I have only read the linked wonkette dumping, but > it alludes to lots of others) thumbs down the media is giving the show - I > guess part of it might be that they apparently have seen several episodes > already, while I have only seen the one; maybe they get worse (S60 > certainly did, after a fantastic pilot). Another part I suppose is that > Sorkin's shows do come off with a tude of thinking of themselves as the > best thing on TV; if they are only pretty good as opposed to historically > great, everyone feels justified in taking their dump on it. With the caveat > that I am basing this only on the pilot, I can not think of a show on > broadcast television this last season that I liked better than Newsroom; I > can think of several cable shows I liked better; I would rank this below > Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland, Justified and Game of Thrones, about even > with Boss and The Killing (I know, but I thought Season 2 got a lot > better), and better than that Wagon Train show about the building of the > railroad (blocking its name right now). > > The good news for me is that there was no actor in the cast that I just > hated (as with Studio 60), and the main actors were all pretty good to > great (Daniels and Mortimer especially). I thought Waterston was a little > disappointing, and I am not sure about the young blond girl. Why did I have > the vague idea that Jane Fonda was in this show (not that I am complaining > about her absence)? Sorkin does have his weaknesses, and this show reflects > some of them, but a show that is basically a cross between Sportsnight and > West Wing is good enough to get a season pass from me. > > But, I am going to go watch Broadcast News now... -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
