On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 5:17 PM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]>wrote:
> All but one person of the writing staff of Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama (which > included former MTV VJ Gideon Yago) has been fired and will be replaced, > although it's no big secret that Sorkin calls all the shots and does the > overwhelming bulk of the writing (unlike most TV shows, particularly > sitcoms, where the writing is a group effort and script authorship credits > are sometimes arbitrary), so it'll be another group of writers twiddling > their thumbs while Sorkin does everything and hoping maybe for a story or > co-writing credit--maybe: > > > http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/aaron-sorkins-newsroom-undergoes-writer-turnover-48521 > Kevin M. [email protected] Other sources on the Twitter are refuting the claim. ********************** I agree that it does not matter much one way or the other, since Sorkin writes his scripts and uses the room for research and as a wall to bounce ideas off of. This does remind me though to note that by now I have watched the first 4 episodes, and I am still waiting for the sharp decline in quality that the TV critics supposedly based their pans on. Again, it is not a perfect or even great show. The criticism that he is too preachy is lazy, a canned retread of previous Sorkin criticism. I don't find that to be a problem at all. The main flaws I see have to do with Sorkin's romantic comedy. He thinks he is great at this, but he is more hit-and-miss. I guess American President was pretty good; the Jeremy-Natalie relationship was good, but not so much because of the romantic stuff, but just because they were likable and interesting characters. I always found the Çasey-Dana stuff to be the most tiresome part of Sports Night. The best romantic banter in WW was between Josh and Donna, but Sorkin just fell into that by accident, and did not plan it out. He had some other pretty good romantic comedy writing in WW, with Josh and Amy and Mallory and Sam, but also some real clunkers (never forget Mandy). His next show was ruined by poorly executed attempts at romantic comedy, and these are the weakest and most contrived parts of Newsroom. But when he focuses on their work, on the news, the show is good to very good. I think the convention of being set in the recent past is very effective - particularly when they put a graphic up, just as their fictional world intersects with some real news story, giving the date inside the episode. Newsroom is not better than any of the 5 series nominated for an Emmy today, but it is as good or better than many of the dramatic series not nominated that will be on schedules this season. I am happy to be able to watch at least two seasons of it. -- 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
