...then yes, what you saw at approximately 6:33 PM tonight Pacific time was Aaron Sorkin
officially turning into a parody of himself.
My god. Does he not know that
there are people out here who know his work, and know when he's shamelessly
copping from it?
It is a shame, really, because up until then, it was a
pretty good episode. As last week's was, to my fancy; in its entirety. But then, wow did it swerve into a ditch. I mean, he was already using a trick he used
on Sports Night, with a guy showing up at a therapist's office; insisting he's
not there for a session; then staying for the whole episode and relating a
story in flashback.
But I was willing to write that off as a trusty storytelling
device. After all, he once used the
"episode in the form of a letter or letters" trick on Sports Night
and then used it again on West Wing, and the second example was the better
episode.
But here...it's not just that he's reusing character traits
from The West Wing--which was kind of a popular show, which makes it even more
incredible if he thinks no one will catch him at it. It's not even only that he's giving Will
McAvoy a piece of the same back story he gave President Bartlett--a physically
abusive parent.
(Seriously, does he not know there are those of us out here
who speak Sorkin as fluently as the "Sloan Sabbath"--I don't even
know what to say about that name, except maybe that it's deranged--character speaks Japanese?)
But anyway, he presented it (the character trait) in almost
exactly the same way, with a shrink (or character essentially acting as one) just firing the character exposition out, in a confrontational way, before any
ground's been laid for the audience.*
It was cheap, and I expect better from Sorkin.
(And then there was the show's usual problem of integrating the lives of its characters with the global issues they cover)
(And then there was the show's usual problem of integrating the lives of its characters with the global issues they cover)
*I don't think it worked terribly well on West Wing either,
but at least then, he hadn't done it before.
2 comments:
Why do I always feel with Sorkin that the wheels are seconds from coming off the bus. I loved all that Olivia Munn stuff last night - she knocked it out of the park. I KNOW this show will wear itself out but I keep hoping I will want to keep watching.
Sigh...I really do miss the Sorkin who wasn't phoning it in all the time....
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