Aaron Sorkin HBO show The Newsroom

[water_into_wine]

Even if this is a mess I'll probably watch for good summer television.

[water_into_wine]

Sam Waterson just killed me with that.

[Beebz]

Half hour in Im not sure what the complaints are. Very Sorkiny but extremely well done so far.

[gjdt2scf13]

I'll check it out later. How was the opening scene though? Even with the poor reviews, I see many of them commenting that the opening scene is pure brilliance

[Beebz]

Opening scene owned. Just owned.

[thestand]

Originally Posted by Beebz

Half hour in Im not sure what the complaints are. Very Sorkiny but extremely well done so far.

Most of the reviews had the first four episodes. EP1 is a strong lead, as you'd expect. EP2 is meh, and EP3 and 4 are abysmal.

[Beebz]

Did you see em all yet? Or is that the review consensus?

[thestand]

"Most of the reviews."

I'm a fan of Sorkin, I loved basically all of Studio 60, so I'm sure those "terrible" episodes I'll be fine with. But I was just explaining why there's a negative connotation to the series, even with this great episode.

[Beebz]

Was that Eisenberg as the MMS voice?

[dmbbearcat]

Is he slinging his political views around in this show?

[Beebz]

Nice little surprise there at the end.

Fantastic pilot. Really hope it doesnt crater like it seems it will.

[joshizzle3]

I didn't watch this tonight. Will take full advantage of having HBO over the summer and check it out soon. I watched every episode of Studio 60 as it aired, loved it to death. Can't wait for this.

[water_into_wine]

Yeah, this one was pretty awesome.

[dre2142]

I really liked it. Some inacurracies of how things are done in a news room, some far fetched situations, but overall I think it was well done and overall a fair portrayal. Once again an HBO series fiction matches my reality. If I become a professional wrestler in my future, I bet HBO will start a series on it

Hopefully it gets stronger as it goes as most HBO series do.....and not tank like the reviews are saying.

Regarding the far fetchiness...Sorkin doesnt mind:

"“I think the reason it’s been reviewed as far-fetched is that it’s far-fetched,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Every bit as far-fetched as a Democratic administration that gets stuff done,” he added, referring to the accomplished — and entirely fictional — Bartlet administration in “The West Wing,” which he also wrote. "

[gjdt2scf13]

I loved Studio 60. I am really excited to see this...

[proppenator]

I liked the pilot. As others have said, the opening scene was fantastic, and there were some funny moments throughout the show. Not sure how I feel about this show using ACTUAL news stories...it could work really well, but then, I could see it opening up a lot of opportunity for "preachiness" that other reviewers have complained about.

My only issue with the pilot was that several characters seemed to imply McAvoy got high ratings because he was neutral and kept his opinions to himself, while the partisan news anchors received lower ratings. Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure it's the opposite in reality, but I could be wrong.

[gjdt2scf13]

going to check this out later night.

Are there any ratings news? curious how many people tuned in for the premiere

[Beebz]

Originally Posted by gjdt2scf13

going to check this out later night.

Are there any ratings news? curious how many people tuned in for the premiere

2.1 million. Higher than True Blood premiere, same as Game of Thrones season 1 premiere. Well off the 4.8 Boardwalk Empire got.

[smokew11]

Originally Posted by Beebz

2.1 million. Higher than True Blood premiere, same as Game of Thrones season 1 premiere. Well off the 4.8 Boardwalk Empire got.

i dont know how much that really says about anything

- i think most people were vampire'd out when true blood came..took a little bit i guess for it to pick up

- GoT is one of those niche shows at first before becomming a phenomenon

- Boardwalk is about 20's and gangsters. ALWAYS a hit if its done right...Buschemi + Scorsese = gold

[dre2142]

Originally Posted by smokew11

i dont know how much that really says about anything

- i think most people were vampire'd out when true blood came..took a little bit i guess for it to pick up

- GoT is one of those niche shows at first before becomming a phenomenon

- Boardwalk is about 20's and gangsters. ALWAYS a hit if its done right...Buschemi + Scorsese = gold

I hated the 1st few episodes of Boardwalk. I gave up on the 1st and 2nd episode a few times before giving a last chance. Glad I did.

[~Crashintome89~]

Finally watched. First episode was great. I'm expecting great things from Sorkin since it's on HBO.

[DIDriveOut2SPAC]

I loved it, no complaints yet.

[VanHorneDog]

i'm just hoping that the fictional Santos administration breaks up and Josh Lyman joins the political science team! boyah!

hahah, but really, im a fan of bradley whiteford, kinda bummed that there are no old Sorkin actors in the show.

[thebridge15]

Watched about two minutes, couldn't stand to watch anymore. It was the scene where Daniels argues with his old executive producer. I'll probably end up watching the full premiere at some point but I'm not excited about it.

[daveshookme]

I just watched the opening scene and it's absolutely god damn fantastic. Very Sorkin-y, sure. But if you're the best at what you do, why should you change? Stand up job with the scene, I'll definitely be watching the rest.

[PilotC150]

I loved it. There's no reason to listen to any bad reviews on Sorkin shows. People either like him, or don't like him. There's not much inbetween. You know what you're getting into with a Sorkin show and you like it or you don't.

For me....I love it.

[dre2142]

tsk tsk tsk.....

A supercut of Aaron Sorkin recycled dialogue. Its not even that he does it...its the amount of times he has done it. (7 minutes worth!)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bfeld/a-supe...orkin-dialogue

[TheLastStop123]

Great first episode

[gjdt2scf13]

I enjoyed it

[joshizzle3]

Great episode. Really solid tv. I love Sorkin's dialogue, obviously. I liked the twist about when the story was taking place/what news event was going on. But the twist at the end was pretty dumb, unless they go back to it and address it more realistically later.
I'll definitely keep watching.

Dre interesting to see how much dialogue he repeats (everyone talks about the ping pong room, and I'd heard of some of those others. But here's the first comment on Buzzfeed, that I totally agree with:

Sorkin has often said that to his inner ear, conversations are musical in nature. Many extremely prolific composers fall back on specific musical figures or phrases. In the end, it's not the specific phrase, but what it evokes, and its context of place. They are not the meat of what's being said, but lyrical connective tissue. It's reused because it works.

Also, I imagine many of these particular tropes help spell out a shorthand for the nature of relationships and the kinds of things that inflate or puncture the egos of his characters. Case in point: Danny and Sam both trying to impress a woman, but then having their comedic counterpart point out that despite their intellectual prowess, they may have made an easy but significant blunder, their subsequent uncertainty needling them to no end of distraction. The characters are different, the specifics of the conversation are different, but in the end, the characters are the same, and their predicament is the same. Sorkin sees them (in this moment) as cut from the same cloth; the similarity of exchanges is more about the fact that Sorkin likes to put his characters in similar circumstances and paint them with the same brush strokes, not that he can't write himself out of a shoe box.

I, for one, don't mind it when he paints his signature, broad and unmistakable, across his canvas, especially when the signature is part of the art itself. I like the ring to "not for nothin'" and "how's that working out for you?" If I had half the wit Sorkin does, I'd splatter my conversations with little smirky bits like that. I wish I could get away with it.

At any rate, I take the effort and familiarity required to have assembled this verbal collage to be more a labor of love than anything else. Thanks for taking the time to bring together all these moments. To me, the broad pattern it reveals is like a subtle but distinct rhyme scheme embedded in the poetry of an entire career.

Also... of 6,588 minutes of television and film dialogue (minus a couple hundred for credits), 7 minutes of repeated dialogue ain't all that bad.