A Rant, Tiny, Preceeding a Rave, Not Tiny

[itsallovernow]

Dear Aaron Sorkin you recycling, pretentious, genuis hack,

I did not want to watch a show about television. The meta is too much, even for me. Hell, it's too much even for you because the Pilot of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was one gigantic in-joke of meta.

And you know what, I hate you. Because I'm going to watch. I think I have to watch. I had dreams last night, well not dreams so much as those moments where you run the dialogue through your brain over and over again, not because you meant to but because it's there already, clicked in and sort of perfect despite it's awkward rhythms, rhythms that bounce against the way we really talk but aren't the awful Mamet type half notes, the off beat, the after syncopation that make you want to shove the words down his throat because he's ruined them by forcing them. No, you're words make they're own rhythm, a jazz bakery of beat and off-beat and sometimes it pisses me off, but mostly it makes me weep.

You said things last night about TV that needed to be said. And even if you're recycling your themes, that thing you do over and over again, talking about men and how they become men, what that means, and how male friendship is the bedrock and foundation of our society, how it makes us better, it's okay. Because I buy it. I buy it because you also recycle the theme of powerful women who are very, very good at their jobs. You recycle the theme of how talented men and competent women come together to make amazing things happen, and you know, sometimes I'd like you to switch it around a little, to look at talented women and competent men, but I get that you've got a motif.

So Sorkin, don't disappoint me. Don't ruin this show by writing in yourself, your drug problems and your writer's block and your television life. Let it write itself. Let it speak for itself. I know you can do it, you've done it before.

The meta will get old. Let it. Let it curl up and blow away after you've had your fun. Because we'll like it for a little while, but television isn't politics. We take television way more seriously, and we haven't any dreams left to dash when it comes to entertainment. Give us a lesson in words and grace, by all means. Build us a fairy tale castle of story and satire to rival your mythical White House. Please.

We'll give you a chance if you give us a dream, because the Bartlett White House is a thing of the past, but we hold it tight, use it as a gauge and a baromoter to hold our current adminsitration accountable because we know story can guide and shape and if we can imagine it, we can become it and I think that our current administration better remember that. And if you can do that for television, maybe we can live up to that standard as well.

So, basically, Sorkin, don't screw up. You've got a lot riding on this.

Sincerely,

Thea

Comments

[raithen.livejournal.com]

we know story can guide and shape and if we can imagine it, we can become it

I think I may love you, just a little.

Also: goddamn Global for buying the local CTV affiliate, as I won't be seeing this til the dvds are out....

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

You can dowload it for free, I think. Legally even, I'm pretty sure.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

ooh!

ok, point me.... ;)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Ummm, honey, it's all over the internet. Try iTunes first. I know they had it at somepoint. Also, try NBC.com:)

[raithen.livejournal.com]

oh sure! I have no doubt I can find it (in streaming form, NBC has it! ;) but I am LAZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Damn you for calling me on it ;).

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Snort. I'm just the wrong person to send you to download sites. I'm a download luddite.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Probably this is unhelpful info, but CTV in Toronto is showing it on Sunday nights instead of Monday nights--could that be the case wherever you are, or is it a not-airing-at-all thing because of your local Global/CTV deal?

[raithen.livejournal.com]

no cable, and while we USED to get CTV via an affiliate on the antenna (we is high tech ;) it was bought by global. Which means we get different stuff, and not this. Tis ok though! thx.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's no good. CTV generally picks up better shows than Global does, anyway. But the internet can be your friend in this matter, no doubt! :)

[raithen.livejournal.com]

indeed. the internet and good friends in Edmonton who tape Veronica Mars for me ;).

but Thea isn't letting me be LAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEE. She iz mean ;).

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

You?

See icon.

YES.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee:) Love the icon:)

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Yes. You so perfectly sum up so much of my Studio 60 ambivalence: the part of me that likes it, the part of me that wants not to like it, the part of me that's so afraid it won't possibly be as good as The West Wing and then I'll be disappointed. But I'm watching, ambivalence and all, so we'll see how it turns out.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I loved the pilot, in jokes, meta, sorkinese et al. I do not traditionally care for several of the actors, and yet they won me over. Because the theme is what we can do if we're given the best people for the job. Work=Love in the Sorkinverse, and even when he pisses me off, some part of me finds that beautiful.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Part of my skepticism, too, no doubt comes from the fact that I never watched Sports Night, so I associate all the Sorkin tropes with the gravitas of The West Wing. And as seriously as I do take TV, the idea that these fabulous people can band together and Do Something Important is just a harder sell for me in this environment. They either need to convince me that this fictional show *is* a world-changing kind of thing or else not pretend that it is.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I do believe that art and storytelling can change the world, so in a way, I've already bought into it. Sports Night had similar motifs (Sorkin only had a handful that he recycles and recycles, and chief among them is the work=love=grace thing). You didn't have to like or care about sports to like Sports Night because the characters loved them, loved what they did and it was about their love for their work and for each other. West Wing was the same. And if Sorkin can do that again, I'll buy into it.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

I believe that art and storytelling can change the world, most definitely. The part that I still need to be sold on is the idea that a sketch comedy show is art and storytelling. I have little doubt that the show *will* succeed in selling me on that part, but I'm just less predisposed to believe in sketch comedy than I am in idealist, left-wing politics. Or even sports, for that matter.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the sketch comedy aspect definitely is going to have to win me over because if falls very much into the "don't give a damn" aspect of my conciousness. But, again. It's about work, and talent, above all else. So I'm willing to trust the concept. But only so far.

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

I like neither sports nor politics, and I loved both Sports Night and West Wing. I think that's why I'm excited about Studio 60 - because what, I ask myself, will Sorkin due to me with a subject I do, reluctantly, love?

[thedorkygirl.livejournal.com]

Sorkinesk.