The implicit premise of The West Wing is that if we could only get the right people in office, and if those people could only make the perfect speech, then all of our problems would be solved. Poisonous to a generation of people who have no idea how government actually works.
I remember in high school the speech and debate ghouls were all about this show. Totally unoriginal midwits who fetishized the process of bureaucracy over any actual effects. Glad The West Wing is getting dragged now
I’ve been saying this for years. His work is the secular progressive equivalent of a Kirk Cameron movie. The cadence and poetic nature of his dialogue is, admittedly, very engaging and entertaining, but it is a superficial mask on what is essentially a progressive sermon. The underlying ideas have the depth of a pothole, and the Manichaean worldview he promotes with his lacks any sense of nuance or complexity. One need only contrast Jessup of “A Few Good Men” to Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now” to realize just how devoid his work is of any worthwhile content.
As a side note, I’m convinced that there was some sort of low level employee on the set of “The West Wing” that saw through the facade of the show and realized what complete horse shit it really was (and what a spectacular lack of self-awareness it contained),and decided to make a show based on the real Clinton’s. It’s a fantastic documentary I highly recommend. It’s on Netflix and it’s called “House of Cards.”
Apr 11·edited Apr 11Liked by Isaac Simpson, T.R. Hudson
The Network's "American Taliban" speech was so ham-fisted it defied belief. It was just a nasty fictional Jon Stewart segment.
Sorkin doesn't work anymore because left-wing snark is now old fashioned and has been replaced with violence and humiliation. Now left and right doesn't even talk back and forth, but right-wing guy says bad-thought, and something terrible happens to him while left-wing good guy laughs and says he deserves it. The new mantra is "we aren't arguing with you, and you deserve what you get."
Sorkin's best stuff is the 3-dimensional female protagonist who exactly bullseyes the "Strong Independent Woman" trope that Hollywood otherwise almost always fails to make entertaining: "Molly's Game" and "Being the Ricardos."
I was sad learn a couple years back that he's generally considered the modern William Goldman, who was his Hollywood mentor and twice the storyteller he is, though they both have a knack for terrific dialog.
As for the comment about him not working anymore, I'm not sure it's got so much to do with a shifting culture as his November 2022 stroke. We've been told he's recovered, but Hollywood runs on spin, hype, secrets & lies, so who knows.
ALSO: He's a parasite/plagiarist of his own stuff. If you've not seen this before, it's only the first of three YouTube "supercuts" of his recycled self-love of his own material: https://youtu.be/S78RzZr3IwI?si=ojEO_wTdQ7T9Ccep
The implicit premise of The West Wing is that if we could only get the right people in office, and if those people could only make the perfect speech, then all of our problems would be solved. Poisonous to a generation of people who have no idea how government actually works.
I remember in high school the speech and debate ghouls were all about this show. Totally unoriginal midwits who fetishized the process of bureaucracy over any actual effects. Glad The West Wing is getting dragged now
I’ve been saying this for years. His work is the secular progressive equivalent of a Kirk Cameron movie. The cadence and poetic nature of his dialogue is, admittedly, very engaging and entertaining, but it is a superficial mask on what is essentially a progressive sermon. The underlying ideas have the depth of a pothole, and the Manichaean worldview he promotes with his lacks any sense of nuance or complexity. One need only contrast Jessup of “A Few Good Men” to Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now” to realize just how devoid his work is of any worthwhile content.
As a side note, I’m convinced that there was some sort of low level employee on the set of “The West Wing” that saw through the facade of the show and realized what complete horse shit it really was (and what a spectacular lack of self-awareness it contained),and decided to make a show based on the real Clinton’s. It’s a fantastic documentary I highly recommend. It’s on Netflix and it’s called “House of Cards.”
The Network's "American Taliban" speech was so ham-fisted it defied belief. It was just a nasty fictional Jon Stewart segment.
Sorkin doesn't work anymore because left-wing snark is now old fashioned and has been replaced with violence and humiliation. Now left and right doesn't even talk back and forth, but right-wing guy says bad-thought, and something terrible happens to him while left-wing good guy laughs and says he deserves it. The new mantra is "we aren't arguing with you, and you deserve what you get."
I think Norman Lear can be added to this. He used comedy tho.
Ugh that clip made me so mad.
I look forward to the financial collapse of the GAE so that the intelligence complex will be forced to stop to funding propaganda as entertainment.
One minor thing- "A Few Good Men" was released to movie theaters in 1992, not 1997.
Sorkin's best stuff is the 3-dimensional female protagonist who exactly bullseyes the "Strong Independent Woman" trope that Hollywood otherwise almost always fails to make entertaining: "Molly's Game" and "Being the Ricardos."
I was sad learn a couple years back that he's generally considered the modern William Goldman, who was his Hollywood mentor and twice the storyteller he is, though they both have a knack for terrific dialog.
As for the comment about him not working anymore, I'm not sure it's got so much to do with a shifting culture as his November 2022 stroke. We've been told he's recovered, but Hollywood runs on spin, hype, secrets & lies, so who knows.
ALSO: He's a parasite/plagiarist of his own stuff. If you've not seen this before, it's only the first of three YouTube "supercuts" of his recycled self-love of his own material: https://youtu.be/S78RzZr3IwI?si=ojEO_wTdQ7T9Ccep
Is there any ethnic connection between Zinn, Sorkin, and the others who pull this shit?
I wish I had his money…