"But you could hold a little liquor / You could hold a conversation / You could hold your own mic"
So, doom-spirals, didn't miss them. At least this one has a cause: my boss handed in his notice last month, which has sent the whole office into chaos. Partially because it means I am now obliged to apply for his job, partially because we have a massive systems thing happening the week after he leaves which me and other-assistant-manager are now in charge of. Yay? Also, my family were supposed to be coming over next month and now they're not. Mum, Brother2 and I are still taking a few days in Edinburgh at the festival but it does now mean I'm going to go February->Christmas without seeing half my family. And I could really use a proper break from work right now, since I'm emotionally incapable of disconnecting and it feels like I'm careening over the edge of something.
Although let it be noted that given I have not slept with/cheated on/pointedly failed to sleep with/contrived to be jealous over any of my coworkers, I am still ahead of a Sorkin-verse woman. Yay me.
I'm not entirely sure why I've watched 4 episodes of The Newsroom. Possibly I want something to be angry with.
I just don't understand how Aaron Sorkin has got worse at writing women. By and large, isn't experience supposed to improve you? But I look at Dana and Natalie in Sports Night, not perfect by any means but women who were invested in their careers, invested in each other, not willing to ruin their show for the men they loved. And then I look at Studio 60 and The Newsroom and I wonder what the hell happened in the meantime. How is it that fifteen years and a (theoretically) improved position for women in the media and in society has lead to a show where the women feel even more like incomprehensible beings, led by their emotions, in need of rescue? Is it that Aaron Sorkin has run out of plots he can repurpose from real life and as such has to invent things that women might conceivably do? And given that he clearly thinks that being female renders a person so irreconcilably different from men that their motivations are impossible to fathom, he's stuck with going to the standbys of jealousy and emotional outbursts?
This, plus TSN (great film, oh so problematic with its women), is retroactively tainting The West Wing and Sports Night (and the good bits of Studio 60, which did exist). Argh.
There are other problems with The Newsroom, one of which is the much-reported fact that using real news after the fact is a bit weird. I get that if they had invented the news, everyone would have assumed that they were based on real events anyway, but the little bit of distance to make it look like they aren't just saying 'and here's how you should have done it' would really help. The incidental music isn't helping. Neither, occasionally, is the direction. Hanging a lampshade on the ludicrous nature of Will's 'mission to civilise' does not fix the situation.
And there are these moments, fewer and far between, where a good show appears. I want to see them make the news. I want to see the bits where suddenly something happens and it's all hands on deck. The cast are all talented, smart, funny actors and I would like to see evidence of that. Alison Pill deserves so much better than she's getting.
Here is a show I would like to see:
- a tipping towards irrelevance news anchor finds himself suddenly with viewers again through no particular attempts of his own (show us how good Will is, stop telling us that he was great once) and doesn't quite know what to do with it.
- Will and Charlie absolutely know that they're not Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite etc and have to engage with the compromise.
- Will can still have a flirtation with his executive producer, who left him to report the news in Afghanistan not because she cheated on him to prove she wasn't in love with him. She's tired and just back from a war zone and not at all apologetic about going away in the first place. She brings him back into the game because she's just that awesome. Also, given that she was a war correspondent she probably can work email. She occasionally gets people to throw water in Will's face because he needs that kind of shock (I kind of like that Mac has got Will to loosen up with his staff, except that given the time jumps we witness none of the development) but no other women do this because it's not actually a thing women do very often.
- Mac mentors Maggie; Jim is not involved with this.
- Mac also has a platonic friendship with Jim, who followed her into said war zone so they're probably pretty close.
- Mac hires Sloan because she is excellent at her job - smart and engaging - not because she has good legs.
- Jim has his own awkward flirtation with cute blogger Neal, and they are geeky together. No one is 'the nice guy'.
- Maggie probably eventually stays broken up with Don (although I'm actually starting to ship Maggie/Don just because the show is so aggressive about Jim being frustrated by Maggie's inexplicable willingness to stay with Don instead of recognising Jim for the white knight he is.)
- No one takes an entire episode to explain why Big Foot is real.
- Sometimes they're wrong. Disagreements are not played out as Will (white male voice of sanity) on one side and misc attractive woman (young, blond, stupid, highly-strung) on other other.
- Sometimes they lose, and not just because of the evil machinations of their corporate overlords/the Tea Party. (Possibly someone watches S5-7 of The West Wing and takes notes on how to make your Republican opponent slightly less of a straw man.)
There. I've fixed your programme in eleven easy steps, Mr Sorkin, you're welcome.
Possibly it's not helping that I'm currently watching S2 of The Good Wife and the gulf between the portrayals of women in it and The Newsroom (also the portrayals of moral ambiguity, and the complicated relationships between people) is striking. Possibly it's that I just came off Korra which is a much better show but which could also do with considerably less love triangles and considerably more female friendship. Or maybe I'm just on edge right now because I'm not getting any writing done myself. And we all know how emotional women get.
Here, have Black Widow vid In the Bullpen to chase away the bitterness. Natasha Romanoff is more awesome than everyone.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth: http://blackeyedgirl.dreamwidth.org/166073.html |
comments. Please comment there using OpenID or signed anon.
Although let it be noted that given I have not slept with/cheated on/pointedly failed to sleep with/contrived to be jealous over any of my coworkers, I am still ahead of a Sorkin-verse woman. Yay me.
I'm not entirely sure why I've watched 4 episodes of The Newsroom. Possibly I want something to be angry with.
I just don't understand how Aaron Sorkin has got worse at writing women. By and large, isn't experience supposed to improve you? But I look at Dana and Natalie in Sports Night, not perfect by any means but women who were invested in their careers, invested in each other, not willing to ruin their show for the men they loved. And then I look at Studio 60 and The Newsroom and I wonder what the hell happened in the meantime. How is it that fifteen years and a (theoretically) improved position for women in the media and in society has lead to a show where the women feel even more like incomprehensible beings, led by their emotions, in need of rescue? Is it that Aaron Sorkin has run out of plots he can repurpose from real life and as such has to invent things that women might conceivably do? And given that he clearly thinks that being female renders a person so irreconcilably different from men that their motivations are impossible to fathom, he's stuck with going to the standbys of jealousy and emotional outbursts?
This, plus TSN (great film, oh so problematic with its women), is retroactively tainting The West Wing and Sports Night (and the good bits of Studio 60, which did exist). Argh.
There are other problems with The Newsroom, one of which is the much-reported fact that using real news after the fact is a bit weird. I get that if they had invented the news, everyone would have assumed that they were based on real events anyway, but the little bit of distance to make it look like they aren't just saying 'and here's how you should have done it' would really help. The incidental music isn't helping. Neither, occasionally, is the direction. Hanging a lampshade on the ludicrous nature of Will's 'mission to civilise' does not fix the situation.
And there are these moments, fewer and far between, where a good show appears. I want to see them make the news. I want to see the bits where suddenly something happens and it's all hands on deck. The cast are all talented, smart, funny actors and I would like to see evidence of that. Alison Pill deserves so much better than she's getting.
Here is a show I would like to see:
- a tipping towards irrelevance news anchor finds himself suddenly with viewers again through no particular attempts of his own (show us how good Will is, stop telling us that he was great once) and doesn't quite know what to do with it.
- Will and Charlie absolutely know that they're not Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite etc and have to engage with the compromise.
- Will can still have a flirtation with his executive producer, who left him to report the news in Afghanistan not because she cheated on him to prove she wasn't in love with him. She's tired and just back from a war zone and not at all apologetic about going away in the first place. She brings him back into the game because she's just that awesome. Also, given that she was a war correspondent she probably can work email. She occasionally gets people to throw water in Will's face because he needs that kind of shock (I kind of like that Mac has got Will to loosen up with his staff, except that given the time jumps we witness none of the development) but no other women do this because it's not actually a thing women do very often.
- Mac mentors Maggie; Jim is not involved with this.
- Mac also has a platonic friendship with Jim, who followed her into said war zone so they're probably pretty close.
- Mac hires Sloan because she is excellent at her job - smart and engaging - not because she has good legs.
- Jim has his own awkward flirtation with cute blogger Neal, and they are geeky together. No one is 'the nice guy'.
- Maggie probably eventually stays broken up with Don (although I'm actually starting to ship Maggie/Don just because the show is so aggressive about Jim being frustrated by Maggie's inexplicable willingness to stay with Don instead of recognising Jim for the white knight he is.)
- No one takes an entire episode to explain why Big Foot is real.
- Sometimes they're wrong. Disagreements are not played out as Will (white male voice of sanity) on one side and misc attractive woman (young, blond, stupid, highly-strung) on other other.
- Sometimes they lose, and not just because of the evil machinations of their corporate overlords/the Tea Party. (Possibly someone watches S5-7 of The West Wing and takes notes on how to make your Republican opponent slightly less of a straw man.)
There. I've fixed your programme in eleven easy steps, Mr Sorkin, you're welcome.
Possibly it's not helping that I'm currently watching S2 of The Good Wife and the gulf between the portrayals of women in it and The Newsroom (also the portrayals of moral ambiguity, and the complicated relationships between people) is striking. Possibly it's that I just came off Korra which is a much better show but which could also do with considerably less love triangles and considerably more female friendship. Or maybe I'm just on edge right now because I'm not getting any writing done myself. And we all know how emotional women get.
Here, have Black Widow vid In the Bullpen to chase away the bitterness. Natasha Romanoff is more awesome than everyone.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth: http://blackeyedgirl.dreamwidth.org/166073.html |
comments. Please comment there using OpenID or signed anon.