I Just Decided To

[slightlyoffaxis]

I heard y'all loud and clear when you said that watching two non-consecutive hours wasn't enough to dismiss Game of Thrones (at least publicly, anyway). So, now that I'm more than halfway through the first season of The Newsroom, I consider it fair game for me to complain about it at considerable length

Comments

[slightlyoffaxis]

*Yeah, I remember that conversation with Nathaniel, too. I can see why people were bothered by the depiction of women in The Social Network, but you can explain it by saying that those were the women that immature and arrogant men like their main characters would want to associate with (as opposed to people smarter and more competent than they are). It says something about Sorkin that he turned real-life people who weren't like that into those kind of characters, but it's not hard to believe (even if it's not what actual happened--it rings true dramatically). STILL, when you have a female character LIGHT SOMEONE ELSE'S APARTMENT ON FIRE, you can't just shrug your shoulders and say, "There was nothing else she could do."

The Newsroom doesn't get the benefit of saying, "well, these specific characters just want flustered, incompetent women around them," so it's much worse there. And word on everything you said about Will being so admirable. There's also an I'll-save-the-day complex with all the men on the show, and he definitely has it.

The thing is, I love Liz Lemon because she eats a lot of junk food and looks messy all the time and has (or had) a tumultuous social life and needs Jack to get her out of jams. I'm trying to figure out Liz doesn't strike me as a sexist character. I think it's because she has the same flaws as the male writers on the show. They all look like dirtbags and have weird relationships.

[ext_1115841]

Not just the male writers - everyone. 30 Rock takes place in a universe in which everybody is secretly (or not too secretly) completely insane. Even Jack - it's just that his kind of insanity is rewarded by capitalism, so he appears successful. But I think the underlying theme of 30 Rock is that our bras are all held together with tape, to one degree or another.

[slightlyoffaxis]

That's true. And for every Jack, there's an Avery, too, so the men don't get the monopoly on crazy views of capitalism. Also, no one thinks their company is restoring anything to America.

[rockmarooned]

Even in the fire scene in The Social Network, I don't feel like the audience is being guided to think "wow, what a super psycho bitch, ruining things for Andrew Garfield." It's obviously a fucked up thing to have her do, but I think it says a lot about the movie that the focus of that scene is not "GET THAT CRAZY WOMAN AWAY FROM HIM!" -- it's: wow, this guy has let things get so out of control that he can't even stop his supposed girlfriend from setting his bed on fire; he is in WAY over his head with this. That girl isn't really even a character; she's a situation. At least that was my reading. I actually think it says something that the non-character who sets a bed on fire actually feels less like a work of hostility from Sorkin than some of the things he has his more developed female characters on his TV shows do! I mean, who are you supposed to actively dislike more, do you think? The girlfriend in Social Network or the Hope Davis character on Newsroom?

By contrast, on Newsroom, I don't think the audience is being guided toward considering Will a deeply flawed person, even when he's showing deep flaws. It rarely goes further than respectful sympathy -- while inviting laughter at the girls.

[slightlyoffaxis]

True, Hope Davis is worse than a heroin dealer!

I think you are supposed to see Will as a flawed person. But he's like the person in a job interview who is asked for his weakness and says, "I"m a perfectionist," "I'm too good at things," "I'm so smart that I constantly have to correct everyone around me to help them keep up," etc.