April 28, 2004
UNLESS IT'S BASEBALL, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT
Big up to Laura for introducing me to Sports Night. I feel warmly about The West Wing but never became a Sorkinista, mostly because screen time and crush space is limited in my life.
In the first SN episode, one sportscaster gives the other (the taller one) a po-faced "heart to heart" speech about "your mean wife" and "the wisdom of your decision." It's unlikely, as a rhetorical moment, to pop up in non-TV life but it's kosher as drama when it works. (See whichever O'Neill play you prefer.) It doesn't. In West Wing, though, rapidly delivered, high content, slightly chest-thumping speeches work pretty well. Is it because Sorkin is better when he buries the comedy and does gravitas on top? Is it just because the White House is given to self-seriousness and sportscasters aren't? Or did this particular tic simply improve?
I'm asking.
Posted by Sasha at April 28, 2004 10:31 AM | TrackBack