Some topics covered:
The left-coded patriotism of Aaron Sorkin’s films and TV shows
A deep divide on the left: is America a flawed project that should live up to its ideals, or an inherently rotten structure that must be torn down entirely? We’re now seeing this fissure on the right as well
Sorkin’s obsession with rhythm. Actors speak at high speed, with no hesitation, no wasted syllable. This cadence creates the illusion of brilliance; viewers conflate fast talk with perceived intelligence
There is a very small correlation between speaking speed and IQ, but the relationship is so small that you can’t practically infer anything from the speed of any individual’s cadence
Sorkin’s fascination with elite education
In Sorkin’s film Being the Ricardos, he lets you understand why a liberal-minded person someone might flirt with communism, then he slams you with the voice of someone who fled it. And interestingly, this debate takes place within a marriage
Why I could only handle two seasons of The West Wing before stopping
What appealed to viewers of The West Wing and House of Cards, two very different shows
The moral ambiguity of A Few Good Men
How Colonel Jessup (the Jack Nicholson character) compares with the senior officers I witnessed in the military
Louise reads Jessup as a Colonel Kurtz figure (from the film Apocalypse Now), a man who has built a private kingdom at the edge of the map. The base on Guantanamo becomes his little colony (see my conversation about Apocalypse Now with Trung Phan and Jim O’Shaughnessy here)
Interestingly, Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) speaks uncharacteristically slow for a Sorkin character. Now I’m wondering if fast talk is supposed to code as liberal in his stories
A practical question about prestige TV: can a Republican administration ever be the center of a popular TV show? Both West Wing and House of Cards depict Democratic administrations
Sorkin as a dramatist of “end of history” optimism, an optimism has lost its audience on both left and right
See my essay about The West Wing and other TV shows here
