Reality, TV, and Me

I suppose if I had to choose someone to write my story for television, it would be Aaron Sorkin.  Even so, it was weird.

I knew that the shootings were going to be featured on The Newsroom; I'd heard a reference to it in the promos. Chronologically, it fit perfectly into the lull after the new year, when the Gulf Oil Spill had retreated to background noise and newsrooms around the country were searching for the next big thing,  I thought I was prepared.

The story arc became very clear when TBG reminded me that Christina-Taylor's question, framed in my car on the way to meet Congresswoman Giffords, was about pollution and the destruction of the Gulf Coast.  That was the running motif to our domestic worries in early January of 2011.  I'll never forget it.

Big Cuter, watching The Newsroom in San Francisco on a break from studying for the Bar Exam, was more startled than his parents.  He's usually the one with the calendar in his brain, keeping track of what happened when.  In this instance, it was only obvious to him after the fact.

I guess you had to have been there.

For us, sitting on Douglas, clutching our own selves, too personally involved to even glance at one another, the sequence of events was immediately recognizable.  The inaccuracy of the initial facts being reported - not the least of which was Gabby's death - hit TBG hard.  For him, the worst part of the whole event was sitting in the UMC waiting room, watching talking heads declare that his congresswoman had died of her wounds.  If she were gone, what had happened to me.... to the family members of the others crowding the waiting room, knowing nothing but what was broadcast on the screens attached to the ceilings. 

"That news cast such a pall over the room," he remembered.  The need for speed crashed against any considerations of accuracy.  Getting it first was more important than getting it right.  Jeff Daniels' protege says it best: This is a person we are talking about.  Or, as TBG continued to opine, "real people were affected by their inaccuracies... seriously...."

It's our story.... it's a part of history.... and I am still amazed that I am at the center of it all.  I'm sure that The Newsroom will move on to the Arab Spring and the snowstorms in the USofA because that's where the reporters went after lurking in Tucson for a few weeks.... waiting for the next big thing.

I don't feel like a very big thing.....

Aaron Sorkin is back and he's better than ever.  In fact, I think my new favorite four words might be written by Aaron Sorkin.  Did we like the first episode of his new HBO series, The Newsroom?  We watched it twice last night.

Aaron Sorkin is a true American patriot, and his rants on the topic are the stuff of legend, at least in this household.  Democracy isn't easy is the backdrop as I listen to opposing viewpoints.... or try to listen to opposing viewpoints even though all I am offered is screeching on the news and the talk shows. 

In The Newsroom, Sam Waterston, outraged, but with a twinkle in his eye, plays the boss who shares my sentiments, exactly.  He creates a show that he would want to watch, a program that is tough and fair-minded and answers the questions he was asking himself, the questions TBG and I ask one another as, once again, the evening news devolves into fluff and nonsense. 

Walking into the newsroom on April 20, 2010, watching as the staff puts together the first reporting on the BP Deep Water Horizon explosion, Waterston's character leans against the doorframe as he exclaims to no one in particular, "This is beautiful!" 

Sorkin's values are laid out on the table clearly, early and vibrantly in this and every other piece he's written, from A Few Good Men to The American President to The West Wing and Sports Night.  His work is dense and requires active participation; there's no doing a crossword puzzle at the same time.  That's why we watched it twice; the dialogue is so rich and textured.... okay, they talk over one another just like you do in real life and it's sometimes hard to follow all the different strands. 

That's annoying to some and I respect that.  I, being happy to view the episode more than once, am not as bothered.  I've learned to let it wash over me the first time and then pay closer attention the second time around.  There's so much in there, like a Hieronymous Bosch painting, that I'm not bored when I revisit. 

There was a time when we aspired to intelligence, when it didn't frighten us....... I am tired of stupid.

We have always thought that Sorkin lived inside our heads, but my post yesterday and his words that night were really too similar to be coincidence.  Perhaps we were separated at birth?  This isn't relaxing television; it challenges you to keep up with the pace. 

There are the usual Sorkin memes - loving sisters;  pre-show preparation; ambition and career vs loyalty.  Out of a universe of names from which to choose, Margaret is the one that is forgotten over and over and over again both here and in The West Wing.  I'm wondering about the back story there.  The story lines are familiar, too.  An old flame resurfacing, a feisty young woman, a young and sarcastic second banana, overseen by a benevolent and strong father figure.

HBO promoted the show as the tale of an anchor's meltdown and the surrounding debacle.  In reality, that occupies but a small fragment of the beginning of the piece, and, as many characters tell us, is not the reason for the show at all.  It's politically driven, with an agenda and a purpose.  It is unabashedly pretentious.  It is well acted and surprisingly informative.

I love it.  I hope you do, too. 

*****

If you want to watch it on-line, click here.