Anybody plan to watch this? Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterson, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Munn and others.
I’ll be watching it for sure. It looks great to me. It seems to be in fashion to bash Aaron Sorkin of late. There was an endless amount of backlash to “Studio 60” for vague reasons. Lots of people complained that the comedy bits weren’t very funny - well, that’s because it wasn’t a comedy, it was a drama about the making of a comedy show! He then follows that up by winning an Academy Award for* The Social Network*, a drama about Facebook. Facebook!
I’ve already read a couple of reviews that have that same vague criticisms - nothing specific, just that it’s too Sorkin-y. In my book, that’s a good thing. I suspect that I’ll really like it, and most other people will bash it.
Any new HBO series, especially a drama will get a chance from me. I will be watching.
I would try it, if I had HBO, I think.
I’m mad I’m gonna miss it.
It’s getting pretty bad reviews, but I agree with the 2nd place OP in that it’s just chic to bash Sorkin for being Sorkin.
Yeah it’ll be wordy and preachy…but everything he does is. I don’t have HBO so I’m mad I’ll miss it because Sorkin is my friggin hero
How many successful TV workplace dramas are there that aren’t set in 1) law enforcement or 2) hospitals? The only one I can think of is Mad Men, but that has the advantage of being a historical drama, so they can go send the characters to Woodstock or whatever if the ad agency stuff gets boring.
I’m kinda skeptical a straight up workplace drama in a place that doesn’t have regular “life and death” type stuff as part of the job description has enough possibilities to keep it going for very long.
(I guess there’s the West Wing, but the Whitehouse isn’t really a “workplace” IMHO).
It’d be nice to have something to watch on Sunday nights again, but I hated Studio 60. Liked Sports Night. Never watched West Wing.
Is there anything to say about the state of cable news shows that hasn’t been said?
The Druidess wants to see it, so I’ve set the DVR to record it.
Ooh, thanks for the reminder–I definitely want to check this out. The casting looks great.
I’ve been looking forward to it primarily for the Sam Waterston factor and I did think the writing in The Social Network was great, but based on the look of it and some of the reviews I’m worried it’ll be pompous and boring. It’s one thing to criticize the state of journalism (haven’t we all?), but that doesn’t mean a series about same is going to have something informed and useful to say. I hope this one does.
It’s already on the Tivo “To Do” list.
You had me at Olivia Munn.
Yeah, I’m very curious to see how well Munn does in this. I liked her a lot on Attack of the Show, but I thought she was awful on The Daily Show. I actually liked the short-lived (pronounced with a short ‘i’ ;)) sitcom she was on last year, Perfect Couples, where she played a kinda bitchy character.
Hated her bits on TDS. Anything would be a step up, I’m thinking. Especially if she sheds her kit.
I’ll watch it. I keep hoping HBO can climb back to where it was in the late 90’s. We still subscribe, and to Showtime, but months go by when we rarely watch either and then it may be the On Demand slate.
It could be a fun poll to see how Dopers feel/felt about the premium networks’ original series. I’d be blown away if The Sopranos or The Wire were not in the top 5.
Those vague reasons were “It sucked!” and “Oh my god did it suck!” Studio 60 was a terrible show that followed along from an actually pretty amazing pilot, which is just hard to believe.
That said, I loved The Social Network (even though it pushed “based on a true story” to the breaking point) and Sports Night is one of my favorite shows ever. So I’m definitely going to give this a shot. Especially with Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston involved.
Bit of a rocky start, and fairly verbose. Still, the characters have some legs and I’ll tune in next week to see if it smooths out.
I’ll keep watching, but they have to cut down on the preachiness, pretty please.
Although it is the same old ground for Sorkin, I still liked it. I love his rapid-fire dialogue.
I will keep watching.
The West Wing didn’t really flower until a few episodes in, so I hope people give this show a chance. I was hoping to see some of Sorkin’s stock players get involved, like Brad Whitford or Allison Janney.