{"id":8088,"date":"2012-09-16T19:29:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T09:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=8088"},"modified":"2012-09-17T23:26:56","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T13:26:56","slug":"tfw-show-round-up-the-west-wing-season-one-the-thick-of-it-season-four-the-newsroom-season-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=8088","title":{"rendered":"TFW Show Round Up:  The West Wing Season One, The Thick Of It Season Four, The Newsroom Season One"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The West Wing Season One<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fX3gMDJCZ-4\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"631\" height=\"473\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>A clip of President Bartlett speaking to a conservative radio host. This is actually from Season Two but who cares.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>The West Wing<\/em> is a television drama about the two terms in office of the fictional Democratic president Josiah Bartlett.\u00a0 It is a wonderful show that serves in many functions.\u00a0 First and foremost, it is a well written drama and each season contains both long term story arcs and bite sized stand alone stories for each episode.\u00a0 It is also a really informative primer on American politics that shows you the key decision makers in a presidential administration as well as offering a snapshot into the type of bartering and deal making that must be made within your own party, the opposition, members of the senate and congress, the lobbyists and the public.\u00a0 And all of this is delivered in creator Aaron Sorkin&#8217;s trademark quickfire dialogue which rapidly doles out exposition sandwiched with wisecracks, insults and pithy retorts.\u00a0 In summary, its a show about well dressed people walking down long stretches of corridors, talking really fast and I think its really good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The first season began at the end of 1999 and looking back at it now, its certainly an interesting product of a bygone era.\u00a0 Nowadays, the vast majority of good quality television exists on subscription cable channels like Showtime, HBO and AMC.\u00a0 Looking at American free-to-air programming today and its a wasteland of reality programming, five million Seth McFarlane cartoons and shitty sitcoms.\u00a0 I tried watching NBC&#8217;s new big budget show <em>Revolution<\/em> and it was absolutely dreadful.\u00a0 By comparison, in the Nineties you had Judd Apatow, Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon and Sam Raimi all producing shows for the masses.\u00a0 But what made those shows so interesting was that they had to work within the confines of the rules of free-to-air television and I believe that framework actually drew some of the best work out of these people (Apatow&#8217;s <em>Freaks and Geeks<\/em> being a prime example).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>The West Wing<\/em> has aged exceptionally well.\u00a0 The CRT monitors and 4:3 aspect ratio not withstanding, the content of each episode is still sharply written and often times eerily prescient of politics to come in 2012.\u00a0 In the first season, Deputy Communications Officer Sam Seaborne accurately predicts that privacy and online security will be major concerns for American citizens in the 21st century.\u00a0 Most of the Bartlett Administration&#8217;s ideas and challenges progressing policies on gun control, capital punishment, abortion and the environment are directly applicable today (perhaps a sign of how little progress has been made).\u00a0 Lastly, the show quite accurately predicts the rising influence that the religious right would go on to have in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But the best thing about <em>The West Wing<\/em> is its unabashed and unbridled optimism.\u00a0 Every episode, you keep the company of an ensemble cast of bright, intelligent and well meaning people who want to do good in the world.\u00a0 And thats a rare thing for tv programmes in any year.\u00a0 As a viewer you warm to President Bartlett&#8217;s pragmatism and passion, laugh at his idiosyncracies and obsession with historical trivia.\u00a0 You admire the honour and quiet dignity that Leo McGarry brings to the office and the way he holds the administration together.\u00a0 CJ Cregg is a smart, intelligent and funny.\u00a0 Toby Zieggler, Sam Seaborne, Josh Lyman, Donna Moss, Charlie Young&#8230;really, they&#8217;re all awesome.\u00a0 If only more shows strived to be as positive and informative.\u00a0 Sadly, even Sorkin&#8217;s own work in 2012, <em>The Newsroom<\/em>, lost that good natured heart for something more cynical and weary.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Thick Of It<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/thethickofit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8093\" title=\"thethickofit\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/thethickofit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/thethickofit.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/thethickofit-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>The Thick Of It<\/em> is a British comedy that satirizes the British government.\u00a0 It&#8217;s original three season run took place from 2005 to 2009 but after an extended sabbatical, the show is back on the air.\u00a0 This fourth season sees a newly formed coalition government that obviously draws its influence from the Tories and Liberal Democrats.\u00a0 It&#8217;s an easy target for skewering and not surprisingly, it delivers plenty of laughs at the expense of the awkward political bedfellows.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The first episode in the season sees Torie MP Peter Mannion tasked with delivering a new digital initiative to university students in which he tries to incentivise the creation of smart phone apps.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Peter, he is an absolute luddite and has no idea what he is talking about.\u00a0 He is easily flummoxed when doing his presentation and veers off message when challenged by a student named Raj who Peter manages to offend on racial grounds as well as making a promise on payment of apps that he can&#8217;t keep.\u00a0 This infuriates the Liberal Democrat Fergus Williams who created the initiative but was removed from the presentation of it to the public.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a short and sweet concept for an episode but I enjoyed it immensely and it reminded me of John Howard trying to talk about broadband internet in 2007 against Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott trying to talk to Leigh Sales about, well, anything.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I&#8217;ve never seen The Thick Of It before but was a big fan of creator Armando Ianucci&#8217;s spin-off film <em>In The Loop<\/em> as well as his American version of the show <em>Veep<\/em>.\u00a0 It was very easy to jump in on the fourth season and follow what was going on.\u00a0 But based on the strength of this episode, I look forward to going back and watching the entire series.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Newsroom<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I haven&#8217;t had a chance to finish watching the first season of <em>The Newsroom<\/em> yet.\u00a0 I&#8217;m only three episodes in.\u00a0 But I have to offer a retraction of my earlier criticism of the show.\u00a0 Aaron Sorkin was right and I was wrong.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">When I blogged about <em>The Newsroom<\/em> a couple of months ago, I said that the show&#8217;s portrayal of a broadcast journalist actually calling a politician on their bullshit in a non-partisan, constructively argued fashion seemed fanciful and far removed from the realities of America&#8217;s 24 hour news cycle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I also argued that the show portrayed its female staffers as being unrealistically, insultingly stupid.\u00a0 In the second episode of the show, one of the female staff can&#8217;t work out how to use her smartphone and accidentally sends a private message about a relationship to the whole office.\u00a0 I have a hard time believing that in 2012, any woman in a professional environment could be so stupid.\u00a0 The show was particularly unkind to actress Alison Pill who is portrayed as a blithering idiot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Anyway, since I wrote that blog, CNN broadcast journalist Soledad O&#8217;Brien did this:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m2EfmX6LoAA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And a few weeks later, Norah O&#8217;Donnell took Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to task when he criticized Obama for defence spending cuts that he himself voted for:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wPWwKL9ZZFU\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And then last week I found out that Alison Pill, an actor on <em>The Newsroom<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com.au\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=3&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CC4QFjAC&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fentertainment%2Fcelebrity%2Fnewsroom-star-alison-pill-accidentally-tweets-topless-picture-of-herself%2Fstory-e6frfmqi-1226473192020&amp;ei=gptVUJvKJeuWiQfr-YCACQ&amp;usg=AFQjCNH_ZDSR8VTHSyCKZ95JAt4nYkVk8w&amp;sig2=39iDhYAVyZPkeWm3huGKDQ\">accidentally tweeted a topless photo of herself to the public<\/a>.\u00a0 She did this on an iPhone.\u00a0 By accident.\u00a0 Opened the image, clicked &#8216;tweet&#8217; image, clicked past the screen that prompts you to add text to the image, and then clicked send.\u00a0 By accident.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Sorkin was right and I was wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The West Wing Season One A clip of President Bartlett speaking to a conservative radio host. This is actually from Season Two but who cares. The West Wing is a television drama about the two terms in office of the fictional Democratic president Josiah Bartlett.\u00a0 It is a wonderful show that serves in many functions.\u00a0 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[1149,1358,1308,1357,1356],"class_list":["post-8088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-tv","tag-aaron-sorkin","tag-armando-ianucci","tag-the-newsroom","tag-the-thick-of-it","tag-the-west-wing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8088"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8095,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8088\/revisions\/8095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}