The Limits of Superpower: Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin

"Then you are just as dumb as these guys who think that capital punishment
is going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn't live their
day to day lives under the possibility of execution. And their executions are a
lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due
process. 

So my friend, if you want to start using American military strength
as the arm of the Lord, you can do that, we're the only superpower left. You can
conquer the world, like Charlemenge, but you better be prepared to kill everyone."

--Leo explaining to President Bartlet why he cannot just kill everyone in Syria for the crime of blowing out of the air an American airplane carrying the President's personal physician who the President liked a lot.

Okay, let's get this out of the way right off: "West Wing" is not "The Wire." And Aaron Sorkin is not David Simon.  

But I do love the way Sorkin writes. Ninety percent of the dialogue is a single line, not even a sentence, exchanges back and forth between people while a very busy world swirls around them. It was the same in "Newsroom" as it is in "West Wing." Put very attractive and likable characters in a pressurized job which seems to really matter and you are just transfixed watching them, wishing your workplace was like theirs.

There aren't all that many fictional accounts, when you think about it, which focus on the workplace. 

Then, every once in a while a character gives a little sermon and you are transfixed, and it's really effective because it's rare for anyone to hold the stage for more than a millisecond and the very duration of the speech gets your attention.

It's the same pleasure you get from "The Thin Man" series with William Powell and Myrna Loy, but without all the jokes about alcohol.  You have really smart women who know what they want and who are not afraid to take it and who are nervy and funny and very comfortable with themselves.  

Not like real life.

Sorry, Maud. I apologize. Of course, there are such women like that in real life and I'm sure you are one, but they are just thick as fleas in Sorkin's world.  Everywhere you turn there's a woman cutting you down to size.

The closest thing to "West Wing" or "Newsroom" in terms of relationships, men/women, intensity of feeling, a pressurized atmosphere, in my experience,  was The New York Hospital. A nurse described it once as, "A cauldron," and she was right.  There was life and death and sudden action and affairs and drama and it was a 24/7 opera, filled with passion and loss and soaring victories.  But I doubt it's like that now.  Commerce has replaced passion and the demographics have changed:  When the interns are 20 somethings, and half are female, and the nurses are mostly 50 something, a potent part of the ingredients for drama is diluted.  

I once mentioned how tame the Washington, D.C. hospitals seemed compared to what I remembered from internship in New York and one of my colleagues said, "That's because you were 20 something then. Now you're forty something, married, raising kids and you're not spending nights in the on call room. You're going home so you can be up to get your kids dressed and off to day care." 

He was right, of course. I would have missed any torrid goings on in those days. It was probably like the seals off Plaice Cove Beach--the water is full of them, but you just don't see them.

But Sorkin can bring all that jazzy, racy feeling back to life and you watch these characters and they become part of you. I particularly like the fact President Barlet is from New Hampshire. Seems right. He is the smartest guy in the room, always asks the most penetrating question and refuses to accept the conventional answer. 

When the plane is blown out of the air, his military commanders suggest a "proportionate response" and the President asks, "What is the virtue of a proportionate response?"  He's right, of course. The Syrians know he will take out a few military headquarters and ammunition dumps, and they've already guessed which ones and evacuated. "So, it's just a cost of doing business," the President says. He talks about the time in history when no Vandal or Visogoth would have dared harm a Roman citizen for fear of Rome's sure and severe retribution. He wants to strike fear into the Syrians. Today he would be talking about ISIS. That's when his chief of staff gives the speech shown above. Things have changed for superpowers since the Roman Empire. You need guys like Leo, the chief of staff to remind you that,  when you are President. 

Everyone, in this world, plays a role.

And I've got 7 seasons ahead of me. What cheer!