Make it sing 4: the new God on the box
January 18th 2009 23:20
David Kelley
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. ~ Mark Twain
If there is a God of Writing that Sings, his name is Sorkin. Aaron Sorkin created and wrote most of the episodes of The West Wing, the greatest television show since Brideshead Revisited, and the only one in history to rival it.
The West Wing, a real American dream about the sort of political integrity which can in reality occasionally be squeezed from rock, and Brideshead, an unreal dream about reverence for decadence, were both written on the fly, each episode a rushed, sometimes chaotic scramble.
It's one of the great mysteries. It's something even non-literary Gods and Goddesses can't explain.
The Brideshead scriptwriters at least had a storyline provided for them by Evelyn Waugh's novel, and a bar at which to aim in terms of providence. Their success was to recreate the genius of the original.
Sorkin set his own bar.
I thought no-one would ever reach it.
I was wrong.
I have a habit of deferring exposure to popular literature, cinema and television. I don't avoid it so much as wait, arrogantly, for it to come to me. I do the same thing with celebrities; Julia Roberts will ring me one day, you'll see.
Which is why I have only just discovered that Aaron Sorkin has company in the Olympian mansion which is home to the God of Writing that Sings. Make that Gods.
I have just discovered Boston Legal, and David E Kelley. I have spent 10 days watching the 17 episodes of Series 1. I have no Series 2 immediately to hand and I am trembling, nay terrified, at the thought of an evening without a Boston Legal fix.
It is a divine talent that these people have. In a Special Features interview on a West Wing DVD set (Series 2, I think), one of the actors said that Aaron Sorkin "has a metronome in his head". It is an excellent metaphor for the pacing of the dialogue, for the even spread of the wit, the wisdom, the charm and the pathos, and, above it all, the show-stopping, angel-singing, galaxy-shaking moments when the words break the genius barrier.
When writers make it sing.
images: www.collider.com, images.askmen.com
Aaron Sorkin
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Although he has created and produced series that are not related to the law (Picket Fences, Boston Public) many are primarily about the law and lawyers The Practice, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.
Many people are so taken in by these shows that they actually follow careers into law. I have heard people speak and read many stories where people have taken up a career in law after being addcted to LA Law or Ally McBeal only to be disillusioned when they actually started working in the field.
When the final show of Boston Legal was shown in the US last year, it was reported to be the first time in two decades at least one of his shows was not being shown on prime time television.
And he married Michelle Pfeiffer - and I am pretty sure they are still together.
Comment by Chris Champion
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LA Law goes back far enough for me to remember it, and its clever dialogue, but I didn't even know David Kelley was involved.
So he's hardly the new kid on the street, as implied. But he's still a new God on my box, so I'll stick with my story.
And he married Michelle Pfeiffer! I just admired him before. Now we have to add envy
Comment by Morgan Bell
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Picket Fences was fantastic but the legal cases presented were increasingly absurd
Ally McBeal started off absurd and deteriorated into unwatchable, the later season with Robert Downey Jr had a few redeeming moments
The Practice was more serious but seriously implausible, i felt Boston Legal was just an even more slapstick mish-mash of McBeal and The Practice
what all these shows have in common though is that they feature many "pointed monologues", such things dont really occur in real life when real people speak but they can be exhilerating on the tv
the silly plots are usually just a vehicle for the "pointed monologue", some bizarre scenario that causes one of the main characters to have an emotional outburst which will eloquently sum up a particular political position
i do like Candice Bergen though . . . good casting
Comment by Chris Champion
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I can't judge David Kelley's progressive anything because Boston Legal is the only show I know. I agree it contains plenty of silliness in terms of quirky behaviour, but I find it funny.
I don't find the Boston legal plots silly, and I don't find the monologues unrealistic. I think the show has a hard edge in the way it tackles tough social issues and questions, and the monologues are really dialogues showing that tough issues tend to be tough because they have two sides.
It's interesting that one of the Series 1 episodes makes the point that big news media, especially television, has lost objectivity and become merely a business. I found myself thinking how true that is, and thought that Boston Legal's approach to many issues of race, religion, sex etc imparts more objective wisdom than contemporary media.
All that is beside the point of my post, however, which is about good writing. I just love the writing in this series. No doubt it helps that I have a silly sense of humour
C