He also seems to be under the impression that this makes them likable, or compensates for the various ways in which they are incredibly unlikable (being condescending, arrogant, petty, and self-aggrandizing, to start with.)

Your insight astounds, as I don't think I have ever commented on Homeland here (I don't particularly care for it), and only use my Twitter to follow people. I also don't think I've ever regularly called anyone in a comments section idiots or morons, if you wish to discuss inflammatory posturing. Your reading…

I think Sorkin's best writing of women has always been played by actresses of a certain vague type—Alison Janney, Felicity Huffman, even here with Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda—they take his obsession with screwball tropes and shticky jokes and meld it with some physicality and gravitas so they don't come off as…

I'm starting to wonder if wudntu's comments are some kind of high-concept performance art based on how The Newsroom views people on the internet (that is, as idiots, criminals, nogudniks, and stupid women who need a stern talking to from a grouchy white man to set us straight.)

I'm pretty sure Marge said her greatest SIN was that she dared to hope.

I think Emily Mortimer was awfully cast—and I've liked her in most things I've seen her in. But so much of her delivery of the terrible lines they've saddled her with has come off as petulant, airheaded, or incredibly naive. Maybe it just bothers me more because her character really needs to be believably tough and…

I did find the opening very tiresome in particular. Yes, Will, be an obstructive and arrogant asshole in the meeting with Neal and Rebecca for no particular reason.

Marcia Gay Harden speaks fluent Sorkinese better than any of the full-time cast.

Considering that 10+ years on I still have occasional nightmares about being called back to make-up a missing PE or math credit, Sue's plot line made me legitimately angst-y. Eek! I've never been so mad at Office Phyllis (maybe because I didn't see her as nervous but as sadistically feckless, or fecklessly sadistic.…

A lot of the times I recall this it is more likely to be in comments—although the pick up artist community/MRAs do seem to be trying to make a meme that "creeper" is equivalent to "slut." In nerd culture it comes up, iirc, in pretty much every conversation that follows a report of a harrassment incident at a con (I…

I feel like someone who's apparently perpetually high would find brunch amazing.

I really disagree about the success of the breast reduction plotline. Maybe because the "wackiness" didn't feel farcical enough to begin with (in that I know at least a couple real life guys who have had basically that reaction, except without the aid of sitcom scripting to be witty), or maybe I was just not…

Agreed. I do not think he "redeemed" himself at the end, or that it overcame the inherent ickiness of the premise well at all. Especially since that "redemption" came about by Cece being badgered/whined at into showing him her breasts to get him to go away. Yuck.

Honestly, the Xo/Jane dynamic captured in this episode felt—dare I say it—more clearly and comprehensively delineated than a lot of the back-and-forthing about Christopher vis a vis Lorelei and Rory in multiple years of The Gilmore Girls. That's pretty impressive.

The Mindy Project is more successful at what it is trying to do than The Newsroom is, imo.

I think The West Wing succeeded a lot because of when it aired, truthfully. It wasn't facing comparisons with a ton of really well-made and well-written cable dramas, but also, it played very successfully into the fantasies and desires of a lot of people who loathed George W. Bush. It also, frankly, had much better…

Worthy of Webster's!

Mad Men also has a richly developed cast who have their own problems and inner lives, and who are allowed to be disenchanted with or disgusted by Don for more than half an episode without being labeled bad people by the show's voice. I mean, I don't think Mad Men did terribly well by either Betty or Megan in the long…

nah, he recycled it from a bit on The West Wing which was actually really funny, in part because it was Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford, not suffering-broken-Maggie and the other anchor whose name I still have to work to remember.

Yes, making fun of Fox is definitely cutting-edge media criticism.