Reason #4,526,097 Why Aaron Sorkin's Shows Suck

Aaron Sorkin's "West Wing" TV show was one of the most critically acclaimed shows for some reason. Understandably, the Republican rise to power in 2000 caused consternation amongst Democrats, many of whom work in the entertainment industry. However, that show was so liberally biased, with every Democrat and especially the President depicted as noble-hearted well-intentioned never-acting-like-real-politicians-actually-act citizens while Republicans were depicted as evil money-grubbing inconsiderate selfish brats. I'm not saying I'm a Republican, but that show really did a disservice to portraying political life accurately. It was clearly a fairy tale. Most people liked the "whip-smart" dialogue, which in reality was just liberal philosophy put into characters' mouths to speak. In other words, the characters were just vessels by which to spout ideology, they were not real people.

Now, for a show like West Wing, which was clearly some sort of a fairy tale featuring larger than life characters, that was sometimes tolerable and it's understandable that lots of people liked it. The characters didn't have to be "real" because the topic being discussed was already larger than life. Sorkin's more recent show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", crumples under the weight of its caricatures because that show is NOT about larger than life people, but rather ordinary people, yet attempts to use the same bombastic dialogue that Sorkin used on "West Wing". The result is that you have comics spouting ridiculous-sounding dialogue about how to fix the problems of the world. Everyone sounds too self-important, too self-centered, and too idiotic. The show is failing because the characters are completely unbelievable and, worse, completely annoying.

Of course, Sorkin doesn't see it that way. Instead, the show is failing because the audience is "resentful":

Putting together a TV show is "something that the average person who, for lack of a better word, works a real job, resents slightly because it doesn't seem like a real job," he told reporters recently.

This coming from someone whose shows have never been about "average" people with "real jobs". What an ass. Those of us with "real jobs" can figure out when his show sucks, that's the reason who don't like it, not because of some secret "resentment" we have. He needs to get off of all his drugs and get a clue.