Customer Reviews

Noel

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I generally agree with Newton Minow of the FCC who, in a speech to the National Broadcasters Ass'n. in 1961, said of television, "You will observe a vast wasteland."
In this year of 2011, I couldn't agree more. Yet, every once in a very great while, there comes along a show which is really worth watching. The West Wing (TWW) was such a show. The members of the White House staff are portrayed as smart, energetic, and principled, which is of course at variance to government in general. Jon Stewart once described The West Wing as "Total ******* bull****." In a sense, he was right. These characters aren't really true to life, particularly when it comes to the issue of integrity. But we wish that's how our government operated. And that's why TWW was, for me, appointment television.

Noel has particular interest to me as a therapist. It is well-written, the hallmark of Aaron Sorkin's work, with excellent character development. The stages that the character Josh Lyman goes through with metamorphoses in his issue of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are very true to life. All of the symptoms he shows are textbook, and they were very well acted. Add to that his reliving of his shooting with Yo Yo Ma's rendition of the first movement of Bach's 1st Cello Suite as a backdrop, made for a stunning presentation.

I had the highest bid in a Playwrights Horizons auction for an autographed copy of the Noel episode and have been fascinated to compare the written version to what was actually shot. I bought it because I'm a huge fan of the series, of Playwrights Horizons, but especially of Aaron Sorkin. His dialogue is like music and I've heard actors refer to the specific rhythms created by the words and the importance of getting each syllable, line and interaction exactly right while making it sound real and unforced. The snarky people at Television Without Pity have a great term for it: speaking Sorkinese.

Reading the words was fascinating. 90% of what's said was what's written on the page. It was really fun to figure out what was happening with the other 10%. There are some minor deletions, I assume for timing constraints. There are also some changes of characters who are given the lines and it's really interesting to infer why: why does having Leo say the line make more sense than having Sam say the same words as originally written? Finally, the editing is as much a part of the story telling as the script or actors, and much of the impact of this episode came from powerful juxtaposition of visual images that were only briefly suggested on the page. Schlamme does a masterful job here, especially at the end when he is interweaving images of the assassination attempt, the therapy session and the congressional Christmas party, all over the haunting Bach cello piece.

Whitford was dazzling here and won the Emmy for this (and one other season 2) episode. Arkin is brilliant here as the therapist. It's 2011 and I still miss this show!