Person Of Interest & The Newsroom
These two shows have really taken over my love for television series. Aaron Sorkin is such a brilliant writer in The Newsroom and is known for his fast, witty, sarcastic, logical and realistic dialogue. If you haven't seen he show, it is totally worth your time.
The Newsroom aired on HBO for 3 seasons and was cut short by Aaron to make way to write for other projects he is working on. Sad to see a show that is based on a Newsroom that only believes in telling the real news.
Quote:
Will: Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it any time he wants. It doesn't cost money, it costs votes; it costs airtime, column inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so ladybug smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?
Sharon: Hey-!
Will: [without letting her finish, he directs his attention to Lewis] And with a straight face, you're gonna tell students that America's so star-spangled awesome, that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. [laughs] So 207 sovereign states in the world, like a hundred and eighty of them have freedom.
Moderator: Alright–
Will: And yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there's some things you should know, and one of them is, there's absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force, and number 4 in exports. We lead the world in only 3 categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined. 25 of whom are allies. Now, none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student. But you, nonetheless, are without a doubt a member of the worst. generation. ever. So when you ask, "what makes us the greatest country in the world?" I dunno know what the ladybug you're talking about. Yosemite? [Pause] We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it, it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in our last election. And we didn't... we didn't scare so easy. We were able to be all these things, and to do all these things, because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. [Pause, then to the moderator] Enough?
Person of Interest is rally a show that captures the present day logic and battle with rights to privacy. The idea behind the show is that a machine is created to help the government prevent the next 9/11 and provides two lists. A relevant and irrelevant list. The relevant list is of numbers that matter to national security, and the irrelevant numbers are those that die from natural or unfortunate events. The series is in it's 5th season currently and going strong. This is by far my favorite show on television currently.
Quote:
Chess is a useful mental exercise.
And through the years, many thinkers have been fascinated by it.
But I don't enjoy playing.
Do you know why not? (The machine says "No")
Because it was a game that was born during a brutal age, when life counted for little.
And everyone believed that some people were worth more than others.
Kings and pawns.
I don't think that anyone is worth more than anyone else.
Chess is just a game.
Real people aren't pieces.
And you can't assign more value to some of them than to others.
People are not a thing that you can sacrifice.
The lesson is that anyone who looks on the world as if it was a game of chess deserves to lose.
Anyone else watching these two shows?