He based other characters on ex-girlfriends and the network executives who fired him for ‘shrooming on the job, and it just came off as petty. And unforgivably, some of his favorite storytelling tricks came off as creepy and seemingly went back in time and ruined Sports Night. I can’t enjoy it nearly as much when I also see it as the birthplace of “Career women use their jobs to cover up the void in their life where a man should be”, “Stalking is adorable and inevitably wins the stalkee over”, and “Don’t you people get how brilliant I am?” We’re talking about a man who got himself banned from a West Wing fan site for abusive behavior, people!Sorkin’s newest work is “Charlie Wilson’s War”, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Mike Nichols. Being set in the 1980’s and having nothing to do with broadcasting, the thinly disguised slaps at Sorkin’s former co-workers and bizarre loathing of the Internet are non-factors. We can be thankful for that at least.
