Raw Data: Election Night - Part I

Thoughts and observations for episode 2-08 "Election Night Part I"

Written by Aaron Sorkin

Directed by Jason Ensler who also did a post-Sorkin episode of West Wing.

• Ugh.  Couldn't they make it "ACN 2012 Election Coverage" instead of putting "ACN" and "Election" together to make their titles start with "ACNE"
• Mac looks awful, for her
• Old Will, pre-Yosemite?! Will would not have cared enough about the show or the people who work there to appoint himself director of morale
• Did they bring the funny?
• "I'm sorry we don't meet your East Cost intellectual standards (of facts)"
• "What'd I do?" - Elliot
• Elliot was as incredulous as Huel was in Breaking Bad.  He didn't do anything to anyone and couldn't believe his treatment here
• Speaking of Elliot, it was great to see him walk into their mathematical center for calling races and show how dumb that is.  Nothing like calling attention to the basic facts of what someone says or does to show how dumb it is, like how Will was repeating some of the GOP candidates quotes verbatim to show how ridiculous they sound.  Sorkin didn't comment on the media here, he just showed one of the dumb things cable news does, and looking at it through this lens, it's easier to say "wow, that is dumb"
•  Again Elliot, walking around before the camera cuts to hime and then getting caught on camera with his back turned.  He was very Phil Dunphy-esque in this episode
• "My mom says I can't" - Reese
• Maggie, who lets her kid watch his iPad at full volume while you wait in the doctor's office, is somehow among those who would resign in wake of Genoa.  When Mac does not rate high enough to fire in making an example, what in the world make's it worth mentioning some random incompetent associate producer?
• Barely a mention of Harry Alabama, except for now Don's being sued.  Don was the most upset at Harry directly for the doctored tape so it would make sense Harry would target him for a recommendation
• Don calls him a sociopath.  Unfortunately, some of the best evidence of Harry being a sociopath is Harry setting up Don like this
• Maggie, submarine screen door installer/user, is somehow able to insult Jim with impunity
• Will's comeback to Taylor of not letting her "float an allegation then pretend it's universally agreed upon"  Excellent.  Don't accept the false premise.
• I wonder if ACN is going to be handcuffed about Petreaus like they were about Benghazi.
• The energy in the newsroom before the polls close is something Studio 60 could never match because the stakes were never high enough.

What people will be upset about
Everyone being so eager and righteous to sacrifice themselves for the good of the network and their journalistic honor.  Taking responsibility?  Well, it is fiction.  And it could easily run off the rails and sound preachy.  But I think two things hold it back.  One is Leona's spite.  She wants to do the honorable thing with regarding to Harry Alabama, but I think she is motivated more by spite than anything.  Second is that I think Mac is more depressed than anything about Genoa.  She's concerned about her credibility and her name and how she's ever going to be taken seriously again.  Understandably, it's difficult to come into work each day and continue to report the news, which includes Genoa unfortunately.

When Sorkin's characters are upset or depresed, they have a tendency to become singularly focused on a seemingly unrelated item.  In SportsNight, Jeremy focuses on a lost sailboat in "The Sword of Orion" when he's dealing with the revelation of his father's longtime affair.  Here, Mac wants to correct her Wikipedia page with regard to the college she attended.  The pajama people will no doubt get upset and claim this as another example of Sorkin, screenwriter of The Social Network, hating the Internet.  Mac and Neil are dealing with an obstinate Wikipedia editor who adheres to the policy of not accepting information from the subject of an article.

There is some liberty taken with this policy but arguing on the Internet is not the point*.  The point is that Mac is incredibly blue about Genoa and also following Charlies speech on getting it right mistakes weight ten times more heavily than normal.  In this case, it is seemingly an easy mistake to fix, and she's unable to do it.  The toothpaste cannot go back in the tube on Genoa either.  Think back to Will bailing Neil out of jail.  Will went on a rant about the problems he was facing, and how he wanted to fix just one so he was going after the easiest one**.  So before the Internet cries foul on this, think about the higher purpose to this storyline.

* Sorkin got a lot of criticism for the LemonLyman.com story in "The U.S. Poet Laureate" when he tries to post to an Internet message about about himself.  Josh winds up looking foolish for the whole thing, so I don't understand how it's not viewed as funny and good natured following his own Internet message board incident. 

** Jed Bartlet, helpless against a few things like a brewing storm in "The State Dinner", goes ahead and forces the Teamsters Union and management to come to an agreement.