Pretty Much Pop #89: The Chicago 7 (and the Aaron Sorkinverse)

In lieu of an Oscars episode, we consider one of the nominated films, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and the career of its writer/director, Aaron Sorkin, which started with A Few Good Men through four TV series (most notably The West Wing), and films like The Social Network, Steve Jobs, and Molly’s Game.

Brian, Erica, and Mark consider Sorkin’s stock recurring characters and their political diatribes, plots often based on true events, and how his writing creates drama. Do we feel uplifted or vaguely dirty after a Sorkin bath? It’s great to have characters that aren’t stupid, but are they actually smart or just designed to seem that way? Are the deviations from fact just good use of dramatic license or positively harmful? We touch on virtually all of Sorkin’s productions (well, except for the plays; he actually considers himself natively a playwright) and still have energy for a few Oscars musings and reflections about including real locations or news events in fiction.

Here are a few articles we used to prepare ourselves:

Watch the trailer for Sorkin’s MasterClass. If you do want to obtain it, please use our code for 15% off an annual membership: MasterClass.com/examined.

Get more Pretty Much Pop. This episode includes bonus discussion you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.

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