REVIEW: THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION BY AARON SORKIN

I had only one problem with The Farnsworth Invention (directed by Des McAnuff). It came in the first 90 seconds or so and it is entirely a result of my geekery. The play begins with David Sarnoff (Stephen Lang), the president of RCA in the thirties, antagonist of the piece and co-narrator. He wants to make a point about light and in doing so mentions electrons. "The only people thinking about electrons in the 1920's were comic book writers....and comic book readers," he says. Fourteen-year-old Philo Taylor Farnsworth was also, but it's those first two groups I got hung up on for a few seconds.

I've generally gone with the common understanding of Famous Funnies being the first comic book. It's arguable, but that's the line I've drawn. I might have written the line with "pulp magazines" in reference to something like Amazing Stories, and most of those magazines didn't really get underway until the later half of the decade. It wouldn't sound as good though.

Accuracy, however, can be the hobgoblin of drama. That quibbling point was quickly forgotten, though, because The Farnsworth Invention was fanfuckingtastic.

As I mentioned, Sarnoff is the co-narrator along with Philo T. Farnsworth (Jimmi Simpson) each taking over as the other is actually engaged in the story of the race to invent the television, occasionally stepping out of their own stories as well. The play moves along at very much the clip you expect from something Aaron Sorkin wrote and this is achieved though rapid scene changes made by the actors themselves as Sarnoff or Farnsworth bridge the scenes. The sets in this workshop production are mostly non-existent, consisting largely of tables on casters and chairs (with some exceptions), additionally most of the the 20 actors in the ensemble carry multiple rolls (Jim Ortlieb being a highlight in that respect) which helps keep the pace up. The way the story jumps from Idaho to Russia to Utah to New York to San Francisco (mostly New York and San Francisco) to Delaware, it's easy to see both how this may have once been a film script and how it may one day be again.

Farnsworth and Zworykin

Lang's Sarnoff was scarcely a villain. Machiavellian? Absolutely. A little on the wrongish side of things? Depends on how much of a capitalist you're comfortable being, I suppose. You don't hate him. He's got a sense of humor that sees to that and right in those first couple of minutes, if you're familiar with the Sorkin style, you get a sense of it from him. However, it's when Simpson turns up as Farnsworth to take over the narrative for the first time that the Sorkin voice really shows up all full-throated. Simpson reminds me of a young John deLancie a bit. He also reminds me a lot of Christian Slater but without any of the baby-Jack. No, wait. He's got a lot of James Spader going on (though Spader's never been in a Sorkin anything, unlike those others). His Farnsworth is Sorkin's mouthpiece more than any other character, like Josh and Toby, like Matt Albie and like whoever Josh Molina's playing. He's got all those signature rhythms and within a minute, I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.

The play traces Sarnoff from the young boy who was essentially forced out of Russia to encounter anti-Semitism in the States (not a major part of things, but it plays its part) to rising through the ranks to control the Radio Corporation of America to trying to get to having the television first in an effort to make it something that will change the world for the better. He holds an idealism about television (not a surprising theme in Sorkin's work by a long shot). His idealism about the potential of television works so much more than anything in Studio 60 because it comes from a place where television hasn't happened yet. This is a guy that is disgusted by the idea of advertising on the radio. It elecits chuckles when he has a quick tirade to his wife about television eliminating illiteracy and ending war.

At the same time, we follow Farnsworth from ninth grader too smart for most rooms through to possessed inventor, to husband and father to seeing his dream ever so cleverly get yoinked away from him after a not-so-coincidental meeting with Sarnoff's inventor Vladmir Zworykin (Bruce McKenzie) who had been working on a mechanical television, rather than Farnsworth's electronic approach.

Certainly, as I alluded earlier, accuracy is sometimes sacrificed for drama and in narration Sarnoff even admits as much. And while mention is made of Farnsworth's efforts in fusion, the play is about the television and keeps it's focus very much there.

Now, if you've been a Sorkin fan, you may remember a certain episode of Sports Night. In "Cliff Gardner," ratings consultant Sam Donovan (William H. Macy) makes a point to some network executives about how to get the best out of creative people. He does so by comparing himself to Cliff Gardner, who was Farnsworth's brother-in-law. Gardner wanted to help Farnsworth in some way. He wasn't a scientist or anything and had no special skills, but he saw that glass tubes would be needed so he learned to be a glassblower. Sam even voiced Gardner in telling the story and that bit is right there in in the play, exactly as Sorkin described it through Sam Donovan eight years ago.

Despite the inevitable downbeat of Farnsworth's loss in his battle for his invention, Sorkin pulls off a mighty upbeat to close things on, as Sarnoff, ambivalent about his regrets, imagines where Farnsworth might have been and what he might have been doing on July 16th, 1969 at around 9:30 in the morning.

In reality, Farnsworth's wife, Pem, had said that her husband thought that everything he'd been through had been worth it upon seeing live pictures of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon.

TV and the Apollo program. Got me hard right there.

Some complaints about Studio 60, among those who know about it, is that Sorkin really seems to be working through some stuff through writing through that show. Large chunks of it are either well-known as being things from his life while other things are speculated as also being things from his life (and perhaps in direct reference to The Farnsworth Invention not being a flick, though I'm not sure that that speculation makes a lot of sense). Not all of it is coming through that well. Obviously, being historical in nature, Sorkin's opportunity for writing-threapy is limited, though there is one throw-away line about the country not learning the lessons of prohibition in regard to "other vices" that struck me as just a little meta.

For all the ups and downs of Studio 60 this season, The Farnsworth Invention is an assurance that Sorkin has still got mad skillz. I saw the matinee show on the last day of the run and I was seriously considering putting off the hour-plus drive back home to get in the rush line and try for another ticket to the final show which would not begin for about four hours.

I'd tell you that wherever you are, get to San Diego and see it, but the run's over. Keep your eyes open. Maybe it'll go to Broadway or the local cinema, and if you're really lucky, maybe Simpson will reprise Farnsworth.

SORKIN + FLAMING LIPS = WTF?

Sorkin is writing the book for a musical by the Flaming Lips.

Seriously? Because April Fool's is close, but it's still like a week and a half.

Sweet Viking Jesus.

SAVE THE CHEERLEADER...FOR ME

Actually, I'm much more interested in Transformogirl.

So I attended a panel of the Heroes writers this weekend. T'was damn near every single one of them. It was moderated by one of the co-exec Jeph Loeb (writer of Teen Wolf!) and included both artist Tim Sale and the show's creator Tim Kring (writer of Teen Wolf Too!).

It was primarily a Q and A driven thing, but several individuals asked about or drew comparisons to Lost, which was a little interesting if only because both Loeb and Jesse Alexander (credited as Executive Consultant) both worked on Lost. Also, as Loeb pointed out, Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof left Kring's Crossing Jordan to go off and do that show that arguably set the whole serialized series thing ablaze (though I tend to think of 24 as actually having started the fire).

Alexander believes the difference between Lost and Heroes (i.e. the reason why Heroes won't fall into the Lost trap of not being able to progress in a timely fashion) is that the premise of Lost essentially drives toward an end. On Lost, the secrets of the island must be learned and the cast has to get off the island. Heroes, basically, doesn't have an end. It can continuously mutate. The premise is just "folks with powers" basically. Yeah, we're learning secrets about Linderman and the past of powered folk, but it's not the crux of the series. We can just go on and on following powered folk around for as long as they can create good characters and interesting situations for them to be in.

There was the suggestion from Kring that Heroes has certainly benefited from watching 24 and Lost take those first steps into modern serialization and that they've learned from their mistakes, but Loeb was quick to say that Heroes should be so lucky as to experience the kind of success that Lost has.

My opinion, which no one fucking asked for, is that in going for serialization, you have to go in without too much rigidity or you're going to be in for a hard time from time to time. 24 is locked into its format and there is simply no getting out of it. Ever. I don't think that Lost is locked in, but they act like they are. That and the "plan" the writers have. When I attended the Lost DVD premiere in 2005, many of the producers mentioned that their ideas were planned out to four seasons. A bit much in the case of not being too successful or, as it turns out, not enough in the case of being successful. And yeah, Alexander is spot-on with the fact that their are locked into having some kind of ending.

Heroes has already proven it's not locked into anything. Three time, by the end of the year, they'll have broken out of the splintered characters format to focus on a convergence of characters. "Company Man" is a recent example of that. Flexibility is going to be the key in keeping things fresh and, for me, it really turned around my opinion of the show. Not a 180, I didn't hate the show, but the first chunk of the season was a little slow-boiling for me, so maybe 90 degrees.

I still prefer hybrid-serialization. Veronica Mars is like that. First season is the perfect example. Each episode had it's own identity, a clear and contained A-story for each and advancement of the Lily Kane murder, sometimes as a result of the A (always very clever) sometimes in a B plot.

Back to the panel. There was also mention of special scenes being shot for the DVD release that will follow some characters past the season finale, not entirely unlike the annual 24 prequel short. Neat-o.

For an excellent rundown of the whole event, go look at Emmett Furey's coverage over at CBR.

I also covered a few things for CBR. Those can be seen HERE.

VERONICA MARS CANCELLED (?) UPDATED SOME MORE

Says Kristin.

There is a vigil.

Ms. Bell will be at WWLA this weekend. She can cry on my shoulder.

Though I may need to cry on hers instead.

Updateyness: Rob Thomas is shooting a trailer for a possible fourth season that jumps VM ahead a couple of years and places her squarely in the FBI Academy. Suits to decide fate soon.

Details at Hollywood Reporter.

More update-itude: Here now, my exclusivish one-question interview with Kristin Bell herself. (There was no crying).

Me: Would you prefer a season four at Hearst or at the FBI Academy?

Her: Well, I've gotten really close with the people I work with now. It can be hard to get that kind of connection with people. I'm in favor of keeping our little family together.

I take that as a Hearst. Me? I'm all for some FBI Academy.

REVIEW: BUFFY SEASON EIGHT PREMIERE

Yes, sir. Season Eight is underway and it's not on the CW.

To bring the uninformed up-to-date, Dark Horse comics is publishing a direct continuation of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for seven seasons. This series is, essentially, season eight. And it's not written by some studio-approved license-hack. It's written by Joss Whedon and a handpicked staff which will include former Buffyverse writer Jane Espenson and new guy (current Lost staffer and writer of the kick-ass Ex Machina) Brian K. Vaughan on future arcs, overseen showrunner-style by the man himself.

The first arc is titled The Long Way Home and there's something you need to know. It's not a TV show. You can tell by the staples. Expecting it to be structured or executed in that way is folly. Folly, I tell you.

One of the primary differences is the voice over, or as it's a funnybook, the captions. While the Whedon has used V.O. here and there in his various series on the tube, but the use here is different. There's more of it. A lot more it. In comics you have the opportunity to spend a chunk of time in a character's brain. More that you usually get with TV, because the V.O.s would start getting intrusive or annoying. Besides, good V.O.s are hard to find. In this first issue, there's a lot of Buffy, but also some Xander. In both cases, it's very clear Joss hasn't lost either of these voices.

The biggest advantage of the comic form is, of course, the total lack of budgetary concern. This is immediate and obvious. Let's just say two-page spread of a helicopter and Buffy in the air...separately.

In matters of story (I will steer clear of plot point spoilage, but not general premise spoilage), this "eight" season makes a big jump in the status quo of the "series." This jump is even more pronounced than the one that Angel underwent from season four to five. Buffy has a massive force of Slayerettes at her disposal. Xander is now a not-quite-watcher. His role is more in line with Nick Fury (not the first time Fury and Xander have been linked and not the last). He oversees the military-like operation of the Slayers from a control center in a Scottish castle.

What I want to know and I hope will be answered in the near future is how Buffy and crew went from having work-a-day jobs like retail, construction, and DoubleMeat purveyance to being able to fund a high-tech operation that spans the globe and is based in a Scottish castle?

Even without the TV structure, as we move on past our main characters and get to setting up our threats for The Long Way Home, it still has something of an episode's act one feel as we shift from scene to scene.

Even the scenes without one our people in them are classic Whedon. There's always that one guy that talks, y'know, that way. Same here.

Then, there's Dawn. An excellent use of the freedom from TV special effects and it looks promising for her character to get a little...growth beyond the "It's Tuesday, Dawn must be in trouble" typing she frequently found herself in. Nonetheless, Dawn's in trouble. This trouble, though, is cool and different and reveals a new wrinkle to Dawn's relationship with her sister and how it was altered by Buffy being dead for a while.

The issue comes to a close with a beautiful reveal, showing that one of the threats Buffy and her...task force are going to face in this opening arc is a familiar one. As I made my way to the last page I was trying to out guess the pronoun game Joss was playing as some characters spoke of this threat. There were some other references that may have been there to make me expect someone very different, then I turned the page and it was...someone that made me very happy. Click that link at your own damn peril.

I've occasionally read some Buffy comics in the past. I'm not referring to the Tales of the Slayers or the Tales of the Vampires stories, which are all quite good and benefit from having been written by TV staff, but are a side dish in the Buffyverse, as they don't feature Buffy herself. I mean actual issues of the previous Buffy ongoing series and some mini-series here and there. For the most part, they felt a little underwhelming. Maybe the voices weren't quite on, maybe the stories were a little too plot-driven. There was also the whole non-canon thing, that these stories didn't really fit anywhere. Not here. This is the real thing. It builds on and refers back to continuity (with a little thing in the direction of "The Girl In Question."

Also, interior artist Georges Jeanty seems to have a pretty good grasp on the likenesses of these very familiar characters. That goes a long way. Some previous artists let their style (or the hot style they might have been apeing) run roughshod over these already well-established and loved characters. Jo Chen, the cover artist has Sarah Michelle Gellar down and kicks off the series with the striking image you see above.

I had high expectations for this. I was primed for a let-down and I was not.

OUT OF WORK (AGAIN) - CRUSHED BY THE MAN

So the combination of a a minor medical emergency and related procedure in the first two weeks of work and an asshat boss who is incapable of exercising any sort of common sense or personal discretion has now resulted in me being unemployed again.

Apparently, in order to keep the job, I would have had to collapse and be carted away in an ambulance. Even then, might not change anything. Seriously, Lumbergh would be an improvement over this tool.

SOME RECENT TV OBSERVATIONS...

This is what passes for a post during a week filled with sweet, sweet vicodin (and a crappy new job). A rant on the state of health care would be called for, but I simply...huh...anyway...some spoilers, so...y'know.

GILMORE GIRLS: "Gilmore Girls Only"
They recast Mia. While Kathy Baker's okay, I really liked Elizabeth Franz who originated the role in The Ins and Out of Inns. She had much more the friendly surrogate mom vibe. Fine episode, but I would have liked to see something more between Mia and Emily.


HOUSE: Half-Wit
That was too bloody perfect. A quintessential House episode. Usually, my favorite House eps are the ones that go off-formula ("Three Stories" for instance). Not this time. Kurtwood Smith rawks too. Dave Matthews weren't bad none neither.

I wish I'd thought of it (faster). I'd started looking into the cancer/depression research thing used in that episode as I eye heading back to House for a new spec to probably replace my aging Veronica Mars in the rotation. (Why do I not engage in a new VM? Is it because of the iffy future. No. It's because the phenomenon that just obliterated my potential House script has happened to me at least four times this season with VM. At least I'm on the same page, eh?)


BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: "Maelstrom"
I just don't know what to think about this. It could lead to something supernatural. I don't like the actively supernatural stuff on BG. Like the prophesied nova, for instance. Maybe she's just dead. It's possible. Seems a little "eh" if that's the case. So Starbuck was just frakked in the head and dove in? Destiny? No? I guess time will tell on this one.


HEROES: "(Like Any) Parasite"
Kept my interest coming off of the supertabulous "Company Man."

Missy Peregrym in a short plaid skirt will do that.

No, seriously. Things are consistently happening now and I'm along for the ride. Still trying to work out a way to spec this, but it makes my brain hurt (mmm...the vicodin). I'm sure anything I could come up with would have a stupid-short shelf life and I hate that.