I can’t call myself an Aaron Sorkin completist anymore, because I didn’t bother to watch past Episode 4 of The Newsroom. If I had, I would have enjoyed catching some of the repetitions Kevin Porter amusingly flags above, in a follow-up to his first round of “Sorkinisms.”
Let me be clear: The nature of these repetitions varies. Repetition is pretty much where Sorkin eats. Some of these are callbacks, some are clichés and common phrases he is obviously fond of, and others might be considered proof of the thematic unity of his work—his tendency, like many artists, to circle back to the same obsessions and fixations and so on (such as, say, Belgium).
But some of these he should probably retire. From time to time, a writer needs to reflect on his or her tics; it is almost hard to believe how often you might end up saying the exact same thing.
