Aaron Sorkin and The Newsroom

I'm a huge West Wing fan - I own all 7 seasons on DVD - and if Aaron Sorkin is involved, I tend to want to check it out. When HBO announced The Newsroom, I was all in. I've watched the first two episodes now and wanted to bounce my thoughts off anyone else who was checking out the show.

The good:
I love love love the dialogue. This show does pretty much nothing but talk for the entire hour. Sure, no one really talks like that in real life, but it makes for great television. You just want to roll around and take a bath in all those words.

The cast is fantastic. Every actor seems to steal the scene until you're left with one commanding performance after another. The characters are three-dimensional and compelling.

The so-so:
I don't love humiliation humor, and it's even worse if it's not even remotely funny. There were some squirmy scenes that were clearly trying to be amusing but were just cringe-worthy horrible.

I also didn't love the slap-stick humor, especially since for some reason they decided to make all the female characters endearingly clumsy.

Speaking of female characters...the jury is still out on that. They basically admitted that the two leading female characters were the same person at different stages of their lives. They are both spastic, neurotic women involved in unhealthy relationship patterns, both with mean streaks and quick wits and massive insecurities. I'm kind of hoping some of the supporting female characters will start to shine in future episodes.

The pot-shots at other news media were a little bit of a turn off. Fox news is too easy a target :X.

The bad:
Rather than create a fictional newsroom show, this show is based on real events. The show timeline starts in April of 2010 and takes us through the major news stories. I'm not crazy about that - it feels too much like Monday morning quarterbacking. It's easy to be smug and self-righteous when you have the benefit of hindsight and historical perspective. It's almost a deal breaker for me, actually. I sort of find revisionist history irritating.

And then there's the recycling, which is best expressed in this youtube video:
[video=youtube;S78RzZr3IwI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI[/video]

It's almost comical but grating at the same time.

Soooo....anyone else watching this? Any other Sorkin fans, West Wing fans, etc?