May 23rd
18:18
18:18
The Sopranos “Pilot”. Directed and Written by David Chase. (Premiere Date: Jan. 10, 1999)
“So what, no fuckin’ ziti now?”
Actually, I’m from Mars. It’s fine if you don’t believe me, but that’s where I’m from. I’m a full-blooded martian. Don’t worry, there’s no plot to take over Earth. We’re just displaced. I can tell you don’t believe me. That’s okay. We’re a big secret; they even tried to hide it from me. That man— my father —told me a story I was born in a concentration camp, but you know that’s impossible. And I never met my mother because she supposedly died there. That’s convenient. Next thing I know, Morris there finds me in a Swedish orphanage. I was five. I remember it. And then I got this one communication, a simple order. Stay where you are.
![The Office; 2.11 ‘Booze Cruise’
Pam: It’s getting kind of rowdy down there.Jim: Yeah. Darryl! Darryl! Darryl!Pam: Sometimes I just don’t get Roy.Jim: Well… Pam: I mean, I don’t know. So… what’s it like dating a cheerleader?Jim: Oh, um… [silence]Pam: I’m cold.
I wrote the paragraph below years ago, and this scene haunts me as if this exact moment has happened to me, and in small ways it has. It was not the perfect show, but neither was every workplace I’ve ever had. Yet I remember how good and kind my co-workers were, how inspiring my bosses could be, and how working with others was more satisfying than working alone.
Have I ever written about one of my favorite tv moments ever? And it’s not because of this dialogue, it’s because of the 20 freaking seconds of silence (I counted it!) and looks shared between these two. Ten seconds of awkward silence in real world time is long enough, but 20 seconds?! You’re using up primetime air right here, especially for a 21 minute show…You know how human and real this moment is, how we’ve all experienced it, trying to find the words to say to someone and not quite getting there. More moments like this, TV, more moments like this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljyylv88tS1qzyy66o1_500.png)
The Office; 2.11 ‘Booze Cruise’
Pam: It’s getting kind of rowdy down there.
Jim: Yeah. Darryl! Darryl! Darryl!
Pam: Sometimes I just don’t get Roy.
Jim: Well…
Pam: I mean, I don’t know. So… what’s it like dating a cheerleader?
Jim: Oh, um… [silence]
Pam: I’m cold.
I wrote the paragraph below years ago, and this scene haunts me as if this exact moment has happened to me, and in small ways it has. It was not the perfect show, but neither was every workplace I’ve ever had. Yet I remember how good and kind my co-workers were, how inspiring my bosses could be, and how working with others was more satisfying than working alone.
Have I ever written about one of my favorite tv moments ever? And it’s not because of this dialogue, it’s because of the 20 freaking seconds of silence (I counted it!) and looks shared between these two. Ten seconds of awkward silence in real world time is long enough, but 20 seconds?! You’re using up primetime air right here, especially for a 21 minute show…You know how human and real this moment is, how we’ve all experienced it, trying to find the words to say to someone and not quite getting there. More moments like this, TV, more moments like this.
“It’s a cliche, it’s a New Age cliche, but, ‘Be the change you want to see.’ It’s like, ‘How do I create the things I want to see, and how can you make something that is compassionate and potentially can be healing to someone?’ Or, you know, they talk about in Buddhism, there’s Tonglen practice, which is someone breathing in the suffering of either yourself or others, and breathing out a kind of hopefulness. And you can see art or fiction or whatever being a version of that, where you try to create something that’s hopeful, that also recognizes pain and doesn’t run from the pain. It actually acknowledges it, because I feel like so much of entertainment right now is about distraction and a bombarding of … light and noise. … And whether I’ve succeeded in that or not, I feel like there is an impulse there. … Even if Enlightened fails, I don’t want to walk away from what I’m trying to achieve, which is try to make something that is a little bit more contemplative or a little slowed down or a little bit more about how do we live, as opposed to something that’s about distracting you from those questions.” - Mike White
