Aaron Sorkin's Worst Crime

The Social Network

“The worst crime you can commit with an audience is telling them something they already know”.
Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter The Social Network, writer and creator The West Wing

Cut to

A long-running drama series somewhere on British terrestrial TV.



Stressed Woman: Freddie's gone to The Azores

2nd Woman You mean the Archipelago of  nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean?

Woman: Yes. He won't be back until next Wednesday

2nd Woman: That's the middle of the week famously named after the English god Wodan.

Woman: Um. What the hell, I think I'm going to take up Johnny's offer of a fling.

2nd Woman: An extra-marital affair?

Woman: He's so loving and his wife has claustrophobia.

2nd Woman: The fear of confined spaces can be so restricting.


Woman: But I'm a little scared that Father Michael won't be too impressed.

2nd Woman:  The Church teachers us not to have sex outside marriage.

Woman:  You don't think I could be excommunicated do you?

2nd Woman: What, totally expelled from the Catholic church?

Woman: You see my dilemma?.

2nd Woman: The choice of two paths.

Woman: I need a coffee. Let's go to Mall.

2nd Woman: It's the kind of big shopping center experience every woman needs at a time like this. So many shops all under one roof.

Woman: We'll have to take the bus my car failed the MOT.

2nd Woman: You're right, you can't drive your car without its annual test of roadworthiness which is applied to vehicles overs three years old in the UK. Of course the MOT is now a misnomer as the name derives from the Ministry of Transport which was one of several ancestors of the current Department of transport but is still officially used...

Sorkin is absolutely right. but there are other writing crimes (one day we may get around to doing a list), here's another - "As you know..."
It's used as a shorthand way of delivering a fact but it is one of the clumsiest, least believable tools in the box:

"As you know I am your father...
"As you know, you are a nuclear physicist" or
"As you know you are Adolph Hitler".

Sorkin's dialogue is fast and unrelenting. He expects the audience to have to work to keep up and when we have to listen hard don't we concentrate and enjoy it all the more? Don't stop to explain, don't assume your audience is thick - how patronizing is that? In an age when we are surrounded by so many things that talk down to us, anyone with the ambition to talk up has to be applauded.