It's a beautiful world

還記得我是在某個異常庸懶的星期天下午躺在沙發上看第一集的。

我必須講︰從來没有一部電視劇的頭五分鐘能搞得這麼熱血沸騰﹗没有超誇張不現實的飛車或特技場景，没有嘩眾取寵弄得死去活來橋段，有的只是赤裸裸血淋淋得讓人屏氣凝神的坦白和氣勢。

劇集的開首在大學會堂面對著二十多歲的大學生，編劇們就搬出了這一道題目︰Can you say why America is the greatest country in the world? 其餘的兩位嘉賓都答了官腔十足又圓滑的得的[Diversity][Opportunity][Freedom]，唯獨男主角Will 好像不願撒謊但又不願坦言爆發，所以承接之前的對話答了[New York Jets]。結果，不懂看人眉頭眼額的主持人不願就此放過Will，加上Will好像隱約見到女主角McKenzie的[It’s not, but it can be!]紙版，火山要爆發，經典就來了﹗

Will
It's not the greatest country in the world, professor, that's my answer.

Moderator
[pause]You're saying—

Will
Yes.

Moderator
Let's talk about—

Start off easy. First get rid of the two noisemakers.

Will
Fine.[to the liberal panelist]Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paychecks, but he[gesturing to the conservative panelist]gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn't cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin' smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS!

The use of inappropriate language has a purpose—the filter's off.

And[to the conservative panelist]with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.

The fact-dump that's coming now serves several purposes. It backs up his argument, it reveals him to be exceptional (what normal person has these stats at their fingertips?), but mostly it's musical. This is the allegro.

And you—sorority girl—yeah—just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world,I don't know what the fuck you're talking about?! Yosemite?!!!

[Cell-phone cameras are everywhere— people are tweeting and texting away.]

Now we slow down and get a glimpse into his pain. The oratorical technique is called "floating opposites"— we did, we didn't, we did, we didn't... But rhythmically you don't want this to be too on the money. You're not just testing the human ear anymore; you want people to hear what he's saying.

We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.

Will
[to moderator]Enough?

我們不願意承認，或許是自尊心作祟，或者是因為我們根本只看到部份的事實，新聞工作者首要宗旨就這樣被Will 於第一集的頭十分鐘轟轟烈烈的爆發出來。你會被他的氣勢懾服，你會佩服他提出的數據和合理的反駁，你會反思自己一直所看到的新聞接受到所謂的消息的真實度和全面性，你會開始懷疑到底自己是不是一直被所謂的[新聞]所誤導或瞞騙，到底我們的新聞工作者妥協了多少？妥協到什麼程度？我真的不知道﹗

這部劇最頭到尾都相當好看，劇中的感情線亦寫得相當動力。幾乎每一集都有一幕情緒爆發的發瘋戲碼，好笑得每幕都是經典中的經典，然後自而然之就會覺得自己的那種[我快瘋了﹗]的發瘋相比之下是何其渺少又没氣勢﹗

McKenzie每次對著Will的那種女孩式的發瘋都讓人會心微笑，和心理醫生的對話和那隻臨時弄來的Tiffany 戒子讓我們看到Will內心深處其實一直忘不了McKenize，Maggie對著Sex and the city tour bus大吼特吼說出了大都會女生的心聲(那段相當精彩﹗)，Jim, how can you just walk away from Maggie??? Jim Maggie 是一對，而Don 明顯應該和Sloan 呀編劇們﹗

"I’m the typical single woman in New York City. I don’t wear heels to work because the typical woman’s job doesn’t exclusively involve gallery openings. And I know Carrie must’ve made boatloads writing her 800-word column for some newspaper nobody’s ever heard of, but I just spent my last seven dollars having a bite with my best friend who, by the way, is not available at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday to console me about some guy because she, too, has a job, and mostly when you fall for a guy and he’s going out with your best friend, it doesn’t work out, and things get really sad." BY Maggie S10