Criticizing The Critics

New York Magazine wonders why Ben Brantley of the NYTimes was so hard on The Farnsworth Invention:

Yikes, what did Aaron Sorkin ever do to Ben Brantley? The Times critic rips Sorkin's play, The Farnsworth Invention, a new one today with a review so patronizing it seems as though it was written by Ratatouille's Anton Ego. In part this condescending tone is thanks to Brantley's initial comparison of the play to "a classroom presentation on a seven-figure budget":

It's the kind of review that seems perfectly calibrated to infuriate its subject: It refuses to take Sorkin seriously, pats him on his head, and sends him on his way, chastened. Now, we haven't seen the show — one estimable colleague called it "not bad!" and claimed it proved that Aaron Sorkin is a pretty good writer if he just gives himself time, unlike on Studio 60, to do a second draft — but we can't help but think this review might be overkill.