The Newsroom

[dupersuper]

I'm with the guys drunk boss: I fuckin' love what he said in the beginning of the episode (though he didn't have to be mean to the girl asking, and it did wallow a little in false nostalgia). I also liked the Man of La Mancha stuff.

[the goddamn batman]

Loved pretty much everything about this.

[Jimmy Bond]

I can see how the "preachy" aspect can be criticized, but I personally embrace it.

[the goddamn batman]

often people call things "preachy" when they disagree with what was said.

I usually agree with Sorkin, but he can over do it some times. I thought Studio 60 fell into being a bit preachy... especially at the end.

[Brian Cronin]

Overall, I thought that the show was excellent.

But boy, this incessant romanticizing of the past by Sorkin is just moronic.

That was just a tiny percentage of the show, though. The rest was charming, funny and entertaining. Some great character interactions. Waterson was great and Emily Mortimer did a much better job being the character Sorkin tried to get Sarah Paulson to be in Studio 60. Mortimer was actually, you know, charming.

-Brian

[Spike-X]

Last week Sorkin showed an extremely competent team being extremely competent and doing some amazing things. This week he showed an extremely competent team fucking up big time. There were also some personality quirks exposed that, if allowed to grow unchecked, will end up becoming extremely annoying. But we'll wait and see.

spoilers:

I think they need to tone McKenzie down just a tad; her dramatics this week were really straining the bounds of credibility. But the show's still very new, and they're all still finding their groove. Now that Will is 100% on board, it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

end of spoilers

I read today that HBO have picked up the show for a second season, so that's good news.

[the_coldest_sun]

I found the pilot very preachy, so much that it actually turned me off just when I had huge hopes for this show. And its not that I disagreed with anything said, I just found it a little heavy-handed and quite cheesy. Everyone had to make their epic little speeches, and my eyes rolled when Will dissed Mckenzie's pep talk. Sure, it was okay for him go off and we're meant to feel something but when it was her turn, he just tells her it did nothing for him. I dont know, I found it strange. Perhaps that was the point.

Still I finished the episode and tuned in the following week, and now I'm loving this show. I didn't think the pilot was bad, I just didn't like what it presented to me after I already made expectations. However, after watching the latest two episodes I went back and rewatched the pilot and found it 100x more entertaining. Once I got to know the characters a bit more and understand their dynamics and histories, I was able to enjoy it so much more. Like Will, I'm on board.

I really didn't care for his character much but now that he's being built up a sacrifice for Will's job wellfare, I'm worried about the old drunk boss. He seems to really care about Will as an employee and a friend, and looks to be trying to do the right thing not just with Will but with the news in general as well. A guy that good is bound to fall in some serious bad. He's either bound to lose his job, or worse. The Koch brothers might not take too kindly to what he's doing, as he was warned. Who knows what they may be capable of? They may file some legal action or arrange for an "accident". The fact that they use real events (or people in this matter) can be jarring sometimes as someone upthread mentioned. I just wonder how far they will go with it.

[jesse_custer]

From my blog:

I watched the first episode of The Newsroom with my wife last night. The best part of the experience was when we laughed at Sam Waterson going off on the most annoying character of the show: "I'm a Marine, Don! I will beat the shit out of you, I don't care how many protein bars you eat!" I found myself clinging to the hope that Waterson would beat the shit out of somebody, maybe everybody, involved in the show.

The beginning of The Newsroom starts out well enough. Creator Aaron Sorkin does a good job of showing how political debate in the United States goes stupid. Actor Jeff Daniels is in the middle of this stupid debate. When probed by a student and moderator about what makes America the greatest country in the world, Daniels goes on a rant about how America isn't that great. He cites a lot of depressing statistics and fires at liberals and conservatives. His rant (as unenlightening as it is) then turns embarrassingly sentimental - the sappy dialogue and music brought to mind the "Lesson for the Day" denouements of sitcoms like Family Matters.

The self-importance and lack of intellect that creator Aaron Sorkin displays here is outstanding. It's easy to suggest America is or isn't the greatest country in the world. But here's the truth: any question about the greatest country in the world is idiotic. Who has lived in every country in the world? Who knows everything about every country in the world? These are questions that Sorkin should've raised, but instead I am reminded of Steve Urkel.

Sorkin fumbles again when the BP oil spill comes up. He uses incredible coincidences involving the college roommate and big sister of a character just to be smug about the disaster. I think any reasonable human being knows the oil spill was a travesty, but anyone who disagrees would either a) never watch The Newsroom anyway or b) scoff at Sorkin's smugness.

As a cultural statement, The Newsroom will inspire those who worship the United States to continue their blind faith and know-it-all people to masturbate to depressing statistics. Based on the pilot, it is an irresponsible and, worse, insipid show. We are better off catching another pair of knockers on Game of Thrones.

[the_coldest_sun]

The beginning of The Newsroom starts out well enough. Creator Aaron Sorkin does a good job of showing how political debate in the United States goes stupid. Actor Jeff Daniels is in the middle of this stupid debate. When probed by a student and moderator about what makes America the greatest country in the world, Daniels goes on a rant about how America isn't that great. He cites a lot of depressing statistics and fires at liberals and conservatives. His rant (as unenlightening as it is) then turns embarrassingly sentimental - the sappy dialogue and music brought to mind the "Lesson for the Day" denouements of sitcoms like Family Matters.

This is why you're a blogger and I'm not. You described my issue with the pilot extremely well. Thankfully, it gets better.

The self-importance and lack of intellect that creator Aaron Sorkin displays here is outstanding. ... As a cultural statement, The Newsroom will inspire those who worship the United States to continue their blind faith and know-it-all people to masturbate to depressing statistics. Based on the pilot, it is an irresponsible and, worse, insipid show. We are better off catching another pair of knockers on Game of Thrones.

I say give it a couple of more episodes before writing it off completely. The characters and the relationships between them keeps the show more entertaining than any cultural or political statement Sorkin attempts to make. There's lots of little things in the works and as someone who was disappointed in the pilot, I'm eager to see the payoffs. I put off watching Enlightened because all the promos made it look extremely preachy, but I gave it a shot on hbogo one day out of boredom and found myself really enjoying it, being more interested in the trainwreck that is Laura Dern's character and her dynamic with the other characters. I'm finding Newsroom to be somewhat similar in that I'm more entertained by the characters than the show creator(s)' personal opinions.

Also I keep wanting to hate Don. I know he's such a shit person but I can't help but literally laugh out loud every time he does or says something shitty.

[passer-by]

I saw the first three episodes and I'm rather disappointed.

The thoughts of Aaron Sorkin on American politics, society and media are interesting, but would stand better in a series of interviews, not speechified Hyde Park-style in a TV fiction.

As a TV show, The Newsroom is much below Studio 60, Sports Night and The West Wing IMO. The characters are ridiculously underdeveloped and their only use seems to be to convey Sorkin's thoughts on American society's problems, but in a too obvious and preachy way, and the result is irritatingly condescending here.

Some of the characters are embarrassing caricatures - the EP MacKenzie Something can't compare to the characters of Amanda Peet in Studio 60 or Felicity Huffman in Sports Night. Not saying the actress is bad, but rather that she's badly directed and her part is badly written. And she's not the only one.


Some interesting comments here and there, but as a TV show (plot, character interactions, character development) it doesn't work for me.
I just rewatched the first three episodes of Sports Night (their combined duration is shorter than The Newsroom pilot) and was delighted again. Which is a bit ironic, since I'm not interested in American sports - but it works as a TV show as far as plot and characters are concerned. Whereas even though I'm interested in the topics discussed by The Newsroom (I work in a news agency and we covered them), I don't care about the way they are presented in this show, nor do I care about its cardboard characters and their clumsy interactions.




tl;dr - Some interesting comments, but a boring and smug TV show overall. Sorkin can do and has done better.

[Spike-X]

Some of the characters are embarrassing caricatures - the EP MacKenzie Something can't compare to the characters of Amanda Peet in Studio 60 or Felicity Huffman in Sports Night. Not saying the actress is bad, but rather that she's badly directed and her part is badly written.

I hope she's able to get past her emotional issues in some fashion. The way she's been carrying on is embarrassing herself and everyone around her.

[the goddamn batman]

Well, I like the show.

[thwhtGuardian]

Well, I like the show.

Yeah, so do I.

I will agree with Jessie that it is overly sentimental and preachy at times, but nearly everything I've ever seen by Sorkin is like that. For me, I can accept that as his style and look past it to his strong character work. That's always been the draw for me, his plots are at times fairly weak and his morals preachy, but he as yet to fail to create a cast of characters with interesting and compelling personalities.

Plus, he always seems to attract truly great actors to his work as well; I could watch Sam Waterson and Jeff Daniels read to each other from the phone book for an hour and probably still be entertained.

[the_coldest_sun]

I really liked this episode although I'm finding the Jim/Maggie/Dom love triangle annoying. I'm enjoying just about everything else.

[Jimmy Bond]

A lot of the characters are really irritating me now, but the plot with Charlie getting in trouble with the higher ups is interesting so far.