Ok, so Aaron Sorkin has another show about making a TV show. He’s previously put out Sports Night (which was critically respected if short lived) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which was much less critically respected). Never seen either one. I did see his West Wing once or twice and I wasn’t really a big fan. I thought its characters were laughably simplistic. Though I give it credit for not being cynical and still being slightly believable.
I’ve liked his movie writing better. I enjoyed both Moneyball and The Social Network. He has a gift for dialogue that isn’t necessarily realistic but is often entertaining.
Which describes most of the dialogue on The Newsroom. Seasoned network anchor Jeff Daniels has a moment out of The Natural (being inspired by a female with a halo) and responds to an innocent, if stupid, question by a college student with a rant about the state of America. This inspires the head of his network to rework his show. Since Daniels is damaged goods (slightly) they’re going to go for broke. They are going to ignore ratings and do the news. I guess that’s supposed to be revolutionary thinking.
This is kind of where the show loses me. Daniels’s rant was pretty good but the reasoning and structure or even point of the retooling of the show is kind of silly (and that’s assuming I even understand it). And taking place on the first day of the BP spill there’s breaking news and the new system is tested on its 1st day.
But its really fucking easy to look smart when you already know what happens. So I’m guessing this is Sorkin’s take on the way it should have been reported. Ok… So?
There’s a bunch of blah blah about trying to make journalism a noble profession again and more boring crap. Some of this show is really really stupid.
I will, however, tune in next week.
Why the hell am I doing that? Well 2 reasons.
1. Much like the only reason to watch True Blood, I want to see who fucks who.
and
2. Once they were actually broadcasting their news thingy; the show became much better. I was actually entertained by their broadcast.
I don’t watch the news on TV (what the fuck’s the internet for assholes?) and I sure as hell don’t get misty eyed over the state of journalism. I think its always been shitty and that its always been a shitty profession staffed by people who were mostly shits.
But, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a show about them. I’m still a little bothered by the retro-active news coverage of real events. I think that’s pretty lazy writing. But, I’m not sure its been done before so I’ll give it a little lattitude before my final ruling. And all the actors are very charming in their roles; very well cast.
So, all in all, they’ve done enough for me to watch episode 2. But just barely. So we’ll see.