Tonight’s episode was, by “Newsroom” standards, rather slight. There were no big surprises in it, and there was no real conflict either. The news team spent very little time debating how to cover the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and thus Sorkin did not spend too much time criticizing how the Bin Laden story was…
There is a YouTube video that made the rounds after the pilot episode of “The Newsroom” that demonstrated how writer/creator Aaron Sorkin likes to reuse his best lines. This video was an arrow in the quiver of those critics who sought to take down “The Newsroom” from the beginning – only a hack would reuse…
I remember this feeling from “The West Wing.” A great episode of that show – and of any Sorkin show – was so tightly crafted. Current events blend seamlessly into character arcs. Seemingly random conversations from early in the episode find their way into the denouement. I find myself feeling real joy as the show…
Warning: Minor spoilers ahead. No movie exists in a vacuum. Every film is subject to political interpretations and various levels of expectations. This is especially true for the so-called “serious film,” which injects social, political, or cultural criticism into an art form created for the masses. For the American viewing public, “The Dark Knight Rises”…
Every once in a while, an actor’s personal life collides perfectly with a role. Usually, we think of this when the tabloids report that an actor and actress have become romantically involved while working on a project; so everyone rushes to the theater to check out their on-screen chemistry. But a more timely example might…
Ending poverty used to be a mainstream element of our national political discourse. The War on Poverty was the central tenet of LBJ’s Great Society. Bobby Kennedy, when running for president, spoke often of the impoverished, as did Bill Clinton, who was able to use his humble upbringing to great political advantage. Of course, more…
Recently, I had begun to think that “The Newsroom” had a serious problem – that its intent and structure were flawed at the core. “The Newsroom” aims to show us what good journalism looks like by replaying the events of the last two years. So far, show creator and writer Aaron Sorkin has shed a…
On any television series, there are going to be good episodes and bad episodes – except for “Arrested Development.” They were all good. Still, it is generally unwise to get too worked up about any single episode, good or bad, as an indication of what’s to come. Having said that, tonight’s episode of “The Newsroom”…
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