After last year’s uneven initial season of The Newsroom, there was a lot of chatter in the industry that there would be big changes before it returned. To be certain, some changes were needed. Even those who liked the show, like me, acknowledged its faults. The show teased viewers with its compelling revisionist take on…
For the last 10 weeks, I have sat down to prepare to watch “The Newsroom” at 9:55 pm. Each time, I have caught the last few minutes of “True Blood.” I have never seen a full episode of “True Blood,” and I don’t know a soul who watches it on a regular basis. But for…
I was really beginning to worry. Tonight’s episode – the conclusion of the two-part “Blackout” episode – started out exhibiting the same problems evident last week. It was far more about the characters – none of whom I have really grown to like that much – than the issues. The Brian Brenner reporter character was…
The two-part episode is a television staple. Growing up, I remember watching two-parters for all of my favorite shows, and I always got that feeling that was a mixture of disappointment and excitement when I realized that a show was not going to be able to wrap up it’s plot in time. There is a…
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…
NOTE: This post has been updated from its original content. Critics of HBO’s “The Newsroom” – and there have been many of them – have chided the show’s writer-creator Aaron Sorkin for being too preachy. These criticisms have come from both the right and the left. The Wall Street Journal wrote that “preening virtue…weighs on…
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