F@#$ The Newsroom

F@#$ The Newsroom Season 2

This is a review for people that either like the show or are trying hard to like the show.  I read the salon.com’s recaps, and the author of those CLEARLY despises this show.

If you cannot get past a liberal slant and news retold after 18 months of context and perspective, if this regularly breaks your suspension of disbelief, do yourself a favor right now and stop reading and watching.  The Newsroom will only provide unhealthy blood pressure increases.  Accepting (not necessarily agreeing with) Aaron Sorkin’s world view is a pre-requisite for enjoying this show.  I call this alternate world Sorkinland.

Season 2 follows Operation Genoa, loosely based on OperationTailwind, an investigation that CNN botched about 10 years ago.

This is an improvement over season 1, which followed no story.  So we follow people running down leads, vetting the story and then having the story fall apart within 48 hours after broadcast and the repercussions of falsely accusing the US Military of war crimes.  If find this a compelling plot, so no criticism here.

There are two major problems with The Newsroom; The characters and the pacing.

The characters are a mixed bag.  About half work, another quarter don’t hinder and the remaining quarter drag the show down.

The Good:

Olivia Munn as Sloan Sabbath

Thomas Sadoski as Don Keefer

Dev Patel as Neal Sampat

If you are looking for West Wing parallels, “in my opinion” Munn is most like First Lady Abby Bartlett, Sadoski is most like Josh Lyman, and Patel is most like Sam Seaborn.  This might seem like a left-handed compliment to compare these characters to Sorkin’s best show, but it really is praise.  The classics are classics for a reason, and there’s a reason why tropes are recycled.

The Okay

Sam Waterson as Charlie Skinner

Jeff Daniels as Neal McAvoy

John Gallagher as Jim Harper

Sam Waterson is Leo McGary from West Wing and Jeff Daniels is President Bartlett.  Both of these characters have great moments, but also turn in some frustratingly bad performances.  Sam Waterson in particular in Election Night Part 1 and Part 2 delivers ham-fisted over acted lines.  John Gallagher is also Sam Seaborn, but not nearly as believable Dev Patel. 

The Awful

Emily Mortimer as Mackenzie McHale

Allison Pill as Maggie Jordan

Mortimer should be CJ Craig and Pill should be Donna Moss given the West Wing Archetype Theme.  <TM>.  But the problem is they don’t work at all.  They end up as bumbling incompetent Mandys.  If you only peripherally watched West Wing, Mandy was written out of the show after season 1.  The Newsroom is still giving Mack and Maggie air time.

I don’t care about half the cast and at any given time that half is dragging down the show.

The Pacing.

Season 1 took place between April 2010 and September 2011, or 17 months.  Season 2 took place around September 2011 till November 2012, or 14 months.  There’s 10 episodes per season, so there’s quite a bit of fast forwarding, and top stories are given the montage treatment.  It is my opinion that this show would benefit GREATLY to slowing down the pace.  Sorkin should not race ahead to whatever story pissed him off in the real world timeline; he should actually develop the Genoa investigation instead (which I felt was sadly neglected).  I compare that to “All The Presidents Men…” Redford and Hoffmans portrayal of Woodward and Bernsteins’ Watergate investigation.  That movie showed the dead ends as well as the story nuggets, and ended up a much better story.

I have some minor quibbles too with Sorkinland too.  Like the fact that the fall out is centered on the producer editing the raw footage of the interview and ignoring the ONI spokesman who forged Genoa paper work and deliberately and maliciously fed a cable news network disinformation.  To me, that’s kind of a big deal.  But that arc has been dropped like 3^rd period French.

Summary

This show remains a tease.  There’s usually a couple scenes in every episode that I thoroughly enjoy, and then either spazzy characters or Sorkinland bring it right back down.  If the show is picked up for season 3 I would probably still watch, but at this point it would not sadden me at all to see this show cancelled.