The Newsroom Forum

I'm sorry for the delay of my thoughts on The Newsroom as there was a long string of complications that, between cancelled airplane flights and high doses of Dayquil running through my veins, kept me from watching the show. It was harrowing in many ways, but mostly being my inability to watch one of the shows I had anticipated more than anything for a long time.

The Newsroom is the new show created by Aaron Sorkin for HBO that explores the behind-the-scenes workings of a cable news show and stars Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston and Emily Mortimer among a few other fairly unknown, but solid actors. The show begins with Daniels' character, Will McAvoy, at a lecture at Northwestern college. We find out that Will has become "the Jay Leno of cable news" and provides it in the easiest to swallow and most non-controversial way possible, but obviously somewhere deep down he doesn't feel that way and wants to speak his opinion. After prodded by the moderator to answer a question from a student about "Why America is the greatest country in the world?" he goes on a rant about why he will not say that America is the best country in the world, because, well, he doesn't really think that it is. Will goes away on vacation to escape the 24 Hour news cycle exploiting all of the video captured and put on YouTube by audience members and comes back to find that his news show has been completely changed in his absence. The head honcho has brought in Will's ex-girlfriend Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer) to be the executive producer on the show, and here we find the conflict of the series. She wants to come back and help him "change the news" and even though he went on his rant, he is not sure that he is ready to do that and right now just wants to get better ratings and not begin a descent into obscurity. Being on opposite sides of this spectrum, they are going to have a lot of witty banter back and forth especially as we have learned, they have some sordid past in which she hurt him a lot and he has never been a nice guy since. Will also arranges it so he has the power to fire her at the end of each week, so she has a lot to prove in a pretty short period of time. Consequently, she will need a big team to help her run the show and keep her job, and here enters our quintessential Sorkin ensemble cast.

However, with the cast is where I find my biggest problem with the show and while there are many other aspects of it I truly liked, this is a big one….I am really not sure how I feel about the main character. While it is an ensemble, this is a show that truly lays itself around one character and that is the character of Will McAvoy played by Jeff Daniels. The show revolves around his news show and the fact that America loves and wants to watch him appear on their televisions on a nightly basis. And based on this, we are meant to believe (based on our knowledge and assumption that a news anchor would have to have some sense of charisma and like-ability) that he is this guy. Yet, we spend the majority of the pilot with this man who is pretty awful and does not smile. I'm serious, go back and watch, I would venture to guess you don't see his teeth even once. And, it is not until 52 minutes into the pilot that we see him actually doing his news show and for the first time we don't completely and utterly hate him. However, I'm not even sure that when I see him doing the news that I am not still baffled as to why this guy has captured the hearts of America in any way. He delivers the news with such a dead-pan, straight face that if it wasn't for the fact that we are told about 15 times that he is a popular news-anchor that I would believe that was actually true. I know that it is a serious story they are dealing with, but come on…show some sense of personality. Now they do (in a throw-away manner) address this in the show as Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) points out that the last time Will smiled was when Mackenzie was around. So, more than anything, I am hoping that this is just a problem with the pilot as they worked so hard to portray a guy that got mean and had a breakdown after she hurt his heart. However, I must point out that they forgot the first rule of character development; if you are going to have a character be an asshole, in order for audiences to attach to them, you must still have some aspect they can like about him. On the other hand, I liked the ensemble cast surrounding him very much, especially Emily Mortimer and John Gallagher, Jr, and while Alison Pill could tone down her awkwardness just a bit, I'm looking forward to seeing more of these characters. We didn't get to see Olivia Munn or Jane Fonda yet, which I wasn't that disappointed about, because I am kind of confused as to how Munn is going to pull off great acting in a dramatic show, but I'm also ready to be proven wrong and like her.

Now, here is the good thing, I really and truly did enjoy watching the show. Yes, we have the same witty dialogue that Aaron Sorkin writes that noone could probably actually carry on in the real world (even in the smartest of environments) and yes, we have some of the same relationships and dynamics that he sets up in all of his shows, but honestly, I don't really have a problem with that. That is what I came here to watch. It is what I was hoping for and what I wanted and now, it is why I am looking forward to watching in another episode. And, yes I'm sure that much of it could be considered preachy, but that is another thing that I am kind of expecting when I watch a Sorkin show, so yet again, I am okay with it.

I also am not sure whether this show truly and accurately portrays the inner workings of a newsroom or not, (and due much of the controversy that has been talked about since it debuted, I think it probably doesn't) but in this case, I don't know that I really care. One of the great and fascinating aspects of The West Wing was that it truly did give a look in to the White House, which is an important thing. I felt more informed about how our country runs after that, and I thank that show for it. However, I don't know that I really care if the inner-workings of a CNN or FOX News show are accurately portrayed. I can see where people might be upset by this, because they did set up the expectation the show was somewhat true to life by making the pilot based around the real-life events of the BP oil spill off the Gulf of Louisiana. But, for some reason I was able to suspend my disbelief on this one, and just view it for entertainment's sake and enjoy whatever portion of this world they are choosing to portray. In addition, I must say, I did find it thrilling to be able to see an account (whether real or not) about how things happen once a big news story we know well broke. On the other hand, I am curious to see if they will be able to keep that up, because if they are going to set up stories based upon particular events in history, I am not sure how they are going maintain and develop a storyline week to week as they will have to jump around a lot in terms of time.

I know I have seemed to go back and forth between liking and having problems with the show, but pretty much that is what I felt while watching and thinking about it after, so I don't yet have a clear cut and definitive opinion. However, I have watched a lot of pilots (probably more than one ever should in a lifetime) and let me tell you, it is a rare moment when you end a 72 minute pilot and wish that there was more. That's right, I did not want it to be over and I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to see more of the story and I wanted to see it now. I have no idea what is to come and truthfully, I don't know for how many episodes I am going to be feeling that because I suspect and fear I could have already watched the best hour of the show. In my experience, a television series can either go one way or another: they either have an amazing pilot that a series just simply cannot then live up to, or they have a not very good pilot and the series takes a few episodes to grow and cement itself in to a solid show. My quandary with The Newsroom, is that I truly have no idea which way this one is going to go, and I could see arguments for either. So, where it ends up remains to be seen and I don't feel prepared to make a statement upon that yet, but the fact that I am looking forward to giving it a shot and finding out means there was something worthwhile about this pilot and that, ladies and gentleman, makes it some goddamned good television.

If you happen to miss the pilot and don't have HBO, they have made it available on several different on-demand outlets and you can even find it on YouTube here.

Watch it and let's talk about it! I want to hear your thoughts.

I don't think McAvoy is the "main character" really. I think it's Mackenzie . McAvoy is just the donkey for her to ride on while she tries to get change. The character of McAvoy is kind of like House to me at the moment. He is really good at what he dose and you can see that briefly, which is why everyone puts up with him. Hopefully it turns out McAvoy and Mackenzie both F'ed each other over, making one the more damaged party over the other is something that happens to much.

Did anyone else not like the reveal at the end? Part of what made the opening monologue good to me was the idea that this guy is delirious.

The complaint about setting it in 2010 and how Sorkin can make his characters "do it right" is a bit odd. He is the creator. It is his prerogative weather or not he writes historical fiction or not. This is really some unfiltered Sorkin , man I wonder how much coke he used when he wrote this.

Sorkin Supercut

The trailer for this show made it look very appealing. Your response to the first episode make me feel more positive.

Unfortunately, I don't have the desire to pay for HBO so I will be waiting to actually watch this one. There may be some imitators coming to network TV next season.

Apart from the uber-preachy rant at the beginning, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

@MrMazz: Agreed on the reveal. It actually is completely illogical:

I'm pretty sure that McAvoy is meant to be a gigantic jerk. It contrasts with the uncaring, joking personality America loved, and which we saw before the rant. His hostility towards everyone shows he is a broken man, and his public persona was a complete sham. It was also a relief to see that he faces consequences for his hostility. We saw the consequences whenhis whole staff left; no one liked him enough to stay. The only people who stayed were his assistant and blogger. We were given the sense that the only reason his former EP stayed around a while was because McAvoy promoted him quickly, earning him a bit of respect.Finally, the end of the episode reveals that he has some heart when he remembers Margaret's name.

Good on you @staceywi for trying something different.

@enemymouse:Yea thinking about it logically ruins it, along with most plays and movies/tv I've found since as the viewer we have god view and knowing everything would kill drama. I liked the hint at a psychological non plain old boring reality type of motivation to his rant and thus the chain of events that lead to the show.

This show seems like a total inversion of The West Wing. Whereas West Wing is a tribute to how magically and uniquely the White House operates in order to run the United States, Newsroom seems constructed almost completely out of cynicism and disgust. President Bartlet is a confident and bubbly personality, whereas McAvoy is callous and selfish. I do like how both have health issues and can't seem to remember any staff member's name. I remember leaving the pilot of The West Wing energized, and decidedly patriotic, whereas Newsroom sorta bummed me out. And while Newsroom seemed to shove in a hook at the end, the final scene from The West Wing pilot is a bold gesture that perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the show.

Newsroom also reeks of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which depicts the reconstruction of a variety show to provide honest criticism to its audience rather than fluff. It's lead character is unhappy with working with a former flame, and manages to drive away the entire writing staff. This is not a show for Sorkin to mimic.

tl;dr I have mixed opinions, but this is certainly one of the better shows on television.

I liked it. (Live in the UK and, thanks to some workarounds, watched it on YouTube) Yeah; it speechifies (Sorkin show, par for the course so I knew what I was really getting myself in for) and the middle where MacKenzie basically delivered 7 straight monologues to Will in a row really dragged, but the dialogue was snappy ("Can you flirt?" "Yeah." "Show me your flirting skills." "...hi?"), the characters were great and I really like the twist that they're going to, essentially, fake report on real events. It's a good outlet for Sorkin's insane attention to detail (just started watching The West Wing, began on Season 2, and I can just tell he did his gorram research).

I also loved the complete non-reaction the staff had to the news alert. Maybe I'm just easy to please. Also, "Dickless! Not you, I'm coming to you in a minute!"

The cast already seem to have the Sorkin patter down; vital if this show is going to be any good. Emily Mortimer, Dev Patel, Jeff Bridges and Alison Pill, in particular (incidentally, it really makes me super ultra happy to see Alison Pill back on TV. In Treatment and Scott Pilgrim have sold me on this woman being a phenomenal actress and I firmly believe that she needs to put that talent to good use).

Does anyone else feel that Don is rather one-dimensional at the moment? His complete and total "I really couldn't give a toss" demeanor just seemed highly exaggerated. If this is meant to make us root for Maggie and Jim to get together then mission absolutely accomplished (I also really loved MacKenzie immediately trying to set Jim up with Maggie. That was a good joke), but it means that one of the characters is already a rather unlikable dick.

I could do without Sorkin's constant irrational hatred of the Internet and all forms of social media. It just comes off like a petulant child who doesn't like anyone saying any bad things about his piece of work which he insists is perfect in every single way because his mother said so and, thusly, their going to spend their entire adult life preaching to people about just how eeeeeeeeviiillll the Internet is... and the metaphor has gone off the rails.

Finally, I really don't like that twist at the end. It just doesn't really make much sense and it makes me wonder why she'd do it in the first place. In fact, why doesn't he remember her from there? In fact in fact, why didn't she just tell him? And why is she just carrying that notepad around from 3 weeks earlier? It just reeks of lazy writing, a twist for the sake of a twist, and Sorkin is usually better than that when it comes to plot writing.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and would like more now, please! Bring on July 10th for the UK premiere!

In the opening credits I saw Munn with glasses so ACTING.

This reminds me of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip without the having to cringe worthy skits incorporated. I'm on the fence but I'm a sucker for this imaginary America where people actually care about the nightly news.

if you are going to have a character be an asshole, in order for audiences to attach to them, you must still have some aspect they can like about him.

To me, that aspect is that he expects more. He expects more from himself, more from his crew, more from his audience, more from America. It may not work for everyone, but it does for me. The back end of his rant was almost like watching a Bartlet speech. "We can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better." McAvoy hasn't gotten to the "will do better" part yet, but that's where McHale and Skinner come in.

To me this is far less West Wing or Studio 60 and far more Sports Night. Beat by beat this pilot seemed to match up with that one, and the character archetypes are the same as well. That should be some small comfort for those who dislike Will, as Casey was the main focus of Sports Night's pilot, and afterward it became much more of an ensemble show and he became more likable.

On the whole I thoroughly enjoy the show, though I was also disappointed in the reveal at the end.