TV REVIEW: The Newsroom - I'll Try To Fix You

After the bombshell last week that Will's job hangs in the balance, it's New Year in the News Night office; Neal is inexplicably trying to convince everyone that Bigfoot is real, Don decides to set Jim up with Maggie's roommate and Will has a run-in with a gossip columnist.

We're four weeks into The Newsroom now and there is something that is really starting to grate on me. No it's not the treatment of the female characters, though we are again on slightly dodgy ground, and it's not the way in which we get perhaps the most heavy-handed news sequence yet. It's the theme music and the title credits sequence. I just don't think it works. It's over-long, insipid and lacklustre whilst we get images of news anchors from the past alongside our heroic reporters of the future. Maybe it's inspired by the music from America's existing news shows? After all, we all know that they're more about the emotion than it is about introducing the news, as Bill Bailey pointed out. It's a small niggle but I'm hoping a second season overhaul might result in some more inspirational music. Perhaps with trumpets.


The show itself continues to the be the one of two halves that remains frustrating to say the least. First up, the good stuff of which there is plenty this week as we get some classic lines from Will. His scene with Charlie about a New York Post article about Will's near-tryst with a gossip columnist (Hope Davis) is full of great lines - "Did you read the New York Post?" "No because my eyes are connected to my brain" - and a real Sorkinesque feel that has sometimes been missing. And the other half of the frustrating rears its ugly head as the episode again loses momentum with the more soapy elements; Don sets Jim up with Maggie's room-mate Lisa, much to her dismay, and there's also the moment Maggie discovers Jim is sleeping with Lisa, despite telling her that this isn't the case. There are two things I don't understand about this sequence of events: 1) Why on earth is Maggie still with Don? He's a plank. 2). In what twisted little world does Jim live in to think it's "sort of" ok that he lied to Maggie? I get he's saying that he lied to her because he likes her and didn't want to hurt her feelings, but that doesn't make it ok, it makes him a coward and an idiot. And, while I'm on this train of thought, I'm going to do a Spanish Inquisition speech; there are THREE things I don't understand about this sequence of events so 3). Is there any way that Maggie would get away with speaking to her boss in the real world the way she speaks to Jim here? No. Sorkin, sort it out.


Ok, with that particular bug-bear over, back to the good stuff of the episode - It's also becoming clear to me that Will is not, as we've been led to believe, the Bartlett of this administration, but the Toby Ziegler (I can't help comparing it to The West Wing, it invites it continually). He's grouchy and bad-tempered, yet ultimately, you can't help but like him as this episode demonstrates brilliantly. The 'fix you' of the title refers to Will's "mission to civilise" which has to be one of the most condescending statements ever uttered by a television character and sums up Will's character perfectly; he's spent so many years being told he's fantastic so naturally he believes he is. Thankfully, he doesn't get away with it, receiving a considerable amount of alcohol to the face as a result. The effect on me was so powerful that even I had to stop myself reaching for my cup of tea and lobbing it at the screen. Now some reviews that I've seen have cited this as a flaw in the episode, that a character could be so patronising was a reflection on bad writing rather than three-dimensional characterisation but I thought it was a great development for a character I've had little reaction to so far. Yes, he's a little annoying and suitably noble but the depth of feeling I've experienced for Will has come nowhere near the sympathy I have with Maggie or my begrudging love of Jim. This was the highlight of the episode for me because, now that I've started to care more about the characters, I'm starting to care more about the show. Yes it's still got its problems but I do think it's starting to get there.


Now I've often said that The Newsroom feels like two halves because you get the good, as previously mentioned, but then you get it balanced with the bad. If you've been following my other reviews, you know that I've been having issues with the way women are portrayed in the show. I said earlier that it isn't as bad this week but it's still there, lurking under the surface like the potential misogyny it is. Displaying an extraordinary lack of awareness, especially considering just how often this criticism has come up, Sorkin recently defended his portrayal of women, rather naively saying there is nothing wrong with it because they are all 'strong' and 'intelligent'. I'm sure they are because we've heard other characters say so, especially in the case of Mac, but he just hasn't shown it yet which is the crucial point. If he starts doing that, we'll start getting more three-dimensional characters and, providing they're given decent storylines to boot, he may see the critics starting to quieten down on the issue. This week, some reviews have cited Hope Davis' character as another thorny characterisation. Perhaps oddly, I don't have a problem with the journalist or the viewers of reality television programmes being women in this episode because, sad but true, this is the case in most situations. What I do have the issue with was the gun totin', crazy stalker date that Will brings back to his apartment. Again Sorkin resorts to stereotypes for the female characters seemingly without putting a lot of thought into it - we've had manic jealous ex-girlfriend, the panicky girl in the corner needing to be rescued and now your standard everyday bunny boiler. What's next? A pregnant woman suffering from violent mood swings and irrationally bitching at everyone because of, you know, hormones? Please God, I hope not. 


My main problem with this episode was the final moments in which we got the soaring chords of Coldplay (which I despairingly anticipated on reading the episode's title) and the news team, conveniently assembled on a Saturday, reporting on the shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. The hotly-debated issue of gun control, particularly in light of recent events, has never been more present in the media and it was this that formed the main focus of News Night reporting. Unlike previous real life news events, like the BP oil spill, the use of this one struck me as both heavy-handed and a little insensitive, particularly when you consider that the Tucson shooting was only last year. It felt like a cynical attempt at the tear ducts, combining an emotionally charged event with inspiration power chords in order to provoke a reaction. Granted it did this, but I'm not sure I reacted in the intended way; it made for very uncomfortable viewing and it was almost a relief when the episode ended.


The Newsroom continues to be an interesting watch, primarily for the continually fluctuating reactions it provokes. I honestly feel as if I've been put through an emotional ringer every episode, experiencing everything from outrage to cheerful glee and straight back down to a weary despair. It's compelling television and is becoming more so by the week. I just really want the bad half to be brought up to the level of the good because then it will be one cracking hour of drama.


- Becky


You can read Becky's review of the previous episode, The 112th Congress, here.


You can follow Becky on Twitter here @beckygracelea

TV REVIEW: The Newsroom - The 112th Congress

The third episode of The Newsroom follows News Night's change in direction opening with Will McAvoy apologising for previous failures and issues a promise to deliver the news that everyone needs to hear, rather than what they want. But not everyone is happy with this turn of events.

The well-constructed episode so far, The 112th Congress opens with another Sorkin-typical speech with Will (Jeff Daniels) stating that he has failed in his duty as a news anchor to report the facts rather than sensationalism. First step: taking on the Republican Tea Party over the course of sixth months, starting with Will going to Charlie (Sam Waterston) with his outrage about how his party has been tainted by its association with the right-wing group (yes we get official confirmation this week; Will is a Republican, an interesting move for the overwhelmingly Democrat Sorkin). We get Will taking on various Tea Party members in some fantastic interviews while Mac (Emily Mortimer) holds court over an energised newsroom. Cut within the six month period is a board meeting involving Charlie and an imperious Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda), discussing the ratings and financial consquences of Will and Mac's mission to hold the Tea Party to account. Oh and then there's some soapy drama stuff with the ongoing flirtation between Maggie (Alison Pill) and Jim (John Gallagher Jr) while her boyfriend Don (Thomas Sandoski) is again a bit of an idiot. Mac also has to deal with Will's new array of dates that he keeps parading around the office and doesn't do it particularly well.

Starting to really hit its stride as far as the actual programme of News Night is concerned, The Newsroom brought us the take down of the Tea Party that we all longed to hear but never got outside of satirical programmes. The cross-section of interviews and reports that Will conducts are masterful and well-written with plenty of cheerworthy moments for everyone's favourite "affable" news anchor. The cuts away to Charlie's boardroom meeting also add to the drama of the situation; we're seeing the consequences play out way ahead of any of the other characters with ratings drops and threatening words all demonstrating that Will isn't going to win the vote of his superiors with his actions. We also get a little bit of Will's past history, he's a genius by all accounts, a former prosecutor with a fantastic track record and an ability to become, as Charlie states, a lawyer for the American people.


The meeting was one of the highlights of the episode, a masterclass in tension built through the bold decision to have Jane Fonda, one of the biggest names yet to appear, sit silently watching for the majority of the time. Despite a rather dodgy Jesus/Noah joke, Fonda was fantastic as a CEO keen to stay in power and desperate to do anything to keep it. With her parting threat, she could provide an intriguing enemy for the News Night team and any scenes between her and Sam Waterston are going to sizzle. Elsewhere, another highlight was the developing friendship between Jim and Dev Patel's Neal with the pair carrying most of the episode's comic relief. Patel has had little to do as Neal so far except some necessary exposition but here we're starting to see a little more of him and his various scenes with Gallagher Jr were very funny. It offers a more human side to the team outside of the ridiculous relationship entanglements that they find themselves in and seeing the pair talk about Wikileaks whilst bemoaning their ability to scare off girls was well-judged in the wider narrative of the episode, showing they've got more to say than quickfire newsroom speak.

It's important to stress at this point that The Newsroom was doing so well, really well to the point where I was actively thinking to myself "this is more like it!". I was engaged in the characters' efforts to stick it to The Man, representing both the Tea Party and their corporate bosses. I revelled in the humour and drama of the News Night programme itself and felt inwardly triumphant when Will made a crack about a misguided comment on the press. I was there, I was in it!

And then Sorkin struck again with the terrible characterisation of the women in the show. Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) gets a brief moment to shine when she notices something Will had missed during the live election coverage, only to be shouted down before she gets chance to do anything. Then, the transformation of Mac from strong, confident executive producer into a jealous harridan was an extreme jarring point because once again we see her not being able to handle her personal life when it clashes with the professional. We've had no indication that she still has residual feelings for Will despite feeling guilty about how their relationship ended three years before. We get treated to a couple of scenes in which she passive-aggressively insults Will's dates to their faces whilst his jealousy upon discovering she actually has a boyfriend is limited to a short exchange with Jim and brushed off just as quickly.

Then there's the ongoing Jim and Maggie saga which, despite myself, I'm a little swept up in, rooting for them to get together because they have a fantastic chemistry and I really want to like Jim because at times, he's adorable. Sorkin, however, is making this very difficult by continually giving him moments in which he rescues or patronises Maggie for no real reason. The scene where he gallantly sweeps to her rescue after she suffers a panic attack was excruciatingly irritating. We're told by Don (who is also an idiot here, leaving Maggie on her own with a sweeping comment about how she "thinks she's dying") that she regularly gets panic attacks yet Jim takes it upon himself to tell her exactly what she should be doing, despite the fact that she clearly knows this because she's been through it before. I was very much with her when she said "I wish your face would stop moving so I could punch it" because he was such a condescending plank in that scene. He does get points for later stating that he won't swoop in on Maggie immediately after her seemingly gazilionth break-up with Don, but the damage was done.

The Newsroom is one of the most frustrating programmes I've seen in a long time, becoming split into two shows between the compelling, absorbing drama of News Night itself and the soap opera-like shenanigans of the staffers. The panic attack scene had me a hair's breadth away from switching it off all together but the Tea Party/corporation narrative drew me back in, albeit begrudgingly. With news breaking this week that Sorkin may or may not have fired most of his writing staff, I can only hope that this goes some way to ironing out the inconsistencies for the already-guaranteed second season.

- Becky

You can read Becky's review of the previous two episodes here.

You can also follow her on Twitter @beckygracelea

TV REVIEW: The Newsroom So Far

Aaron Sorkin's latest television project is his first since the ill-fated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and having found success in Hollywood with The Social Network and Moneyball, his attention has turned to the drama of a primetime news show, News Night. It has been savaged by critics here and across the pond so far, seemingly keen to pull down the Sorkin success story, but is it completely unfounded? Or has Sorkin perhaps got a bit too preachy for his own good?

The first episode, We Just Decided To, follows Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) after he delivers a blistering takedown of a female student who asks him during a public debate why America is the greatest country in the world. In typical Sorkin fashion, Will gives us a list of reasons of exactly why America cannot be considered as such anymore, providing us with statistics to prove it and a rather rose-tinted view of the country's history to show what it could be again (but more on that later). Brought in to aid the News Night rehabilitation, Will's ex-girlfriend MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) signs on as executive producer at the request of drunk executive Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) and brings along her associate producer Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.) for the ride. Already in place is beleaguered and accidentally promoted Maggie Jordon (Alison Pill), outgoing executive producer Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski) and Will's blogger Neal Sampat (Dev Patel). News Night wants to provide a non-biased, intelligent look at the news that allows the American electorate to know exactly who and what they're voting for.


One thing that Aaron Sorkin has always been able to do is write a cracking pilot, filled with fast-talking, intelligent people who work to do their best in whichever field they're in, be it politics or television, all constantly residing in a pressure cooker of intensity. The Newsroom pilot is no different; from the fantastic opening speech from McAvoy about the ills of the United States to the race to get their show on the air. The characters in the first episode are all compelling, each coming with their own backstory, quickly explained but just as relevant. Particularly interesting are Mac and Jim's background, both having returned from several years reporting on the front line in Afghanistan and Iraq and I am hoping we explore the effects of this in later episodes. A ragtag bunch of people at this stage in the proceedings, the future News Night team are brought together over the breaking news of the 2010 BP oil spill.


Yes, that's right. The Newsroom's central conceit is that it takes the news of the recent past and retells it, how it should have been told (according to Sorkin). Now Sorkin has stated in various interviews that this show is intended to be a love letter to the news and yes, to show certain things how it should have been told. Future episodes will take on the Republican Tea Party and the age-old debate of gun control.  I don't pretend to be anywhere near as fantastic a writer as Sorkin, but this technique just smacks of being lazy. There's no need to create these problems or find issues that provide allegories for our reality because they're already there in the past, waiting to be re-written. One of the main criticisms levelled against the show is that it's constantly on a soap-box, preaching from its office of intelligent people who know better. And I have to agree. Sorkin's programmes have always been politically aware and full of intelligent people who know better, especially in what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest shows of all time, The West Wing.


Following the policy-making of a Democratic Oval Office provided the chance to comment on real-world issues but within a specifically relevant setting. Importantly, The West Wing created an alternate reality, one in which the same history was present but the present and future was all slightly different. The Newsroom, however, is set very much in our reality, only two years or so before and it allows Sorkin to glorify his team as the true voice of American news, reporting these events how they should have been reported because, as is often wryly observed, hindsight always has perfect vision. Thanks to a convenient coincidence (Jim's sister works at Halliburton whilst his college room-mate works at BP), News Night are able to focus on the potential environmental disaster before anyone else even thinks that there might be that significant a consequence. All that being said, the pilot episode was fantastically entertaining, full of quickfire dialogue and tense moments. The final scenes of the News Night programme itself matched the sort of thrill that you used to get when Jed Bartlett delivered speeches back in the Oval Office.


What a shame then, that the second episode, News Night 2.0 goes downhill so rapidly, you'd think Sorkin had a cancellation wish. The actual story itself, an episode of News Night concerning the Arizona immigration law, SB1070, goes wrong when a source drops out and the team scramble to find less-than-suitable candidates to provide the 'for' side of the debate, is inspired. After Maggie's ex-boyfriend turns out to be an aide to the Governor and she accidentally insults him over the phone, Jim takes the fall for her whilst the bookers find someone to replace him. The News Night episode is classic car-crash television with a former Miss Oklahoma runner-up and a gun-totin' neighbourhood watch man providing much of the comedy. It was also good to see a show go wrong after the relentless righteous broadcasting we saw in the pilot episode and is perhaps proof that whilst Sorkin is attempting to re-write the news as it should have been reported, it might actually not go so well once in a while.

However, it is what is happening in the rest of the episode that drags the quality down by a country mile, specifically, Sorkin's writing for the female characters which is downright insulting that it borders on misogynistic. We know from the very beginning that Mac and Will once dated three years ago but with the way she starts to act, you'd think they had broken up the week before. Mac acts in increasingly unprofessional ways, careering about trying to convince every one that Will is actually a nice guy for no readily available reason. Attempting to satirise the media's reliance on hiring beautiful women, Olivia Munn's character Sloan Sabbith is a genius-level economist and as Mac observes, she's hired because she looks fantastic in a skirt. Then there's Maggie's unfortunate dating history which leads to the whole News Night mess in the first place. The initial scene between Maggie and Jim in which she convinces him that is perfectly capable of doing the pre-interview for the Governor of Arizona was great and really endeared her to me, especially considering my own position as a nearly-graduated, very unemployed person with a passion for the media. But then, it turns out that the man she speaks to on the phone happens to be an ex-boyfriend who cheated on her and she makes an unprofessional comment that means the Governor drops out.


Jim gallantly swoops to her rescue and takes the fall so Maggie keeps her job. Now I like Jim, he's adorable, John Gallagher Jr has great chemistry with Alison Pill and they're clearly being set up for a Donna/Josh type relationship. Whereas Donna and Josh would debate and match each other step for step, Jim is already placed as the superior with Maggie trailing behind him trying not to screw up again. So here we have two women, incapable of separating their professional lives from their personal, both having to be rescued from utter humiliation by the men in their lives. Way to go Sorkin. Coming from the man who gave us CJ Cregg and Abbey Bartlett and Donna Moss, all of whom were intelligent and adept at keeping their lives separate, this was incredibly disappointing. We're supposed to be past stereotypes like these and seeing Mac and Maggie, two characters who were so compelling in the pilot, descend into shrieking harpies became a real sticking point and really altered my opinion of the episode.


The Newsroom has been a highly frustrating watch so far because there is a great show in there trying to get out but unfortunately, the decision to place it in the past and the characterisation of the women of News Night has meant it has not got off to a great start. I'm going to stick with it because all shows take a while to find their feet and Sorkin is a fantastic writer, but I can't help thinking that this time, his tendencies have passed brilliant and become more than a little self-indulgent.


- Becky


You can find more of Becky's writings here http://beckygracelea.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @beckygracelea