The Newsroom [HBO - Spoilers]

Carroller16

Fantastic 4th episode. Great End to the episode. Waterston and Daniels are fantastic.

Kirby

God, I love this show.

Tristram

I've enjoyed the show so far as it can be very entertaining. However, I don't think that it is worthy of some of the high praise it is receiving. Some of the casting has left me puzzled and the writing in some scenes seems more on the Dawson's Creek end of the spectrum than The West Wing. I too am frustrated at how many "easy outs" the show seems to take. I hope it will improve.

meoklmrk91

Have to say the fourth was a fantastic episode, Jeff Daniels is completely at home in the role, I don't think I had ever seen Sam Waterson in anything before this, but he is a class act, to be able to convey everything that needs to be said in just a look shows his incredible ability.

The end marks the first time I have seen anything exciting on TV in a long while, this show is fast becoming a favourite for me.

mewso

Good episode although Fix You has vultures circling over it surely in terms of being used in TV. Laughed at the line from yer wan "He'll think I'm dumb". Honey you are in an Aaron Sorkin TV show. Whenever you speak you will sound more witty and more intelligent than the rest of the human race. Another Sorkin schtick has to be the dedicated worker during a party.

squonk

Only up to episode 3 so far but I too have no interest in Will & McKenzie's dating lives, their past or anything personal to do with them. Yeah, they used to go out, years ago so big deal. The jealousy over Will's dates was childish and detracted from the episode as a whole.

Seren_

Loved episode 4! Found it quite funny as well. Bigfoot is REAL!!

The ratings have gone really downhill since ep 1, and now that Breaking Bad is back, they'll get even worse. I know HBO aren't as big into ratings as the traditional networks, but it's probably not the best news. Especially as the show has been getting quite a few bad reviews.

HazDanz

They need to tone down the heavy relationship stuff. If the characters were more neutral to one another and allowed to build up relationships over the series it would be better. It just seems forced at the minute and feels like filler.

When it sticks to the news and the politics it excels so i don't see why that cannot be utilized more than it is.

don ramo

HazDanz wrote: »

They need to tone down the heavy relationship stuff. If the characters were more neutral to one another and allowed to build up relationships over the series it would be better. It just seems forced at the minute and feels like filler.

When it sticks to the news and the politics it excels so i don't see why that cannot be utilized more than it is.

but you do know over 9 months have passed since the first episode, all these people know each other extremely well at this stage,

so far its a good show, and i think its unfair to compare this to the west wing, which is one of the greatest TV shows ever made,

HazDanz

don ramo wrote: »

but you do know over 9 months have passed since the first episode, all these people know each other extremely well at this stage,

so far its a good show, and i think its unfair to compare this to the west wing, which is one of the greatest TV shows ever made,

I understand that it's over a decent length of time I just don't think it's a valid excuse to bulldoze through relationships and then allow so many scenes to deal with the interpersonals. If they want to do things with the relationships that's grand but do it right.

The West Wing was great for the eb and flow between interpersonal relationships and the politics. The newsroom feels a little disjointed to me at the minute, if it finds the right balance it will be great.

I quite enjoyed this episode. The relationship stuff isn't bothering me, but it does seem kind of odd that they've passed 6-9 months in 4 episodes, so we're being dumped at the tail-end of these things. The ending was quite well done, with the stand-off between Will and (I think) the ratings guy, over announcing the senator's death. Shows the unpredictability of the world and the news - will be interesting if they cover her recovery in next week's episode.

Carroller16

Deleted User wrote: »

I quite enjoyed this episode. The relationship stuff isn't bothering me, but it does seem kind of odd that they've passed 6-9 months in 4 episodes, so we're being dumped at the tail-end of these things. The ending was quite well done, with the stand-off between Will and (I think) the ratings guy, over announcing the senator's death. Shows the unpredictability of the world and the news - will be interesting if they cover her recovery in next week's episode.

I think next weeks episode is about

the Arab Spring

theteal

Just watched episode 4, very average for the most part but, by jebus, did it grab me by the stones at the end. Quality.

All in all, i'm thoroughly enjoying it bar episode 2. I normally get into these types of shows when the season is over and it can be watched as I please, this waiting for the next episode lark is killing me.

Seren_

I like the relationship stuff; such a stereotypical female

Duck Soup

Yep, loved the fourth episode and the show generally. I can begin to see why Sorkin's getting a few media people's goat on this one.

The episodic structure is obviously to take whatever bee is in Sorkin's bonnet as being underreported or misrepresented - the Tea Party, gun control, The Arab Spring, whatevs - and attempt to get to the real heart of the matter. And it works pretty damned well. Thanks to the preternatural articulacy of just about every Sorkin character, it means that each episode has its 'hell yeah!', punch-the-air moments as one Aaron surrogate or another says what you always wanted to say on a subject, but never had the words or a staff of researchers.

But the real and overarching story of The Newsroom - and the one that I think annoys people in the US media - is that Sorkin is saying that the American news media sold out their integrity and abandoned their duties. 'The Newsroom' producers would doubtless say that the series shows the pressures that lead to shoddy, ratings-driven journalism; the dark exterior (and interior) forces at work. But really its message is that a small group of like-minded individuals with integrity can change the media world. And that folksy idealism is likely to chafe with a few people.

The relationship stuff I find gradually reels you in. I find myself not caring about it and then it takes a turn that makes you say "Oh no she/he didn't!" Isn't that the kind of ephemeral trivia that we were being warned about being seduced by in Episode 4?

But I can see why they renewed it so early for next season. For my tastes, one of the two standout new shows in 2012, along with Veep. Rousing, splendid stuff.

squonk

don ramo wrote: »

but you do know over 9 months have passed since the first episode, all these people know each other extremely well at this stage,

They really aren't getting that across in the show. On one hand we have McKenzie acting like she just discovered that Will is dating some new people and on the other we've got this notional on again, off again cycle with Maggie that has come to a head at this point but with no background whatsoever bar heresay.

At the end of the day, the show is about a newsroom and primarilly about handling news stories in a particular way. Just do that! Just leave the relationship stuff out or wait til next season to address that more fully once viewers have become really attached to the characters, and once it can be done properly. Right now the treatment of relationships on the show is like something you'd get from a five year old. It feels tacked on, badly written and, as I said, a glaring void in the otherwise reasonably high quality of the show as a whole.

Skinfull

Loving the show but I see where people get annoyed with the relationship stuff though I find it hard to call it that as its all very "grade school" relationshipy. The Maggie / Don thing is beyond ridiculous at this stage, she is so self destructive! But the Will / Mackenzie is working.

The whole email, structure of address typing etc was way too contrived, very sloppy writing and telegraphed the ending of that episode, that was poor poor showing on the writers part.

I am thinking though that this is not pushed by Sorkin but by the studio who is trying to get all types of viewers interested. but then that could be the Sorkin fan boy in me!

squonk

Ok! Just finished Episode 4....   Let me just say, what a boring, pointless waste of film. Bigfoot... STFU! If I had a gun I'd have shot that gimp myself. The news stories were just filler. Seriously, serious news people would have picked up those stories anyway, those who didn't wouldn't care. As for Will's dating woes, WHO THE HELL CARES! When the episode started at the NYE party I was wondering for literally minutes what the point was or how it was relevant or even leading anywhere. The last 3 minutes were good but it was just self congratulatory really as the rest of the episode wasn't strong enough to support it so it just highlighted their undirected pissing about up to that point quite starkly.  I want this show to be great but it's starting to bug me. It felt like a 2 hour episode tonight. Thats not good. 

FouxDaFaFa

This is speculation:

The economics girl, was she in on the whole "Will takedown" thing? She set him up with her crazy gun-toting friend and sent him off in the direction of the gossip columnist too. I'm betting she wants to climb another rung and take Will's job if they fire him.

Also, I agree they didn't make it clear so much time had passed between episodes.

Johnny Johnson

I enjoyed the episode greatly. I laughed quite a bit

Hippo

Watching this on Sky Atlantic so only just saw Ep 2. This is a hugely disappointing show, I had really high hopes. There's so much high speed dialogue that Sorkin must be getting paid by the word. The McKenzie character is totally unbelievable, and as Skinfull said the email plot device was laughable. The ep conclusion in the bar was pure Ally McBeal/Gray's Anatomy.

Team all this up with over-acting right across the screen and clunkily-delivered political messages (and I'd be sympathetic to most of those messages) and it's beginning to look like a real turkey, I'm sorry to say.

squonk

Unless things change dramatically next week, Episode 4 could well be the point at which this show implodes. As some can see, I wasn't exactly taken by the episode after watching it but a night's sleep has made me realise a few other things.

Taking down Will via some bad publicity could have been handled over a series of episodes. What has happened now is that we get one week where they are acting like serious news people on a mission to reform news broadcasting, but the following week we get a show that makes the Press Gang look like an edgy, hard-hitting news outfit. Some news items were thrown in just for show but it was done in a stupid, half-hearted and, frankly, sensless manner. Surely they had 5 minutes to comment on these items over time before closing the show when the issues were fresh. I don't buy that.

Sorkin seems to be making some very fundamental mistakes this time round for a writer who has written a multi-season show already. Over on the Breaking Bad forum we're all commenting on the implosion of Walter White as he starts to buy into his hype and feeds his ego based on the hype. First off, I initially thought the real news stories would be a good thing but I'm not convinced any more. Lining up issues you have a beef about is OK but approaching them in a 'holier than thou' fashion isn't really OK at all. Tagging the Giffords issue onto the end of last night's episode was a jump the shark moment for me. While I am delighted that the lady has made a great recovery, even days afterwards I would not have put money on her survival. Hindsight is 20-20 as they say and it's very easy to come along after the dust has settled and say that you would have done things differently. Amidst the confusion I could well see how stray stories could get out. Even within interpersonal relationships we all have our achilles heel where, no matter how zealous we are about fact checking, something is always going to blind side us. With episode 4, I took the last 3 minutes as a complete show of arrogance. In my opinion, Sorkin had wasted 40 minutes of my time with irrelevant, nonsensical drivel and for that he didn't suddenly get to take the high moral ground over Giffords shooting, coming as he was, from a standpoint where the lady is now back back home and out of danger.

I believe his second mistake is believing that by adding his name to a show, we are instantly going to fall in love with his characters, take them to heart and feel lost if they are not around. Towards the end of last night's show where they pointed out how Fox etc. were getting it wrong, there was an allusion to them being a big family, something like 'This is us...', we're better, we're different, we care. Well, it might be a complete filler show but Hawaii Five-O gets to use lines like that at this point because they've got 2 seasons down already and we've built up a rapport with the characters. The Newsroom is 4 episodes in however and we're still finding our feet with these characters. Worst still, because of the cack handed way the elapsed time has been handled, I'm sure a lot of viewers are still thinking they are in the first month of all being together. Right now I wouldn't care greatly if Will left for several episodes, or McKenzie or any of the rest of them. By comparison, Alex O'Loughlin's stint in rehab left a hole in H5O but it drew out some interesting aspects of characters we already knew well and loved. Again, you need to be particularly arrogant or have bought into your hype to pull a stunt like that on a show that hasn't even 5 episodes under it's belt.

Every show I start out watching gets a lot of leeway. Unless things are spectacularly bad, a show normally gets 7-8 episodes to prove itself. I'm not sure about The Newsroom right now. Episode 4 was beyond what could be called filler. It was pointless and meandering. It took all my goodwill, shoved it down the jacks, took a dump on it and closed the top until I came home later to find the mess. I really can't say if I'll watch next week. I think I could well be done with this show. One thing is for certain, it's dropped well down my watch queue at this point. A second season of this doesn't look like such a great thing anymore.

Otacon

I'm not going to respond to your entire post but I just wanted to clear up one point.

Sorkin's message with The Newsroom seems quite clear - the media have dropped the ball recently.

This is perfectly exemplified in what happened during the Gabrielle Giffords incident. At the time, most news outlets actually stated that she had died. They basically reported a completely unfounded rumour, not what you want from your news programs.

squonk

Otacon wrote: »

I'm not going to respond to your entire post but I just wanted to clear up one point.

Sorkin's message with The Newsroom seems quite clear - the media have dropped the ball recently.

This is perfectly exemplified in what happened during the Gabrielle Giffords incident. At the time, most news outlets actually stated that she had died. They basically reported a completely unfounded rumour, not what you want from your news programs.

I know and I completely get that but he'd have serviced this point better with a once of Made For TV movie rather than an entire show based around the 'how it should have been handled' premise. Now we all know how the events should have been handled because they're old news and we know the details completely. At this point it's becoming repetitive and, dare I say it, boring. What's worse, Will laying into the journalist over the takedown piece was just more of this smug belief that you would do things differently. For a start, what the journalist was doing was part of her stock and trade and it was none of Will's business what she did or how she did it. He doesn't react all that well to being told how to do his own job.

The bottom line is that if Sorkin wants to comment ad nauseum about the quality of broadcast television then perhaps his best bet is to get a job producing a live news show so he can show us all how it's done in real-time. All that's happening right now is that he's coming across as someone who gets off on his own sense of cleverness when, in reality, postulating a correct way to have handled historical events at the time isn't clever, it's just common sense with all the knowledge completely available.

This show needs to focus for now on what it claims to be good at, i.e. correctly reporting the news. Stupid relationship stories and tacked on, hammy storylines are distracting and turn the show into a bit of a dog. It'd also help if the characters got off their high horses every once in a while.

Hippo

Squonk - careful with the Breaking Bad references please, I haven't even started series 4 yet

squonk

Hippo wrote: »

Squonk - careful with the Breaking Bad references please, I haven't even started series 4 yet

Sure, sorry. I didn't think about that but I wasn't intending on giving away plot points or anything.

KerranJast

http://www.digitalspy.ie/ustv/s211/the-newsroom/news/a394286/aaron-sorkin-replacing-newsroom-writers-for-season-2.html
Looks like a big shake up for S2 which was badly needed albeit Sorkin himself could be the root of the shows issues so far.

ixoy

Add me as another who wants the political / news angle and not "The O.C." romance story lines. Seriously, the power plays in the so-called romances make me cringe: Over-reacting because you secretly fancy someone? Why not start passing notes like kids in a class room? "OMG Don likes you OMG". They drag the show down and hopefully that's an element Sorkin is addressing by changing his writers.

The Bigfoot storyline didn't work for me. It just seemed a forced "quirky" moment.
Oh and if one of my work colleagues asked me at 11am on a Saturday morning to discuss Bigfoot, I'd be making full use of HBO-licencing to tell him to f**k off. The characters are ridiculously dedicated to their jobs. I can't imagine RTE working quite the same.

It's frustrating because when he's discussing the core premise - the media and, particularly, media spin / outright lies - that the show excels. He's still taking some easy roads though but he does travel them well. But come on Sorkin: Attack something from the Democrats. Go on! Do a full episode on their failings.

I get the impression from the episodes to date that this is the kind of show that people who never watch Tv will claim is better than anything else on.

closifer

Hippo wrote: »

Watching this on Sky Atlantic so only just saw Ep 2. This is a hugely disappointing show, I had really high hopes. There's so much high speed dialogue that Sorkin must be getting paid by the word. The McKenzie character is totally unbelievable, and as Skinfull said the email plot device was laughable. The ep conclusion in the bar was pure Ally McBeal/Gray's Anatomy.

Team all this up with over-acting right across the screen and clunkily-delivered political messages (and I'd be sympathetic to most of those messages) and it's beginning to look like a real turkey, I'm sorry to say.

I'm up to date and I would agree that the show is a massive disappointment. I wanted to like it and even though I wasnt hugely enthused by the first 2 episodes - i stuck with it as new shows can take some time to find their groove. Episode 4 was just so rubbish tho - the worst of the 4. The show just doesnt seem to know what it is. 1/2 soap opera and 1/2 political commentary. It just doesnt work.