Monday, July 16, 2012

FIXED YOU: May I take a moment to suggest the following revisions to your viewing of Newsroom, which might (might) make it easier to watch?
  1. Every time that the show (usually Will McAvoy) says that Will McAvoy is a Republican, pretend that it didn't say that. Instead, pretend that the show acknowledges what we all know is true: Will McAvoy is an openly partisan cable newscaster delivering a Democratic-slanted program. What's the matter with acknowledging that? I don't get how that would hurt the narrative.
  2. Don't look at Will McAvoy as the hero of the show. See him as a Tony Soprano/Walter White/Marlo Stanfield anti-hero, except with bloviating and condescension as his MO instead of crime. And his sidekicks, like Jim Harper, are the equivalent of rising gang lieutenants like Christopher Moltisanti or Jesse Pinkman, learning to sublimate their more human impulses and to emulate their boss's mannerisms, like meting out a professional (or, rather, unprofessional) punishment for a personal fight with the woman a man with power wants but can't have. And Leona is the FBI/Hank/Daniels who is going to put him where he belongs.
See, one modest factual revision and one change in perspective, and suddenly there's a show worth getting invested in. Go get him, Hanoi Jane!

10 comments:

  1. Jordan4:08 PM

    3. Every time that Charlie gives advice/gets gruff from the network, imagine he's being played by Robert Guillaume.  Because I already do.

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  2. isaac_spaceman4:29 PM

    I really wouldn't change a thing about Sam Waterston/Charlie.  Did you see how gleeful Waterston was at the end when he got to yell "fuck"?  That was pure, unfaked, unacted joy right there. 

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  3. Jordan4:39 PM

    I've really liked Waterston in this, but everytime he talks I can't help imagine him being Isaac Jaffe.

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  4. Jenn.4:43 PM

    Isaac may be my personal favorite character in any Sorkin show, ever.  But I would miss Sam Waterston and his ever-so-active eyebrows.  Really, the eyebrows are characters in and of themselves.  I certainly like them more than most of the actual "characters."

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  5. isaac_spaceman4:52 PM

    They're not eyebrows.  They are two extra mustaches. 

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  6. @Jordan--This is part my problem with the entire show. I've seen these characters before, and I already know how they're going to react because I've seen every episode of Sports Night and The West Wing. I haven't seen this week's episode, but my favorite part of the series might have been the Sam Waterston/Jane Fonda showdown last week. I want to watch a show about them instead.

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  7. @Jordan--This is part my problem with the entire show. I've seen these characters before, and I already know how they're going to react because I've seen every episode of Sports Night and The West Wing. I haven't seen this week's episode, but my favorite part of the series might have been the Sam Waterston/Jane Fonda showdown last week. I want to watch a show about them instead.

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  8. @Jordan--This is part my problem with the entire show. I've seen these characters before, and I already know how they're going to react because I've seen every episode of Sports Night and The West Wing. I haven't seen this week's episode, but my favorite part of the series might have been the Sam Waterston/Jane Fonda showdown last week. I want to watch a show about them instead.

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  9. Jim Bell11:29 AM

    Umm, I love this show.  I love the characters.  I don't care about the similarities to other shows he wrote.  I think this is great TV.  Maybe, I humbly suggest, it would help if we compared this to non-Sorkin TV which magnifies the total awesomeness of Newsroom.  Sports Night and West Wing are never coming back.  I find this more enjoyable than watching reruns of those shows even if I enjoyed them more than Newsroom when they were on.

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  10. Aimee5:48 PM

    What an infuriating show.  We watched Sunday's episode last night, and I think it was about 80% maddening, 20% awesome.  The thing that's driving me (the most) crazy are the inconsistent characterizations.  Either Mack's the most intelligent, committed, amazing producer ever, or she's an airhead who claims to have read Don Quijote in the original French.  Either Neal's a crackerjack who's great at his job, or he's a crackpot who won't shut up about Bigfoot.  (Just for the record, I didn't really mind him doing it at the party, because... party.  But at work?  Calling a special meeting?  Bugging Will about it in the middle of a breaking story?  No.)  Either Will's dating every woman in sight, or he's suddenly just dipping his foot into the dating pool and getting drinks thrown in his face by all and sundry. 

    I also have to say, I think it was a big mistake to use real news stories.  A fictionalized version of the Giffords shooting could have been even more effective, because it wouldn't have required ridiculous machinations to get everybody into the office on a Saturday.  All I could think of was how effectively Broadcast News did the "big story breaks while nobody's in the office" plot, with everyone scrambling to make it work on the fly. 

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