The Newsroom is a bad show with good moments that thinks it's great. It's not because of the way creator Aaron Sorkin portrays the media, a boring subject, or his constant, obnoxious Republican bashing, which he can totally do because Will McAvoy's a Republican! (He learned the "I can do this because I did that" argument from Ryan Murphy.) Well, let me rephrase that: it's just because of those two things, which are the criticisms that receive the most attention. There's plenty to get frustrated about while watching Newsroom, including these 15 (mostly non-political) moments, quotes, and scenes that made me want to smash my TV like Neal does Rush Limbaugh's face on his computer. And hey, have you guys heard about this Internet? SCARY stuff.
#15. Maggie's roommate Lisa begins dating Jim and they make plans to have dinner together on Valentine's Day. Jim, a human with a penis, forgets all about the date, and leaves Lisa, a human with a vagina, all by her lonesome. Rather than acting like a normal person, she instead sets up shop in the middle of the newsroom, despite the fact that she doesn't work there, and begins screaming, "JIM HARPER JIM HARPER CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE ACK ACK ACK." Women be crazy, says every scene of Newsroom.
#14. The perfect metaphor for The Newsroom: there's clapping from the staff after EVERY Will McAvoy news report. Such a good job we're doing in this totally contrived situation, written months, if not years, after we've had enough to correctly respond to the event in question. Gary Cooper is not impressed.
#13. DOUBLE ANNOYING TROPE.
The working during a party.
The throwing of the drink. (Who knew Sorkin was such a fan of Smash?)
There are dozens of annoying tropes on The Newsroom, but these happen within minutes of one another, so they're especially noteworthy. Has someone throwing their drink in another person's face ever been funny? Until the liquid is made of orange juice, lighter fluid, and afterbirth, no.
#12. Aaron Sorkin turned into Peter King so gradually, I didn't even notice. During episode five, "Amen," Will extolls the virtues of Rudy, the feel-good movie about a kid who NEVER should have been able to step foot on a football field, especially as a defensive end, due to his undersized frame, yet still does and even records a holding-onto-the-QB-before-a-bigger-guy-takes-him-down "sack." But middle-aged white guys love that Scrappy McHustle Rudy because that boy had grit. Will, too, has grit, and all he wants is for his employees, who make less money than him despite doing more work, to clap for him and cheer for him and call him "Coach."
The middle-aged white guy wet dream also extends to this.
#11. OK, I know I said I'd keep politics out of this post, but I just can't here. Due to Maggie previously having a relationship with a key source (of course), the News Night staff needs to find a group of guests to talk about the Arizona Immigration Law. They scuff their shoes and pick a gun fanatic who's named his rifle "Jenny." For a show that yearns to be "fair and balanced," but without the quotes, The Newsroom has a tendency to show one side of the story. Arizona SB 1070 is obviously total horse crap and anyone who believes in it is human garbage, but why, oh why, did they have to bring guns into the situation? The point could have been made without "Jenny." I'm not a gun guy, but there are sane, reasonable people who believe in the right to bear arms, but The Newsroom repeatedly paints Second Amendment supporters to be total nut bags.
Also, in another episode Will unloads a gun and holds it sideways because he's from the streets.
#10. Episode three, "The 112th Congress," begins with Will apologizing to News Night viewers that he and his staff haven't done a good enough job covering the news, but they pinky swear they'll do better from now on by holding politicians accountable for their words. Because that is a thing that happens on-air all the time. One of the show's biggest flaws is that rather than show the audience that, yes, they're trying to do something honorable in an dishonorable field, Sorkin instead explicitly and loudly screams at us, "OUR BAD, YOU GUYS. WE'RE THE GOOD ONES. LOL."
#9. Speaking of "LOL"...no, Panic Attack Maggie, "LOL" does not stand for "lots of love," which is what you wrote in a "sorry for your loss" card. It stands for "laugh out loud," which is something that literally EVERY 20-something living in New York City knows. Maggie also confuses Georgia the country with Georgia the state. She is a mess of a human being, but hey, at least she wasn't shrieking.
#8. MacKenzie means to send an email to just Will about how Sloan thinks he cheated on her, not vice versa, but she ends up sending said email to the entire staff and 47 out-of-office reporters. Because it's 2010 and she's a news producer and doesn't know how to send an email, apparently. And that's before another guy JUST SO HAPPENS to forward the message to corporate. By accident.
She then stomps on Gary Cooper's phone with her high heels.
#7. Despite knowing jack poop about the economy, MacKenzie agrees to join a panel called, "Is TV News Equipped to Cover the Economy?" Clearly, no. To prepare, she asks Sloan for help because again, she knows jack poop about the economy. How jack poop? She doesn't know the difference between an investment and commercial bank. Even I know the difference between an investment and commercial bank, and I'm not a respected producer of a respected fictional news program. Yet.
#6. Sorkin, on the Internet: "The result will be our website will ghettoize every other website. The result will be civility in the public square and a triumph of populism. I'm going to single-handedly fix the Internet."
*middle finger GIF*
#5. Maggie is supposed to be our Pam Beesly, the strong, yet untested female character who hasn't had the chance to show her full potential yet. Her first two scenes in the pilot involve her:
...tripping and nearly falling before her boss, and...
...not being able to get through a conversation with her parents about her boyfriend, Don, without crying.
#4. JESUS CHRIST THAT THEME SONG.
#3. Forgive the all caps again, but: WE GET IT, IT'S FUNNY FOR A MAN WHO WORKS IN LEGITIMATE TV NEWS TO BE OBSESSED WITH FINDING THE MYTHICAL (OR IS HE???) BIGFOOT HAHAHHAHA. On the plus side, The Newsroom is still a billion times better than Dev Patel's other big non-Slumdog role, Zuko in The Last Airbender. Though every time he talks about this fascinating new group of people known as "trolls," a topic that all the other idiots who work for News Night know literally nothing about, the gap gets that much smaller.
#2. News Night is forced to cover Casey Anthony's baby killing and Anthony Weiner's dick pics because half of their audience from a week before has fled to rival networks. MacKenzie is justifiably disappointed in having to devote so much time to such trivial stories, but she'd be out of a job if she doesn't. Right before the cameras turn on for an interview between Will and a woman who tweeted with Weiner, MacKenzie prays for a miracle. "God, please give me a sign that I'm not doing a big thing badly," she demands...and then there's a blackout in the f*cking building. First of all, not only is that a mixed message, especially on a show that spends so much time making fun of those who think God answers their selfish prayers (like Michelle Bachmann), but it's also an AWFUL way to get out of a dramatic situation. It's literally flipping a switch, and pretending that everything before that moment didn't happen. Then the lights come back on during MacKenzie's crazy banshee speech about miracles or something, and then everyone cuts their throats because REAL NEWS. The end.
#1. Everything about this scene. Coldplay. Maggie crying. Sorkin making News Night seem like heroes because they had the DECENCY to not pronounce Gabrielle Giffords dead. Neal raving about Bigfoot. Charlie (who is otherwise awesome) gazing slowly across the newsroom. The evil ratings guy bursting into the control room. The slow motion. Don't bring my dear Alyson Hannigan into this destruction zone. "Fix You" is a song for teenage girls to lose their virginity to; it shouldn't be played during an Important Scene on an HBO show. The two situations have one thing in common, though: someone ends up crying out in pain.
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I came in thinking it was going to be terrible. I like it quite a bit.
Yeah, me too. I’m on Episode 6 and although it’s a little too LiberalHippieDouche, it’s got good pace, a consistent theme and decent characters. The sad thing is in today’s TV, that automatically makes it one of the top 10 shows currently airing.
I am a LiberalHippieDouche and it drives me crazy. It’s as subtle as hitting someone in the shin with a pickaxe.
Pretty sure ‘Fix You’ was shitty and contrived when fucking Scrubs used it years ago.
When that song started playing I wanted to barf. Ruined what could’ve been a poignant moment by making it overly melodramatic.
you haven’t convinced me this is a bad show. i might be pretty stupid when it comes to polotics and news and sorkin might be relying on people like me to watch, but guess what, i do watch it. because it’s clever and one-sided, yes, but it’s a side that i agree with. plus i know a lot of weird, frantic girls just like maggie and makenzie.
“i might be pretty stupid when it comes to polotics”
i’m just gonna leave this right there…
yeah, it’s not like i’m contradicting myself. i admit i don’t know everything about polotics. so what?
It’s all good, man. I’m just here for the pardee.
I think it’s because…you know what? Forget it.
Will.. Dude. Seriously now. Spellcheck.
Idk how this show can be considered “shitty” or “cringe-worthy”. I like this show because it is based on the reality that many people are outrageously quirky…
This may be the first time I disagree with every single point you’re trying to make.
No, he’s right about the theme song.
Didn’t really care about most of those moments. Maybe the only truly cringe moment came in the finale with the whole Sex and the City scene.
That’s what I was going to say. I switched to another tab and looked up fantasy football news during that scene.
Yup – that’s the kind of cringing I was thinking about.
That, too, was awful.
I got ready to ask why you watch so much of the show if you think it’s so terrible, but then I realized that I had read quite a bit of this post.
Yes, it’s a mess of a show, but it’s kind of a “hot mess”, so I’ll keep watching. Where else can you get a well-done scene about an important socio-political issue, then immediately thereafter get a scene where someone walks into a door (“My eye!!”) or something else sitcom-y? Nowhere – that’s where.
I think the main problem with the Newsroom is that shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Justified have skewed our view of television. Those shows are so pants-shittingly good, that a show with content this divisive will be polarizing. No one has strong opinions about meth dealing, advertising executives or US marshals. You bring up politics, and most people have a strong opinion on it. Add in a dash of cliche, and you are going to have people hating on things.
If you don’t consider the politics and focus on the entertainment value, the show is great. It is pretentious, self-serving and overblown, but damn if I don’t look forward to watching it every week.
Agreed to it being great, I tell ppl all the time to enjoy it for what it is..
I think someone else made this point. If Newsroom was on USA, we’d say it was a pretty good show. But on HBO, it seems like a big mess and a wasted opportunity.
If you don’t consider the politics and focus on the entertainment value, the show is great.
I’m going to go ahead and disagree with you on that point. I think the political core of the show is great and the rest of the show stinks. I cannot stand a lot of the characters, but find Macavoy intriguing. Jeff Daniels as Macavoy is the only reason I watched each week and season 1 is probably as far as I’ll go.
Agreed about Daniels. I do think the show does certain things well (I found myself often enjoying and getting wrapped up in the “how the meat gets made” moments) and, yes, Will McAvoy is a good character mostly surrounded by incompetence. Sam Waterston is a national idol, too.
Small mistake there, Maggie mixes up the country Georgia with the state Georgia… As far as I know, there isn’t a country George. Georgia however is adjacent to the black sea.
It’s great because it’s so fucking liberal.- almost every comment so far.
Its not great. But I keep watching because it’s so liberal.
i usually hate u, but…..hi five?
I think the conservative bashing is a little over the top (not because I disagree with their views, what with me being a pinko commie liberal and all), because they do it in such a hammy way. Nobody can ever be gray, it’s all “Us good, them bad” stuff. Sorkin’s method is “look at me, I’m not one sided, I’m presenting their legitimate argument before our protagonist rips it to shreds and makes them look like an idiot while his subordinates clap for him”.
That and the whole Maggie/Jim/Don/Sloan/Lisa mess, which is annoying as shit. I love the back and forth, because that’s what Sorkin is good at, and there should be more of it and less Jim and Pam Ross and Rachel Sam and Diane Will They Won’t they bullshit. Just fuck already and get on with the news.
/rant
Agree. Some of the best West Wings were when they had a decent Republican like John Goodman’s character or Alan Alda giving a counterbalance.
I wanted to go all John Belushi on Will McAvoy when he was playing that guitar.
The show is melodramatic, over-the-top and completely one-sided when it comes to politics, but damned if it isn’t entertaining.
Like someone mentioned above, the most cringe-worthy and contrived scene of the whole series was the Sex and the City bus tour scene from the finale. That was just a little too convenient, even for Sorkin.
The characters are all flawed, emotionally retarded spazzes, but the dialogue is clever and funny, and Sorkin does raise some good political points – although I concede, the right doesn’t really get a chance for rebuttal.
Every show doesn’t have to be Breaking Bad – I mean, how many shows could even be that good if they tried? Sometimes it’s OK for a show to just be entertaining, even if it is flawed. I’ve enjoyed watching every episode this season, and look forward to next season.
Also, the last scene of the finale, with the TMI reporter on her computer, was an homage to Sex and the City Carrie, for some reason.
DAMNIT JOSH, don’t make me reconsider not hating this show
So teenage girls have an affinity for losing their virginity to Coldplay’s “Fix You”?
Downloading. Now.
Jerry Lawler, is that you?
It lost me at ‘Maggie and Will once dated’ in episode 2. I’m still not sure if I got that right. Did they date? I’m going to check on Wikipedia…either way, I refuse to feel dumb after any show that goes on after True Blood.
There are so many more than 15 but these are all great examples of why I have such a love hate relationship with this show. He made a decent point early on about there not being two-sides to every issue, but then spent the next 9 episodes bashing the tea-party. It’s not even that he’s necessarily wrong, as a republican I actually agree with a lot of what he’s pointed out, it’s the patronizing ‘I’m so much smarter than these hbo viewers’ way that he goes about it.
Yet I still watch, and honestly the politics don’t even bother me. The biggest thing that has me reaching for the fast forward on my dvr is the fucking airing of personal lives in the goddamn middle of the work place. WHAT THE FUCK? At least on the west wing and sports night his characters had the dignity to take it behind closed doors but for some reason no one seems to mind that Mac, Will, Maggie, etc… are just screaming about their relationships in a crowded newsroom for everyone to hear. That is where my weekly cringefest comes from.
Agreed. The next time they start fighting in the middle of the newsroom, some no-name character needs to stand and yell “shut up!”
I like the show, but as a quasi-Libertarian/Conservative I don’t see the point in saying Will is conservative if he never actually expresses the views of being a Conservative.
This is the single biggest area they need to improve. There were vanishingly brief scenes where he did it in a couple ways, but they need to make him talk a lot more about why he’s Republican instead of talking about why he hates the Tea Party.
Sorkin is supposedly bringing in some Conservative thinkers to help him out for season two, which is something he desperately needs. I’m a liberal pussy, yet even I’m ashamed of some of the scenes.
Well, to be fair, the current Republican party is really, really far to the right. I don’t think Will fails to express Republican ideas so much as he calls out the current Republican party for becoming too extreme. It’s not like he’s criticizing the right while simultaneously saying, “big government, welfare and gay marriages for all!”
It’s Sorkin’s standard way to bash Republicans while claiming he’s moderate. “It’s not my character who’s wrong. He’s the right kind of Republican! It’s the party that’s a bunch of Nazi/fascist/jackboot/etc. thugs!”
I’m pretty sure it’s not the first time he’s done it and it’s incredibly ham-fisted.
I’m a fan of the show, yet every single cringe-worthy moment listed above is spot on, except for the opening music part. I like that part. I WANT to love this show but scene’s like the ones listed above make it really, really tough.
Good article. My roommate and I watched this show every Sunday just to laugh at how cloying and melodramatic it was, and every time would instead get angry at it and promise to never watch it again.
Would be much better if it focused more on the making of the news and less on the personal lives of the shrill characters.
I think this is the first time that I’ve ever disagreed with everything you’ve said. Now, I do agree that it does push the liberal view over the top and doesn’t give the other side a chance to express their views, however, it is a TV show. It’s meant to be entertaining. I have to agree that Sex and the City scene was dreadful. As is the whole Jim/Don/Maggie/Lisa/Sloan mess. But, I have to say that I do wish the media (both liberal and conservative) asked questions like this and got directly to the points that SHOULD be made. I know you stayed away from politics (mostly) for this article, but I am also betting that the views expressed on the show are the reason you hate it, and the rest of the scenes you listed are only secondary to that…
Considering he called anyone who supported a perfectly rational illegal immigration bill in Arizona evil, I’m betting you are wrong.
Yes, you’re right. Supporting it isn’t evil, it’s completely rational to have an illegal immigration bill that mirrors Nazi Germany.
I’m not watching The Newsroom because I want to learn about or have my personal politics be supported; I’m watching The Newsroom because I want to watch an entertaining show from the guy who created The West Wing and Sports Night, both of which are fantastic. In that respect, it failed. Like I said above, I’m liberal and the show tends to agree with my beliefs, but that doesn’t mean I want them to be dick slapped in my face every seven seconds.
I agree with you there. The plot leaves something to be desired. I do like the show, but it’s impossible not to notice the character flaws, especially how Sorkin portrays women. Pretty much dumb, unreliable, dependent on emotion and all over the place. He’s done that in other shows too, though, if I’m not mistaken..(correct me if I am.. I was never a fan of West Wing or Sports Night) The show supports my views as well, but I also think it takes things to far sometimes. Like with Rick Santorum’s campaign advisor. That was over the top, even if McAvoy realized he was being a bully later. I hope next season he can even things out a little… I’d like to keep watching.
Oh, and Terry Crews is awesome.
AMEN!
Yup. This should have been the entire show.
Chill, scro.
I so badly want to like the show, but with every episode I get more and more annoyed with it.
The thing that I’ve really been getting annoyed by lately is the way MacKenzie is essentially just an amalgamation of every stereotype of women. The hospital scene where she gets mad and stats hitting Will with the pillow pissed me off SOOOOO fucking bad.
Sorkin might be great at writing dialogue, but he is terrible at creating characters that are original and plausible. Every character on the show is just a terrible cliche
I thought the Coldplay scene was the best of the season…. The Newsroom has quickly become my new favorite show. There have definitely been some episodes that were lacking, but that episode that ended with the Coldplay song was amazing I thought.
Tardy for the party, but I watched the season finale. Alison Pill should channel more Kim Powers and Olivia Munn needs to blow her way to another show because I’ve seen better acting from Geoff Peterson the skeleton.
I like Alison Pill, but something about her face makes me want to smother her with a pillow. Is that weird?
Munn…is not doing so well at convincing people she’s anything other than a nerd sex-symbol or Internet Jackoff Material. I mean, has she done ONE role (other than showing her tits) that’s gotten her any sort of acclaim as an actress?
Some of the points were completely valid, especially the ones covering the annoying relationship dynamics and the atrocious theme song.
But I think you also missed the point of some of the scenes you listed.
#11 is explained within the episode itself. Their originally booked guest dropped out because of Maggie and all the other rational people that could counterbalance the segment had already been booked on other shows. So they were reluctantly forced into putting the crazies on the air.
#6 is supposed to show how optimistically naive Will McAvoy is about the internet. It wasn’t supposed to be taken as a serious way to “fix” the internet.
#3 again shows how horrendously out of touch older people are regarding internet message boards. Do you really think Dan Rather or Brian Williams know that internet “trolls” infest message boards? If anything, they should have delved deeper into the subject to explain that some of these trolls are actually paid shills by their respective parties.
#2 doesn’t re-affirm anything about God one way or the other. If anything, the lights spontaneously coming back on proves that God DOESN’T answer selfish prayers. Also, it’s meant to be a poignant speech punctuated with a comedic moment.
Jesus Christ, Does ANYBODY know what SB1070 does?!
In a law enforcement situation such as pulling someone over for speeding or responding to domestic violence,etc, the office can ask the person(s) under “investigation” to present ID. THAT’S IT.
NO, you can’t just pull over, or stop anyone at an ice cream store, who looks Hispanic, and “ask for their papers”.
You’re not human garbage for supporting a law that mirrors the ACTUAL Federal Law, the issue being that 1070 was enacted because the Feds weren’t doing the job in AZ.
Again, DON’T talk about politics because time and time again the staff proves themselves to be just as “informed” as Aaron Sorkin.
‘zactly. That kind of simple-mindedness is why I’m out on this one. Not enough TV hours in the day.
tell that to Arpaio, shatwood.
“This week on The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin explains his obvious take on months-old current events to you like you’re a child!” (*banana peel*) (*slide whistle*) (*whoopie cushion*)
You forgot (*woman braying like a donkey*)
I find drinking through the opening credits & replacing that god-awful themesong with the words “Phantom Daniels” (sung to the tune of “My Sharona”) really makes this show more tolerable
Sorkin’s like Tosh, but without the intellectual heft.
Thanks for reminding me I made the right decision in never watching this.
On the other hand, though…that Emily Mortimer makes my pants fit extra tight.
What the hell do people have agains the theme song? Am I the only one who likes thomas newman?
Oh god, the theme song. Who told them it was a good idea to start the show with a 35 minute long intro?
Dev Patel was in BBC’s Skins. Conceivably a bigger role, easily a better show.
agreed!
The ultimate cringe-worthy part of the #1 cringe-worthy scene is Will McAvoy holding a phone to each ear because he’s THAT important and busy
I agree with all the cringeworthy points. This show is fascinating in it’s extreme bi-polarity. Show one, a drama about NEWS REPORTING is intelligent and riveting. I really enjoy it. Show two, a winky, aren’t-I-cute, comedy about SEX & THE CITY, is so fucking retarded that I want to smash my television every week. Also the show’s portrayal of women as shrieking and/or sobbing morons is weird. But I feel like the show can be fixed.
Exactly. More newsy sausage-making, (much much much) less rom-com BS.
Josh Kurp, you just listed every single thing I hate about The Newsroom, including your #1, the scene that made me quit watching this horrible show.
The *only* problem i have with the show is that I recognize everything. EVERYTHING. It was done well the first time, Aaron, there’s no reason to do everything a second or third time.
Example: “I don’t know this subject and I have a deadline–Quick! Teach me!’… CJ asking Sam on the West Wing about a report. Only there it made sense. CJ being the face of the whitehouse, she’d know a lot but have to be briefed on many things.
Example: “Gather ye rosebuds”. Say, isn’t that exactly what Donna told Josh when she was trying to get him to go out with the deaf girl/consultant?
Sorkin does what he does pretty well. I just wish he’d do more, rather than more of the same.
Agreed. I’d like to pine over Newsroom re-runs 10 years from now the way I do for West Wing’s now. I just don’t see it happening, unfortunately.
Is there some union rules about “print” people hating this show? It seems like most of the hate for the Newsroom is coming from writers who are conditioned to hate anything TV news.
I wanted to like this show, I really did. I’m a conservative and don’t give two shits about seeing my views being trashed on a TV show. I just don’t care. Not everyone thinks like me and I’m fine with that. I watched The West Wing because it was just brilliant. The characters, the movement on screen, the dialogue, it was all great television. But I feel like Newsroom is Sorkin’s effort to meld The West Wing with Sports Night but leave out the sense that we the viewers were getting a glimpse into this sort of dark, unknown world. I liked the idea that we watched a fight between the First Lady and the President in their bedroom or that two on-air personalities like Dan and Casey had an epic meltdown that threatened their friendship. I just don’t get the same feeling from Newsroom. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’ve changed and am no longer able to suffer through the long, drawn out bloviations that feel scripted. Sorkin’s genius was that nothing ever felt like it was written down. It felt organic. Newsroom feels like everyone knows they’re on display and it just kills it for me.
Not for nothing, but I’d still watch this on a continuous loop over one more minute of Girls. Goddamn that show just missed it’s mark with me.
It’s really quite something
Hate The Newsroom too, but you really need an editor. That first paragraph is a mess in regards to grammar.
Decent show, but way too many love triangle/romantic scenes.
But now I fully understand the love affair with Olivia Munn. She’s dreamy…
“Fix You” worked perfect for the scene. The only thing wrong with playing that song for a scene like that is that it is so overused for such a scene by several different shows now.
I do find the parts that people hate about the show to be quite amusing though as it is like you hate these parts so much that it makes you continue to watch each and every week.
Holy shit, that Coldplay scene was hilarious. “A doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.” How do you write this shit with a straight face?
I like the show. So there.
Gross..Sorkin is gross.
Agree on most of these, but how could you not have the part where Don kept complaining to the stewardess on the plane, almost getting thrown off, and then he reveals to the pilots that Bin Laden is dead, and they break out THE MOST AWKWARD HANDSHAKE ever!?!?! That scene killed me. One of the most unintentionally funny moments in recent TV history, and that can’t make it?
“We reported the news.” [www.youtube.com]
Like many other commentors, I watched this show with the intent to hate, mock, and generally denounce it. Then I just kept watching, and have found myself entertained. Fuck me.
I like it. I don’t like Breaking Bad or Mad Men.
I won’t cry if it’s cancelled, like I did when Fox killed Arrested Development.
The airplane scene with the two pilots. “We reported the news”. [Unction and smugness]
Ha! Posted the same thing right after you. Here’s the clip [www.youtube.com]
The scene of Don telling the pilots Bin Laden is dead was somehow worse than the Fix You montage. WOOOOOOF
[www.youtube.com]
The over-arching problem with the show, as I’ve touched on before, is that Sorkin really doesn’t understand that the news media as he portrays it is not as important as he thinks it is. Yeah, McAvoy got criticized for his “worst generation” schtick but that seems to reflect Sorkin’s real feelings and it shows that he is incredibly out of touch. People don’t use the news media as much as they used to. Ask anyone how the New York Times’ readership levels are doing. The same goes for CNN’s viewership.
The media is evolving and Sorkin refuses to evolve with it. He’s out of touch.
Of course, the premise of the show is bad too. I know I’m rehashing something said by a lot of other people, but Sorkin’s smug superiority annoys the shit out of me. “See, this is what we would have done and we would have been absolutely right! Ergo, I’m better than you.”
No shit, jackass. Hindsight is 20/20. News networks pronounced Gabrielle Giffords dead because the situation was chaotic. Pronouncing her dead wasn’t malicious or a stupid mistake, it was just a simple mistake that anyone could have made.
Christ, I hate this self-righteous douchenozzle.
I can’t help but think when watching this show: “Man, Harry Dunn really got his act together.” Jeff Daniels just doesn’t have that news anchor voice.
*reaches into pocket and pulls out two pennies, which will hopefully be discontinued soon since we’re already behind Canada in something else*
I think it’s an aight show but it fails to hold my attention for long periods of time. Mainly cuz of the blah-worthy dialogue and the camera angles that shift to someone’s face every time anybody says anything. It’s like Sorkin told everyone they have to make sure the emotions are conveyed as deliberately as possible so after every line zoom in on Mac or….I can’t remember anyone else’s names right now cuz it’s that blah-worthy. The only episode I liked was the episode with the gay black republican. That man was a gem but the episode was good overall. I forget what episode was the one with the Coldplay but that song killed that episode. It single handedly nullifed everything that episode was building up to. I haven’t seen the finale yet but fuck it, Homeland’s almost back.
If you want to get conservatives to support rampant, unchecked immigration, turn it into a contest, and give the 1 billionth American a free shopping spree at Wal-Mart.
Government Advertisement:
“Hey, Darky! Yeah, you there. How would you like to be the 1 billionth American? Do you want to be a Slumdog Millionaire™? Do you have what it takes to win an all-expense-paid shopping spree at Wal-Mart™*? Then come to America! Its’a been a’so good to me!”
*Must be 18 years or over to play. Native Americans need not apply. Not redeemable in Arizona.
I’m fairly conservative and I agree with th hate of the Tea Party, but enough with the “I’m a real Republican” bullshit.
You also forgot that whole stupid debate plot line. That was supposed to be the big payoff for them compromising themselves? They were going to have the Republicans line up and have Sorkin…err Macevoy…fire at them the questions and accusations they have spent months meticulously avoiding? They were going to have the Republicans leave the format that all candidates favor (Republican and Democrat) and dictate the terms of in favor of what exactly?
The entire concept of putting themselves on the right side of history. Every. Fucking. Time.
Olivia Munn-I actually think she’s done an OK job, she just has a horribly written character. They spend the first couple of episodes telling us how smart she is (2 PhDs, teaches at Columbia etc etc) yet all she does when she shows up is act like she’s on a Saved By the Bell rip off. Then, the Japanese reactor episode happens. She actually shows off some her smarts. Of course, when she fouls up, the old white men have to save her and tell her what to do.
She has to lie, compromise her integrity, degrade herself publicly as a professional, and it still doesn’t address the fact that she went public with an off the record comment. All they did was save the other guy. She is still useless as a journalist. And her big reward? Old white guy insists that now they can go back to calling her “Ms Sabbith”. Wouldn’t that be Dr. Sabbith? 2 PhDs and all.
And finally, when she said “you never asked me out”, I yelled “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!” Now, she gets tied up in that cluster fuck of a love triangle (at this point it seems to be a pentagon)?
I know the scene on the aircraft when Bin Laden died has already been mentioned but they forgot the painfully pandering scene right BEFORE they announce Bin Laden is dead, where the guy (all the characters kind of run together for me) is hollering about how he isn’t trying to “take control of the cabin” and then the pilots come out and he remembers they’re on a United jet and one of those were hijacked on 9/11 and of course the flight attendant was being a cunt because bitching about being stuck on the tarmac is just like what those boxcutter-equipped Arabs did and AMERICA!!!!!!!
Then they dropped the Bin Laden bomb and everyone was happy and he shook their hands…christ, I want to like the Newsroom but I almost stopped watching at that point.
“Because it’s 2010 and she’s a news producer and doesn’t know how to send an email, apparently.”
And apparently you didn’t actually WATCH the show because they made a point of saying that the emailing system was overly stupidly complicated.