It feels like forever since we’ve seen The Newsroom. In some ways, it has been a long two weeks, at least here at BigShinyRobot, with our redesigned site launch, my interview with Shatner, and coverage of both Dragon*Con and the epic awesomeness that was Salt Lake Comic-Con (70,000 people?!?! WTF?)
In the last few days, we’ve also had some great news from The Newsroom, when Jeff Daniels tweeted last night:
Unfortunately, it looks like what the internetz gods giveth, they also taketh away, as HBO is clarifying Daniels’ tweet that they are interested in it, but it’s not a done deal. My read? It’s happening, but the ink isn’t dry. Similar to when George Lucas said Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher were all going to be in the new Star Wars movie, but it wasn’t announced yet. Give it a couple weeks, we should get an official announcement.
We last left our amazing Newsnight team with a shouting match between news director Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) and ACN owner Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda)
And so we continue with the impossible task set before our beleaguered heroes. Oh, and they’re about to go on the air with coverage of Election Night 2012.
What’s Good?
They do an amazing job of taking an event we know how it ends and making us feel like maybe, just maybe, it’s going to turn out differently. Touche. There’s a lot of uncertainty that gets thrown in here, even though those of us who were reading Nate Silver already knew weeks ahead exactly how everything was going to turn out.
Subplot A about a book Sloan donated to a charity auction which someone else signed for her
Subplot B about Mackenzie trying to get changes made to her Wikipedia page. (I’ve been there, girlfriend)
Charlie’s speech about how our elections are the envy of the world. Oh, I feel so patriotic!
Sloan’s “elephant in the room” comment. Awesome.
Oh, and the whole thing about how the lawsuit is going to be filed tomorrow, including a public document airing all of Newsnight’s dirty laundry. We have lots of more fun with the lawyers, with Reese, and a side-lawsuit involving Don.
And then hang on to your butt for the last 5 minutes, as everything potentially blows up.
This was a jam-packed episode. Tightly woven, great writing, funny, serious, wonky, honest, real– and a lot to say seriously about how the media treats politics and politicians.
What’s Bad?
Subplot F about Jim and Maggie and Jim making a mistake of the state abbreviations of Michigan (MI) and Mississippi (MS). Jim is smarter than that. And it seemed forced. And I can’t stand the tension between those two. Grrrrrrr. . .
Also, Taylor Warren. I still hate that sanctimonious, self-righteous attitude when she’s complaining about “liberal media bias” when she is literally rooting for one candidate. It’s just so bizzare but also a good deconstruction of why I hate when conservatives whine about media bias but then all they watch is Fox. And she is just an unpleasant person. As much as Sloan Sabbith is awesome, she is teh suk.
How’s It end?
Charlie yelling, “IMEANWHATTHEF@#$!??!?!?!!!!”
Will going back on the air, conflicted, telling Taylor Warren, “Remember what I said before about my personal politics? Forget it. Take me apart.”
I can’t wait until next week. This was the most amazing buildup and I can’t imagine how great the actual finale will be.