Tonight’s episode begins with a Will McAvoy commentary on the Republican presidential debate where an openly gay soldier asks the candidates if they will go back to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or other policies, whereupon he was booed by the audience. The commentary is incisive, pointed and calls the pack of GOP candidates “witless bullies and hapless punks.” Memo received: The Newsroom is back.
I’ve complained the last two weeks about the lack of pointed commentary, but we begin to get it, and in spades, in this episode. McAvoy continues his “mission to civilize” calling for people to just be a little bit kinder to one another. This culminates in a lunch with gossip columnist Nina Howard where the pianist plays “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love.” And, in a phrase that cut me to the quick, he pointed out:
“Snark is the idiot’s version of wit.”
Aw, hell. Without snark, I have. . . basically nothing.
In other plots, Jim continues to try to do actual journalism with the Romney campaign in New Hampshire and continues to be rebuffed. The team continues to try to track down the details on the possible use of sarin gas in Afghanistan. We get some great fodder for all the Don x Sloan slashfic that I know is being written and some great slapstick with his office chair. Maggie gets ready for Africa. And we finally get the takedown of Occupy Wall St that has been simmering for two episodes.
In fact we get a lot of things that have been simmering for several episodes. And we get left with a cliffhanger.
All in all, this was satisfying. It moved along the plot and characters and also gave us some of that Sorkin dialogue that is unmistakable.
This is a marked improvement over the past two episodes and reminded me why I fell in love with this show.
See you next week.