Thursday, October 18, 2012

TV review - "The Newsroom" (2012) ***1/2

Even really bad Aaron Sorkin is entertaining  - it's always so easy to listen to, but this had a lot of flaws such as:
- at times it was a blog rather than a drama
- the goodies never took on the Democrats or anyone progressive at all
- the goodies seemed more interested in doing op ed pieces than reporting news
- the characters were grossly unprofessional at work, having massive arguments in front of people, constantly bringing up their love lives
- the black characters felt the need to bring up they were black and discuss Barak Obama because that's what black people do
- there were two English characters which was one too many (constantly calling MacKenzie American doesn't make her American when she talks in an English accent)
- the segues were shocking (e.g. "Tea party, tea party, is my girlfriend falling out of love with me")
- it glorifies smoking
- swearing does not improve Aaron Sorkin's writing
- Jeff Daniels is not and never will become Spencer Tracy and Emily Mortimer is not and never will become Katherine Hepburn
- continually referring to Jeff Daniels' character as republican when he plainly isn't in the slightest
- Jeff Daniels is playing a fantasy Aaron Sorkin self idealised pictured self (smoking, bad personal relationships, brilliantly tormented, adored by his staff, brave, a wordsmith)

It was like a musical where the book it patchy but the songs were great. On the sunny side, there is some terrific acting - Olivia Munn is a revelation, I liked the two young guys from the New York stage, some of it's wonderful. But it's a bit of a mess.

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