This post is another Guest Clack from Brandon Coulson. Check out his thoughts on last weeks’ The Newsroom here.

This week’s episode of The Newsroom was engaging, funny, and clever. It was one of the most well-balanced episodes of the series and my personal favorite of the season so far. The main focus this week was the continuing drama over a government source’s leak of classified documents and the legal ramifications. There are also  several B plots this week, nicely handled without diverting our focus from the main story.

We also have the continuing story of ACN’s financial woes and Charlie Skinner’s attempts to secure an investor. Said investor is played by another NBC sitcom alum, B.J. Novak, as billionaire and obsessive control freak Lucas Pruitt. While their interaction is brief, it’s fun to see. Pruitt is presented here as a micro manager extraordinaire, and Skinner’s character, not being one to bow to authority, plays off this beautifully. I only hope we get more of this pairing for the rest of the season.

Then for our third NBC cameo of the night we have Paul Lieberstein (The Office’s Toby, and a producer on The Newsroom!) as the acting head of the EPA, Richard Westbrook. Well, sort of acting head … it’s complicated. He has a great scene here as a doom-and-gloom official being interviewed by Will McAvoy. He proposes that the current state of climate change is irreversible and we are all doomed to die horrible, horrible deaths even as Will tries to redirect him to a softer position he holds strongly and is hilarious in his responses. Lieberstein uses the same deadpan delivery that made his character on The Office so fun to watch.

Strange that one of the most enjoyable episodes of The Newsroom is one of the funniest. The show makes a point to be “about” something. Each episode tries to make a statement and quite often it overshadows the character development. While there were still the serious moments you’ve come to expect from the show, the humor was the highlight this week. The exception was one scene when Will McAvoy is being questioned along with his producers and legal counsel by a federal investigator. The scene is a back and forth leading up to a fantastic rant by McAvoy. Definitely the “Sorkin” moment of the episode, this speech actually comes off as natural and doesn’t feel as forced as they usually do.

Aside from a couple of moments, there were great performances and the show seems to be having fun again. If the writers can keep a balance of humorous side stories to counter-balance the heavy themes of their main story the series should be able to end on a very strong note. By streamlining to just a few B plots, possibly focusing on just the Don/Sloan story, the week to week craziness of a newsroom, and dropping the Jim storyline, The Newsroom just might end as strongly as Sorkin fans, myself included, had hoped it would be from day one.

Written by Guest Clacker Brandon Coulson

The Newsroom’s second episode of its third and final season is entitled “Run,” though a more appropriate title might be something along the lines of “the ethical ethics of morality or how we’re so much better than you.” The show continues to be a paradox for me. I find myself loving and hating it from moment to moment, and this episode is a perfect example why. All of the tropes I love from Aaron Sorkin’s past works are here but they feel forced. It’s like he’s doing a bad cover of his own greatest hits, and while I still love the song, the performance leaves much to be desired.

The episode collects several separate plotlines, all focusing on questions of ethics versus legality versus what the right thing to do is; how the news world and the internet/social media age is so focused on what is legal that we’ve forgotten how to distinguish right from wrong. A producer overhears an off-the-record comment in a public space, a colleague gets insider trading from casual conversation without realizing it, a rich heir wants to sell their legacy for cash, and a source has illegally obtained government documents that reveal illegal acts that caused the deaths of innocents.

Sounds like a lot, right? Reading all that you’d probably think this is what happens over an entire season, and for all we know that could end up being true, but at the moment we are only two episodes into this season and only one of those plotlines was introduced in the first episode. This has been a repeating theme for this show: over-cram as much as you possibly can into every episode. There are more life and death decisions, and what they want us to see as edge of your seat drama, in any episode of The Newsroom than there ever was in The West Wing. I find myself rolling my eyes time and time again as a perfect storm of situations hit Will McAvoy and his crew, all ironically having some common theme. No, subtlety is not in Sorkin’s wheelhouse with this show, where The West Wing, Sports Night, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip found drama in the mundane, the day-to-day minutiae of their respective fields. The Newsroom feels like every episode needs to be about giant issues and that everyone involved has to be a pillar of morality. Don’t get me wrong: those other shows had their heavy-handed “big” episodes too, but they also knew how to have fun in their side stories, or how to have an episode now and then that was just about how people’s lives are in these fields that most of the public never get to see. That’s the interesting thing about those older shows: human interaction of great people being people, not great people being better than you or me.

Another area they can’t seem to get just right is a relatable — or more accurately — a likable love story. The first season focused on the will-they-won’t-they Jim and Maggie, or as I call them: not Jim and Pam. I have yet to find one person who watches the show and enjoyed this plotline. Season two threw several couplings together to see what would work: Will McAvoy and his producer/ex Mackenzie McHale (Really? Is she from Mary Poppins with that name?), Sloan and Don (she’s smart and he’s dumb; very original), as well as Jim and a field reporter he comes across who really doesn’t like him. (What? You mean they fall for each other? What a surprise!) These stories all continue into season three and none of them really ever gel. I know they want a repeat of the Josh/Donna relationship from The West Wing, but that was built slowly, methodically, over seven years and they had chemistry. None of the couplings here feels anything but forced.

That all being said, there’s still a lot that brings me back three seasons in a row. The writing, while at times a bit cliché and preachy, still has some fantastic moments. Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston, as Jim McAvoy and Charlie Skinner respectively, are fantastic anytime they are on screen. If I could, I’d cut most of the cast and center the whole show around those two. Also, even though I cited its “better-than-thou” air as a detriment, in small doses it is nice to see a show eloquently encouraging us to be better than average; to be more than just good enough. If the show can cut back on its message of the week, try to have some fun, and give up on the romantic angles, it could go out on a high note. That being said, there are no signs that the rest of this season will be anything different from the rest of the show’s run — a well-intentioned, extremely flawed, but still fun to watch distraction.

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HBO generally produces high quality DVD/Blu-Ray sets. The annual Game of Thrones release could win awards (Are there such things, and if not, why? I found none of particular note in a 30-second Google search). Last year’s release of The Newsroom’s first season was solid, but left me wanting more – not unlike the show, as I am admittedly a huge Aaron Sorkin-nut. The features in the second season set, available this week, were great, but I wanted more.

I’ve got to be honest: I’ve never been able to wrap my head around why it seems to be so difficult to record commentary tracks. Season two comes with four commentaries (compared to the five out of ten in the season one set), recorded with a mix of cast and crew. The participants recorded simultaneously in different locations, causing some interesting scheduling challenges (Aaron Sorkin left midway during one track, Jeff Daniels joined late in another). But as someone who records a weekly Podcast, I do know it isn’t that hard to find an hour to sit in front of a microphone and blather on about any particular subject.

The set also included two deleted scenes, the first of which was much more lengthy than the other. The scene was set up in the premiere, as Sloan and Charlie discussed their upcoming fantasy football draft. The scene in question showed just how seriously Sloan took her job as commissioner. If only she’d taken her research as seriously … Tony Gonzalez as a high first round pick? And Will suggesting Roy Helu, Jr. as an alternative just because he was a Nebraska grad was even worse (Says the Washington Redskins fan).

The set also included something HBO called Instant Preview. If your Blu-Ray player is internet enabled, you can watch the first episodes of several HBO and Cinemax shows: Veep, The Knick and others. I didn’t have a great deal of luck with the app; my attempt to watch the Knick was faced with enough buffering challenges that I moved on to the next feature. It is a good opportunity for folks who just watch HBO series on DVD to take a look at shows that might not have appealed to them otherwise. Considering HBO’s plans to open a streaming service to the public, I doubt they will have an exposure issue anytime soon.

I have skipped over the technical aspects of the set. I am a nerd about many things, but video transfer and audio composition is not one of them. Suffice it to say, the episodes both look and sound great. Content is more my thing; I’m looking the final six episodes of The Newsroom. I wish we were getting more, but Sorkin’s success on The Social Network begat his work on the Steve Jobs biography, and that movie’s inevitable success will likely keep him out of the television business for a long time to come.

This review is based on a complimentary copy, provided to CliqueClack, solely for the purpose of this review.

You know, once upon a time I thought the term “hate-watch” was stupid. Until I understood it all too well. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I first started watching The Newsroom, I hadn’t watched much Aaron Sorkin television, but I thought the promos made the show look interesting. Plus, I had really liked the movies Sorkin had written (A Few Good Men, The Social Network, etc.). So I sat down to see this new show about the news. I must’ve watched that first episode five times. But it was like a beautiful trainwreck; I couldn’t look away. It was the epitome of ridiculousness and pontification, and I found in all the characters varying degrees of smugness and odd characterization. By that I mean that we were often “told not shown,” like characters saying, “Will is a great guy” or Will shouting angrily, “I’m affable!” while his actions were actually selfish or otherwise jerkish. But I liked Don; still do, actually, despite the show’s best efforts to screw up his character.

The weird thing about The Newsroom for me is that I enjoy it in multiple ways. Part of it is the over-the-top “if this was a comedy I’d laugh” parts that are meant to be serious, and then there are the small elements that I legitimately, unironically enjoy. For example, I like the characters of Lisa, Reese, Don, Sloan, Elliot, and Taylor quite a bit — enough so that I can forgive the parts that aren’t written as well. But man, Jim is an arrogant, smug, know-it-all jerk, Maggie is an incompetent monster, Will is a selfish ponce, Mac is suffering from PTSD (hold on, I’ll explain later), Charlie is always drunk and belligerent, and Neal is naive to the point of stupidity. This isn’t to say that the acting is bad — I think everyone is doing their best with material I believe they all think is golden. Jeff Daniels in particular, I think, does an excellent job playing a character I’m supposed to like but actually despise, and I can appreciate the talent it takes to pull that off (I’m serious).

So I just kept watching, and while some episodes were explosively, spectacularly terrible, others were merely boring or wasted characters or plots I liked. They always gave me something to talk about at the proverbial water cooler (which in this case was a water pitcher). As a matter of full disclosure, I often found that I agreed with some of the positions, but I thought that the show consistently violated the stated maxim to “present the best sides of each argument” instead doing something like this:

Will: So Mister Strawman Argument McRedNeck, I understand you believe the moon is made from green cheese?

Pundit: Yes, I do think that.

Will: Of course, studies have shown you are wrong and I am right. Now tell me more so I can continue to berate you.

So yeah, I don’t think the moon is really made of green cheese, but Will just comes off kinda … like an arrogant toerag. In fairness, the show sometimes addresses this, like the lamp-shading in this season finale when Taylor asks Will if he’s only calling himself a Republican so he can attack Republicans, or “fake Republicans” as he says. He then proceeds to pontificate some more, saying that being Republican nowadays means he apparently needs to be homophobic and education-phobic. That position is a vast oversimplification of the political landscape. It is certainly true that many pundits and politicians push certain agendas to keep people ignorant and afraid, but to assert that this excuses Will’s biased attacks is just invalid. It is also true (in my experience) that there tend to be more “crazy” statements from the Republican side of things in sheer numbers, but the percentages of serious corruption aren’t exactly much different. Instead, this sort of story seems less like “the news” and more like “let’s get ratings.” If it was played that way (realistically), I’d buy into it, especially if it was presented in a way where Will had a problem with reconciling his desire for being liked and ratings with his desire to be a serious newsman. But no, it’s just all played like everything they report is news and vitally important. Let’s be honest here: it isn’t. I like The Daily Show as much as anyone, but I think they actually do a better job of shining a light on less “pop” issues (like the controversies with the first responders).

The second season was a mess. What about those cliffhangers from the first season — so is Will’s life no longer in danger? I admit that the hacker subplot was stupid, but I’m surprised it was dropped in favor of even more Mac and Will drama. That said, there were improvements towards making The Newsroom a “good” (not enjoyably bad) show. More competence in general, less focus on the “ripped from the headlines” retroactive correction, not as much sexism. Of course, there was still plenty of sexism. And of course, the racism, by which I mean the insidious sort of “white woman’s guilt” nonsense that isn’t actually progressive at all. Maggie’s hair cutting escapade ended with a “meh” instead of the “whoa!” which was promised. If I had written the storyline, I wouldn’t cut her hair for one. But the real problem is that the resolution is just another push at the nonsensical “Jim and Maggie” pairing. That’s not an interesting way to go. Of course, Sorkin always teases me with his ideas of better shows.

The one where Jim is working with Taylor and ends up being attracted to her while always disagreeing with her, or where Mac and Will have left the show, leaving the less annoying characters to do the news. News Night with Elliot, produced by Don with a later Sloan show is intriguing to me. I also legitimately enjoy the Don and Sloan pairing, which gave the season finale the best 120 seconds by far starting with Sloan discovering the book and then Don giving a killer line. Conversely, there was the terrible running joke about Sloan getting interrupted, which might be funny if it wasn’t played so straight for so long it actually seemed just mean (and slightly sexist). I also like the little hints of a vicious and jealous DC ACN group, itching to take down the big dogs. If there is a third season, I’d want to see more of that. But as for this one … it didn’t end well.

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The first season of Aaron Sorkin’s latest show The Newsroom saw quite a bit of criticism. Critics called it smug and self-serving, pointing to the characterization of females, cherry-picking real news from the recent past and Sorkin’s tendency to preach to the audience as some of the many problems they had with the show. Despite the criticism, HBO picked up the series for a second season that premiered this week.

Audiences expecting massive changes in the second season of The Newsroom are going to be more than a little disappointed. If you shared the same concerns that other learned critics had with the show last year, then you’ll find this year just as grating as last. But for those – like myself – who were fans of the first go-round, then you are going to enjoy the second season.

The show largely – though not completely – dispatches with last season’s main arc and embraces one that is even larger in scope — and political implications. We learn in the first episode that News Night reported a story implicating elements of the United States military with the use of chemical weapons against civilians during a black-op codenamed Genoa. The whole season is framed, with the bulk of the story told as a flashback while including AWM’s attorney, played by Marcia Gay Harden, deposing members of the News Night staff about the story, which apparently will be revealed to have been false.

As much as I liked the first season, it wasn’t without flaws. The Newsroom definitely excels when the romantic entanglements of the cast take a backseat to everything else. Unfortunately, the story is still mired down with the Jim and Maggie relationship. As much as I like both Alison Pill and John Gallagher Jr., the two characters don’t have a great deal of chemistry (Unlike Sloan and Don; but more on that later). And while Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer do have great chemistry, it works better in the context of their professional relationship rather than their personal one.

I really enjoyed Olivia Munn’s Sloan Sabbith in the first season. More than anyone in the cast, Munn found her voice in Sorkin’s fast-paced writing style. Sloan continues to come into her own in the second season; she’s given more responsibility, including co-anchoring the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11 coverage. And her potential relationship with Don, hinted at towards the end of last a season, still bubbles in the background. It’s the only relationship I’d actually like to see explored on the show.

But, again, the problems that many had with the show last season are still there. Will McAvoy is still an insufferable jerk — though nobody ever seems to complain when Don Draper acts similarly. The news is still — for the most part, Genoa being the exception — cherry-picked from the recent past. Sorkin is still too preachy (the much-publicized addition of conservative political advisors to the writer’s room had no real impact to the show’s tone). I’m nowhere near qualified to weigh in on the perception of the poorly written women, but I’ve always held that all of the characters on The Newsroom are extremely flawed: I remember Will rolling on the floor trying to pull on his pants last season, and Don has a moment in the first four episodes involving an office chair where he comes across just as silly.

The Newsroom is far from a perfect show. It is not Sports Night and it is certainly no West Wing. But it is much better than it is has been given credit for. In a world where audiences aren’t smart enough to find the brilliance in ABC Family’s Bunheads, at least HBO was willing to take a chance on another season of a show for fans of the fast-talking, quick-witted, smarter-than-they-should-be heroes.

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Aaron Sorkin’s latest show The Newsroom had a pretty interesting first season. I thought the show was absolutely brilliant: the writing, the performances, the production quality … everything was reminiscing of the best of Sorkin’s previous work in The West Wing. Despite my enthusiasm, most critics didn’t seem to take to it. There was criticism ranging from how the writers handled the female characters to how the show set itself in the near past as it allows the characters to be right all the time.

The DVDs and Blu-ray discs of The Newsroom’s first season (set to be released on June 11^th, $59.99 for the DVDs, $79.98 for the Blu-ray with HBO Select) follow in the tradition of great sets produced by HBO in recent memory – the Game of Thrones sets are some of the best in my collection. While not nearly as expansive as GoT – though I’m sure if you could find subject matter that they could produce animated histories of, I’m sure they would tackle it – the set provides a great behind-the-scenes look at the behind-the-scenes show. The Blu-ray set also includes – under the HBO Select brand – regular DVDs and digital downloads of all of the episodes.

The features included Director’s Commentaries on 5 episodes (“We Just Decided To,” “The 112^th Congress,” “I’ll Try To Fix You,” “Bullies” and “The Greater Fool”) and provided some interesting insight to the production. Aaron Sorkin and the other producers took on some of the show’s criticisms: the reason why the show is set in the past is that Sorkin wanted to avoid “making up” the news while laughing off the idea that his female characters are written to look foolish – he wrote Jeff Daniels rolling around on the floor trying to pull his pants on.

A great deal of time was spent on the technical achievement that the show is. The discs include “Mission Control,” a featurette about how the set was conceived and designed. The control room that the producers use to manage the show’s control room is nearly as high-tech as its counterpart. I was particularly impressed by the production’s ability – and eagerness – to film Jeff Daniels in the studio, Emily Mortimer and the crew in the control and the “by-satellite” guests simultaneously for authenticity’s sake.

If you’re a fan of The Newsroom, put these sets on your list. The audio and visual transfer is great and the features – which also include a roundtable with members of the cast and production team, along with deleted scenes and episode summaries – provide interesting background that you’ll appreciate. If you’re not one of those people, then I don’t imagine you’re still reading.

This review is based on a complimentary copy, provided to CliqueClack, solely for the purpose of this review.

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