The first scene of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom kicks audiences into a scenario where the main character, an anchor named Will McAvoy, tears apart a college sophomore and gives his unpopular opinion that America (to be perfectly honest) “isn’t the greatest country in the world.” Whew.

As if there wasn’t enough drama in real-life politics and newsroom day-to-days, Sorkin has infused them with a quippy spartan wit and enough quickly generated facts to put an Occupy protester into informational shock. The Newsroom is sharp, informative, and tipped with venom. It’s the news, and it’s giving us the facts.

Watching recent major headlines being treated as blips on a news radar proved to be a refreshingly hind-sighted view at how the story unfolded in the newsroom. Finding the drama behind the newsrooms that have invaded our homes for decades proved to be an eye-opening escapade. In journalism, getting the story first is of unimaginable importance and much of the climax of this first episode laid in calling an out-of-control tragedy before anyone else did. It’s bittersweet in that sense, but so is the news.

Although some scenes took a little time off of the task at hand to focus on personal issues between the news-people, we trust Aaron Sorkin with every character line and we know that we’re about to watch these budding storylines blossom into gargantuan gestures. It was only during these moments that the pacing of the show tapped the brakes, but setting up relationships in a brand new story is bound to seem strange and foreign at first.

As for the jargonistic dialogue that we’re only oh-so-familiar with from Sorkin’s past work, we find that entering the newsroom is as comprehensible as it possibly could be. Since the events at hand were things that everyone experienced as a world audience, they can garner interest enough in gazing into the backstage of a news cast. If anything, the jargon is more relatable than any subject we’ve seen so far from the master of awesome professions.

The politics of the show are closely examined and pulsing at the surface. We can only imagine the type of stage that Will McAvoy’s politics will set, especially since the first scene of the entire series decided to treat us with an unpredictable “America isn’t the best” speech. This first episode took place in 2010. Just imagine what he would be saying about us now in 2012. More than likely, we’ll find out in two years.

We can see the beginning of a very impactful and emotional series in its infancy here and the sheer power behind the words being spoken and the inherent interest in world events should keep people watching even if they need to educate themselves a little in order to do it.