Let me preface this by saying I could not be a bigger Aaron Sorkin fan if I tried. I trust the man who brought us The West Wing, Sports Night, won an Academy award for The Social Network, and many other films like A Few Good Men and Moneyball – and so does most of the audience.
When people see the name of an Academy Award-winning screenwriter attached to a project, they pay attention. I have seen everything he’s written, most of it several times over, and because of that I feel somewhat qualified to talk about his newest endeavor, The Newsroom.
So finally, was I satisfied with The Newroom? Yes and no.
Every bit of dialogue spoken by the characters was on-the-dot Aaron Sorkin — The Newsroom is Andrew Sorkin. It reeks of shining-eyed romanticized liberalism and chock full of lofty dialogue spoken by idealistic characters who strive for the betterment of the world; Sorkin’s familiar formula as featured in West Wing and Sports Night. While I typically love Sorkin for this type of style, I found the dialogue-heavy nature of this liberal drama a little off-putting.
However, I stayed for the entire pilot and I was glad I did. The show really picked up in its second half; the audience finally experienced the excitement of the newsroom that we were promised by the myriad of trailers that has been plastered all over the internet in the last few months. Jeff Daniels’ Will McAvoy was introduced to be the jerk boss that we love to hate, but who really stole the show for me was Emily Mortimer’s Mackenzie MacHale. Mortimer delivered Sorkin’s lines perfectly. Daniels delivered his with a snarky bite, but Mortimer came off as the idealistic liberal she was born to be.
In a pleasantly surprising turn of events, The Newsroom dealt with the news of the recent past, April 2012, rather than come up with its own fictitious news. Another criticism the show has been receiving is that News Night is just a little too good at delivering breaking news; McAvoy is too good of an anchor. He flawlessly delivered an off-the-cuff breaking news story and the critics were just not having it. But that’s when the viewer has to step back and remember this is Sorkin we’re dealing with. The show is meant to be an ideal of the liberal media.
When it comes down to it, I enjoyed the pilot. I have my complaints because I expect nothing but greatness from my favorite screenwriter, but I can’t deny that I actually enjoyed The Newsroom, no matter how many criticisms I come up with. Sorkin included some smart dialogue in between infodumps and it was held up by a strong cast. What the show lacks in surprises it makes up for two-fold in the talented cast put together by Francine Maisler.
I give Sorkin’s new drama a 7/10, but I remind myself that it is just the pilot and Sorkin has never disappointed before. Let’s hope he can keep that streak going.
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