The Newsroom: Sorkin's HBO Joint

ok this bugged me enough that i double checked. the tape came out after the first national stories, but before this was a serious news story nonetheless.

and add wikipedia to the list of things this show tries to be clever about but doesn't understand.

Lol yeah. I don't know if the show has improved significantly or if I've just gotten better at honing in on the 2 or 3 incredibly well written/performed scenes in each episode and tolerating the rest.

this show was weird

i just, remember how well set up "you're wearing my shirt" was? and think about how ploddingly this spent an hour dropping hints for mcmac to realise that the film was doctored? something that was not a great reveal in the first place because in the previous episode we saw the film get doctored? i don't understand what decision-making process made that happen!!

haha yeah. sometimes i feel like they just don't know how to pace an hourlong show and would be better off with shorter eps.

wait what

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Bryan Cranston as Walter White
Breaking Bad • AMC

Hugh Bonneville as Robert, Earl of Grantham
Downton Abbey • PBS

Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody
Homeland • Showtime

Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood
House Of Cards • Netflix

Jon Hamm as Don Draper
Mad Men • AMC

Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy — WINNER
The Newsroom • HBO

bullshit

That is kind of stunning.

I would have been more annoyed with Spacey winning, though. Daniels is at least engaging on a basic level.

Daniels scenes are the worst part of every episode imo. I feel like he's so tight-lipped and restrained, in playing a character that's cantankerous to begin with, that it's just kind of hard to invest in as a lead character. Especially given that he's supposed to be this big charismatic TV personality.

eh, it is a better performance than the two i have seen and two of the ones i haven't

i didnt finish season 1 of newsroom but daniels seemed like the best thing abt it to me

i could sorta see the criticism of his performance just being two modes, like swashbuckling & strident daniels vs tight-lipped glowering daniels.

i feel like i probably had some things to say about this show having diligently watched it to the end but i don't, i don't think. it still constantly feels like a missed opportunity, like one person speaking up in some kind of production meeting to say aaron it isn't the nineties anymore could have saved a lot of trouble. my least favourite thing is the constant model of a guy surpassing somebody's expectations with a supreme gesture. you teach a class? LET ME AUDIT THAT CLASS. you sold a book? I'LL BUY IT FOR $1000.

lol

so how the OWS plot petered out is interesting, like, here is a thing where they could have been Meaningfully Wrong but instead will gets to Be Right twice.

also weird ... lacunae? in the genoa stuff. like, the opposite of the tiresome and pettifogging setup for mac realising the tape is edited is how we don't see her interview with the witness she's leading until she realises she's wrong. also, someone excised the plot detail about who will's source for it was. -- like haha i thought for a moment they were going to go for leaving it ambiguous and that ~maybe they were right all along~ but, no ..

also the way people said 'new media' a lot

which is worse T/S: Daniels beating Hamm/Cranston/Lewis vs. Parsons beating C.K.

u know it's just the Emmys, rite?

Thus spake ILX's own Will McAvoy.

yeah that's me, spouting phoney-baloney neoliberal pap

jim parsons is a better actor than louis ck, makes sense that he would win more awards than him for acting

That's true. I keep forgetting how much an actor CK is not.

so is this shit off the air yet or not

probably was until last night tbh

so is this shit off the air yet or not

Renewed today for third/final season...

hypppped

yeahhhh!!!!!!!!!!

man i can't even remember the second series

straight fire

the world trade center of course involved both thousands of people and iconic buildings

Is this still on? Do people watch it?

fuck you man

another wonderful season is in bloom, you're in or you're out, no haters in this thread

why would the news not be on her bloomberg terminal. bloomberg terminals have newsfeeds

also nobody buys a terminal machine anymore you just use a normal machine and install the software and maybe buy the special keyboard

i want the newsroom to give a hot take on gamergate

have never seen this. whenever i hear Sorkin's dialogue i think blanket hatred of my generation is thoroughly justified.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/jeff-daniels-newsroom-dumb-and-dumber.html

I think Morbs is probably right. Why do I like this show? I hate almost every character and it is really just so bad in places.

terrible show, a+

Yep, they are really hitting all of my love/hate buttons. Kat Dennings walks onscreen in yesterday's episode and I was like OK this is being written specifically to fuck with me. That was some all-star 'OMG seriously this show is the worst/I can't wait for next week's episode!!' casting.

so i finally watched all of this, all fast at once the other day

kind of not feeling it enough to say anything about it, not sure it merited it - it was enjoyable enough but minor, nothing new to add even to the sorkin canon. a recovery from the worst problems of studio 60, but not really much insight into the news specifically or any of its character(-types). schlump otm re alison pill tho <3.

been thinking though that a better approach to understanding ~~~the essence of sorkinism~~~ is probably in terms of time. specifically, the question of what he can/can't do with his usual combination of structures. and why combine *those*. the just-in-time success plot, the therapeutic admission plot, the unapologetic deposition plot, the 'bad timing' and past-he-can't-get-past romantic plots.

"everybody at my work does"

some very nice rat-a-tat dialogue in this ep.

are sorkin, mamet, and rhimes the only distinct television writerly voices?

maybe in comedy Caspe of happy endings/marry me, and even i guess Chuck Lorre?

milch, whedon, i dunno i would not be surprised if david e kelley shows had a 'voice'. i haven't watched enough of them but i kind of recall one. bochco?

i don't know how localized the responsibility for it is but whenever abrams-related shows from alias onward put interpersonal-relationship-dialogue in their characters' mouths, i feel like there's a characteristic blankness to it.

dunno if i can recognize milch, whedon, kelley voice scene to scene in the writing itself. in the storyline, sure.

sorkin, mamet and rhimes all have a moment-to-moment rhythm, a distinct feel for beats, crescendos, pauses.

I've caught a few eps of this without knowing what it was- every one of them seems to end with Jeff Daniels blowing up at somebody/everybody and quitting, while Sam Waterston gently smiling and looking like he's about to pass out. The dialogue is so full of shit I keep thinking it's supposed to be a comedy but apparently not.

i love the sync in the opening credits between this big ostentatious orchestral drum roll & a sharp cut into explosion footage

hahahaha now that was the revolting Newsroom I remember

i think a cool newsroom finale would be jeff daniels blowing himself up to prove a point of some kind