newsroom

Admittedly, I'm late to the party. Newsroom has been getting a lot of acclaim from critics and fans alike, and yet it was only last night I saw my first episode.  I love much of Aaron Sorkin's, work (the West Wing is one of my top 10 favorite shows of all time), but after watching the pitiful Studio 66 on the Sunset Strip and re-watching SportsNight about a year ago only to find that it did not hold up, I was afraid my love for Aaron Sorkin might be forever tarnished if Newsroom fell flat.Would it meet and exceed the perfection of The West Wing? Or, would Sorkin revert to his SportsNight laziness?  I feared the worst. I resisted the show. I didn't have HBO.  So, I'm late to the party.

Whoa, did she just say SportsNight  was lazy and did not hold up?  Why, yes, I did. I love everyone on that show, but when I re-watched it, I noticed a huge problem:  any of the rousing speeches spoken in the show could have been said by any character at any time. These speeches were never written in the voice of the characters who said them. It was almost as if when a speech full of righteous indignation was written, the character to say it was picked out of a hat.  Perhaps I'm being overly harsh, but I challenge you to watch SportsNight marathon style and not agree with me.

With the West Wing, Sorkin had fixed this problem.  Yes, at one time or another all the main characters gave their best shot at leaving their opponents speechless, but they all did so in their own way, using the tone, humor, language of that character's personality.

My verdict: I love Newsroom. It certainly doesn't hit West Wing perfection (a tall order), but it does seem to be the show that SportsNight should have been. The characters are all developed, and when they get mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore, they do so in a way that make sense.

Newsroom is a win in my book. I love it!