Being massive fans of both The West Wing and Studio 60
on the Sunset Strip, to say we were excited about Sorkin’s new series The Newsroom was an understatement.
The Newsroom, a show based on the behind the scenes events
of a fictitious US cable news channel starts with Jeff Daniel’s character, Will
McAvoy, the unstable news anchor being asked why he thinks America is the
greatest country in the world. After trying to avoid the question with bland
answers he finally cracks and goes into a rant about how America isn’t the
greatest country in the world. This controversial outburst causes his Executive
Producer and the majority of his team to jump ship, along with much media attention.
McAvoy’s boss hires in Mackenzie as the shows new EP, a
former girlfriend of McAvoy which instantly causes friction, division and an
interesting dynamic which although at first felt very forced and highly
unbelievable it seemed to bring an additional element of interest to the show,
and the writing and script somehow seemed to make it work.
As you would expect Sorkin brings his political side to this
show and from some quarters he has been criticised for doing so, but for us it
just makes it a more enjoyable watch.
As with The West Wing and Studio 60, The Newsroom is well
written with a lot of dialogue, although the constant shouting in the first
half of the show was over the top and a bit uncomfortable to watch. As with all
pilot episodes there was a lot of scene setting and character introductions and
the longer we watched the more we enjoyed it.
The Newsroom didn’t have the quality of The West Wing but we
spent the whole episode wanting to know what happens next and we can’t wait for
the second episode. Although we have seen mixed reviews we are really looking forward
to seeing how it develops and we hope we won’t be disappointed.
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