The Newsroom is easily the worst of Sorkin's offerings. It is a muddle of contrivances and contradictions and by its end, I not only despised most of its characters, its aftertaste impacted my enjoyment of its actors in other projects. The only actor that comes through it unscathed is Sam Waterston who is terrific throughout, he being its saving grace.
The conceit of using real life events possibly could have worked but it ends up being odd and oddly sensationalist. The sense of self-importance of the Newsnight staff, Sorkin's proxy, is both stultifying and absurd and the 'relationship dramas' are endless and endlessly embarrassing. Nearly everything feels contrived. Purporting McAvoy to be a Republican, to the viewer, reads as the height of disingenuousness.
The moments of 'goodness' are lost in all the muddle.
The story arcs of each season are poor and poorly resolved, particularly the 2nd season, and arguably leave the viewer questioning the worth of Newsnight and its staff and the rest of the plotting is bogged down by the nonsensical relationship drama. David Harbour and Marcia Gay Harden do admirably jobs with thankless roles but other secondary characters are largely worthless and underdeveloped.
The main cast of characters are universally awful, though Dev Patel infuses the dud character of Neal with a hint of his charm, and Jeff Daniels has the odd good moment with his psychiatrist played by David Krumholtz. The female characters as a rule are awfully written.
As a non-American the jingoistic patter can at times be stomach-churning. I consider the Bin Laden episode in the 1st season likely the worst episode of TV I have ever watched - an abomination to sit through - but lesser flaws are in abundance from start to finish.
I'm sure many may be able to overlook its many flaws but for me, it is a case of endless missed opportunities and squandered potential and in its execution, can be found a total absence of self-awareness. At best, its rating should be struggling to break a 7.
The conceit of using real life events possibly could have worked but it ends up being odd and oddly sensationalist. The sense of self-importance of the Newsnight staff, Sorkin's proxy, is both stultifying and absurd and the 'relationship dramas' are endless and endlessly embarrassing. Nearly everything feels contrived. Purporting McAvoy to be a Republican, to the viewer, reads as the height of disingenuousness.
The moments of 'goodness' are lost in all the muddle.
The story arcs of each season are poor and poorly resolved, particularly the 2nd season, and arguably leave the viewer questioning the worth of Newsnight and its staff and the rest of the plotting is bogged down by the nonsensical relationship drama. David Harbour and Marcia Gay Harden do admirably jobs with thankless roles but other secondary characters are largely worthless and underdeveloped.
The main cast of characters are universally awful, though Dev Patel infuses the dud character of Neal with a hint of his charm, and Jeff Daniels has the odd good moment with his psychiatrist played by David Krumholtz. The female characters as a rule are awfully written.
As a non-American the jingoistic patter can at times be stomach-churning. I consider the Bin Laden episode in the 1st season likely the worst episode of TV I have ever watched - an abomination to sit through - but lesser flaws are in abundance from start to finish.
I'm sure many may be able to overlook its many flaws but for me, it is a case of endless missed opportunities and squandered potential and in its execution, can be found a total absence of self-awareness. At best, its rating should be struggling to break a 7.
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