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Author Topic: The Newsroom  (Read 5418 times)

Clovis8

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The Newsroom
« on: June 25, 2012, 08:29:21 PM »
I was getting worried by the reviews but I loved the premier completely. It was West Wing is every way which is to say it was the smartest and best writing on TV. Sure there is some wish fulfillment and fantasy but its TV after all, not a documentary. I thought it was beautifully paced and I literally cheered several times.

Fly is right though, the only failing were the musical cues.

 

FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2012, 10:08:45 PM »
Just to record the thoughts in someplace more permanent...

A few brief thoughts on The Newsroom.

1. Cool seeing Pill. I know a lot of people liked her in SPvtW, but I didn't think she had much to do. Cool seeing her do more here.

2. Glad to see that Mottola (a guy a like) was charged with setting the aesthetic for the series. At times I felt like he was being too generic in what seems to be his first non-Adventureland steps in to drama, but the scene where they were putting together the BP story was great.

3. The musical cues were really bad.

4. Seems like a lot of the relationship dynamics are incredibly generic, so I hope that they put interesting spins on them or branch off in interesting directions. Or perhaps not focus on them as much as the news making process.

5. Both Will and Mackenzie are played by people I have seen multiple times before but can't remember them in those other roles for the life of me. Specifically I have seen a ton of the work that Mortimer is, but I am blanking completely on any of her characters.

6. So do we assume one of these characters is a mouthpiece for Sorkin, or is that irrelevant? Regardless, I found myself in 100% agreement with Will's breakdown speech at the very beginning that got him in trouble (even with the musical cues ruining the end). So maybe that makes me a bad person or something. I love the USA.

7. I'll probably watch the rest of the season, also glad to see Munn not in (or marginalized since I think she was news reporting in the background at one point) this episode. That should be a trend.

I'll ponder it more, maybe.

EDIT: 8. I haven't watched any episodes of House, but for some reason Will seems to remind me of what I have heard/imagine Dr. House to be like on that show.

Bondo

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2012, 08:43:47 AM »
Ugh, this show is painful. None of the characters sold their big moments for me and there were a lot of big moments. It just seemed to lack the usual rhythm of Sorkin's writing.

As to the opening speech, I certainly agree with the idea that America isn't the greatest and that thinking it is holds us back, but his idea that the young generation is crappy and it's somehow our fault and that his generation did it right is such bunk. It's the silent generation and boomers that screwed everything up, not the newly minted adults who have absolutely no power or influence over society.

The show does get better once they're actually doing news things and not overwrought personal drama.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2012, 09:15:59 AM by Bondo »

mañana

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2012, 01:04:25 PM »
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

1SO

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2012, 01:49:36 PM »
He's really quite something ...and you know it.

MartinTeller

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2012, 01:57:16 PM »
Heh.

That's pretty awesome.  And you know it.  Ya think?

I actually never watched West Wing and have seen maybe 10 minutes of Sports Night, but I got burned on Studio 60.  Lordy, did I grow to hate that show.  So I get a lot of pleasure anytime someone takes Sorkin down a peg.

I did like Social Network, though.  And Moneyball.

StudentOFilm

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2012, 12:18:15 AM »
I happen to like Sorkening.

Sorkening- A play/film/tv show about someone's rise and fall while having an office romance as he/she faces an evil corporate person but is at least anchored by a dependable father figure and may or may not say they are conservative but are really liberal or maybe they are liberal but they are really conservative and oh lordy lordy are there a ton of white people who lambast social media like the internet and have alliterative names as they are either walking and talking or standing still in which case if they do speak while standing still it will be for about a solid five minutes.
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mañana

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2012, 08:25:46 AM »
That was Jesse Eisenberg on the phone, right?
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mousterpiece

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2012, 12:03:05 PM »
Yes.
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mañana

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Re: The Newsroom
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2012, 12:35:58 PM »
It’s not Studio 60 bad or anything, but I thought the premiere was pretty ridiculous. As a critique of news media it was pretty stupid - the way the reporting of the BP spill unfolded was unbelievably silly – which is kind of a problem when so much of the dialogue between Mortimer and Daniels is centered on the state of news. Nonetheless, I’ll be back next week because I have a weak spot for Sorkinland nonsense. So far it's not a Studio 60 hate-watch, it's corny in a Sports Night kind of way, which was watchable but pretty overrated, I always thought.

The closing bit with Mortimer and Daniels at the elevator definitely felt like a mid-90s network drama my parents would have watched.
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

 

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