The Newsroom #306 "What Kind of Day Has It Been"

The final word for "The Newsroom"

by Catherine Giordano

"The Muddle"

At last, The Newsroom, is over. It ended, as it began, in a muddle .Actually, it literally ended as it began, with numerous flashbacks to the first episode and prequel segments showing how the team all got together.

I was so tired of this show. I know you were too. My reviews for Season 3 got far fewer views that my reviews for the first two seasons. Elsewhere on the web, I saw the term “hate-watching” used in reference to this show. It is an actual word that appears in The Urban Dictionary. It means to watch a show that you hate precisely because you hate it.  I think this series survived on hate-watchers, although I will admit, some people apparently liked the show. 

The unlikely plot of this final episode centered on the return of ACN to its former glory. The former owner, Leona, meets with the new owner, Pruitt, at Charlie’s funeral, and convinces him to endeavor to be the best news channel on TV instead of the most profitable channel or the channel with the highest ratings. (Yeah, that is going to happen—never in the real world, but The Newsroom was always about an idealized world.)  

Pruitt takes Leona’s advice and makes MacKenzee the president, replacing Charlie (who had a heart attack on the floor of the newsroom and died in the episode #305). (See my review and recap, “Til Death Do Us Part”).By the way, if you were sad about not seeing Charlie anymore, not to worry-- with the flashbacks, he was a dominant force on the final episode.  Also, it is revealed that Charlie was not enraged that everyone on his staff was deliberately disobeying his orders; his wife tells us that he secretly wanted everyone to disobey his orders. He was only putting on a show for Pruitt. So no one had to feel guilty that their insubordination got Charlie so angry that he had a heart attack.  

Neal is back. He just shows up in the Newsroom and takes over the ACN website. He tells the insufferable Bree to shut the whole thing down. The entire website is going to be revamped and restored to its former glory.  

Mackenzie is pregnant, having conceived the night before Will went to prison. Will is all aflutter with the news that he is going to be a father. Seriously, he was in dire need of a fainting couch.  

We are not given any finality about Jim and Maggie. Jim is Maggie’s boss, and he recommended her for a job as a field producer in DC. If she gets it, she and Jim will embark on a long distance relationship which will work out because Jim loves Maggie. Don is Sloan’s boss, and indications are that their affair will continue as well. None of them has any qualms about the boss dating his subordinate, and none of them seemed to have learned anything from the Jim-Hallie breakup about the dangers of love affairs with the people you work with even if it is only because you work in the same industry. 

The emotional high point of the episode is when Will, while at the funeral gathering at Charlie’s house wanders over to the garage and sits in with Charlie’s grandson’s band. Is Will a news anchor who plays country music on the side? No. Will tells us he is a musician who does news anchoring on the side. (Funny, this is the first we have heard of Will’s interest in playing and singing country music.)  

It’s a real nice song called “How I Got to Memphis. It’s about going home to Memphis. It’s a metaphor. It is supposed to symbolize how all the characters got to where they are from where they were at the beginning of the series. It is even explicitly stated that “Memphis” can be any place where you feel at home. 

 

Watch the video "How I Got to Memphis"

The problem with “The Newsroom” is that it never knew where its home was.  Was it serious drama about a TV newsroom giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the TV news industry? That is a good show. I would have love-watched it. Was it a situation comedy about the high-jinks and mishaps of the Newsroom cast of characters (like Night Court  was for the courtroom or Scrubs was for the hospital)? That is a good show. I would have love-watched that.  Was it just a platform to presenting ideas about politics? That is a good show. I would have love-watched that. 

The Newsroom, however tried to be all three of these shows at once.  As a consequence, it was a muddle.

 

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The Newsroom #305 "Oh Shenandoah" 12/07/14

by Catherine Giordano


Sam Waterson as Charlie Skinner

“Til Death Do Us Part”

As HBO’s The Newsroom heads for that big newsroom in the sky, death is stalking the halls of ACN as the penultimate show, episode 5 of season 3, plays out. I don’t see any reason for the name of this episode except to remind us of the haunting words and music of the song by the same name. “Oh Shenandoah, I’m bound to leave you.” It’s a song of loss and pain.

Will McAvoy has lost 52 days of his life in his solitary jail cell, confined because he has refused to name the source who stole classified documents. Will is all alone except for a wise-ass wife-beater cellmate with very politically incorrect opinions. It turns out, the cellmate was just a hallucination of Will’s; a hallucination impersonating his father. It’s all the more spooky when the cellmate threatens Will with bodily harm, and Will stands up to him and points out he’s taller and stronger and not a woman who you can push around. This harkens back to a scene early in Season 1: Will’s father has died and Will doesn’t want to go to the funeral. So it’s a father-son reunion in that jail cell as Will deals with his dead father.

Will gets released from prison since the judge has become convinced that Will won't reveal the source. It turns out the source, Lily Hart, is dead. She committed suicide in a dramatic and public way on the steps of the capitol to prove something or other. I’m not really sure, but I think she died for the sake of the plot. Despite the source being dead neither Will nor Mac (and presumably Neal who is still in Venezuela) will give up her name. So noble! But also, they are off the hook for protecting the identity of a terrorist who might be a threat to America.

The leaking of secret documents in the fictional show plays off the actions of the real-life leaker of documents, Edward Snowden. Jim and Maggie are in a Russian airport trying to get on the plane that everyone believes will take Snowden to Cuba. They finagle their way on to the plane, only to learn that they are going to Cuba and Snowden is not. Maggie makes Jim change his seat because she can’t bear to sit with him, but the boring monotony of the long plane ride has a weird effect on her. She decides she loves him after all. They may well follow Will and Mac down the aisle to “until-death-do-us-part” land. The plotline is nicely tied up. 

Meanwhile back at the newsroom, Don has been ordered to find the identity of a co-ed who claims to have been raped by a BMOC. She can’t get justice, so she has started a website where women who have been raped can name their accusers. Pruitt wants Don to find the woman and convince her to go on air with the man she has accused for a bit of a slug fest. It will be great TV, and the woman wants to do it. She thinks she can bring down the rapist. Don tries to talk her out of it saying this will ruin her life. She will be slut-shamed and worse. The woman still wants to do it to bring attention to the issue of women being raped on college campuses. Don refuses and goes back to the newsroom and says he couldn’t find her. Another close brush with reality since this episode aired soon after the Rolling Stone magazine covered a similar story in real life.  

Sensationalism is rampart at ACN since the new owner, Pruitt, took over. He is turning the network into the on-air counterpart of a tabloid newspaper. There is even stalkerati. An obnoxious young man, Bree, is running the website in Nel's absence, and he has started a feature called ACNgage. It’s citizen journalism for celebrities. People can call in “sightings,” and they are reported, but never fact-checked. Sloan is very unhappy about this, so she uses the young man’s smug vanity to get him to agree to an interview. He’s on air live, and Sloan slaughters him. (Metaphorically, of course.) He looks like a fool.

 

Sloan and Don are both dead at ACN. (Metaphorically, of course.) Pruitt fires them. 

And then the episode ends with a real death. Charlie, mid-rant, has a heart attack right there in the newsroom. He dies.  

What next for the newsroom? What next for “The Newsroom.” It all wraps up on Sunday December 14^th, the series finale.

 

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The Newsroom #304 11/30/14 “Contempt”

by Catherine Giordano


Will and MacKenzee Wedding Photo

The Best Laid Plans…

Nothing is working out according to plan for our friends in The Newsroom in episode 304, Contempt, which aired on November 30, 2014. I’ll examine the unraveling in this recap and review.

The biggest unraveling of well-laid plans was Will McAvoy’s joust with the FBI and the courts. Will is refusing to reveal the source of stolen classified documents.  He thought he would escape being jailed for contempt of court because he was a big star.  Apparently, he is not a big enough star. The episode ends with him in hand-cuffs being marched off to jail.

MacKenzee had to abandon her well-laid plans for the-wedding-of-the-year in response to the jailing of her fiancé, Will. She had just hours to prepare for a wedding in City Hall before Will was taken to jail. The rushed wedding was done partly for love and partly because a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband. 

The wedding part of the show was great fun as everyone in the newsroom rushed around getting flowers, music, and a cake. It might not have been the wedding of MacKenzee’s dreams, but gosh darn it, it was going to be stylish. MacKenzee looked every bit the beautiful bride in an ivory knee- length sheath. It was all so romantic, including the last passionate kiss MacKenzee bestowed upon Will as he stood in handcuffs.  Evidently, the rest of the honeymoon will have to wait.

There was a scurry of plans to find a “White Knight” buyer for the company so ACN could avoid a hostile takeover. Sloan found a billionaire who was interested in buying a media company and she and Don had a lunch meeting with her. They thought she was about to save them. It turns out, she took that lunch because she was using ACN as a ploy to negotiate a better deal with another media company. It worked out for her, but it left ACN in a awkward position. Charlie, the president of the news division spoke some angry imprudent words to Pruitt, the new buyer, thinking they had escaped his clutches. Everyone at ACN is a hot-head. 

At least. ACN will have a big scoop when they report on the stolen documents. No, that plan goes awry as well. It turns out that Pruit does not want the financial liability that the story will bring so they must quash the story. But they ship the files to someone at the AP so she can run the story. Will the story get out? Will ACN survive new ownership? Stay tuned.

 

The relationship between Jim and Hallie is not working out very well. It’s a case of strange bed-fellows because Hallie is now working for a rival news outlet. Haillie took advantage of information that she learned from Will for her own story, and then to top it off, she wrote a personal tell-all about their relationship. Their relationship ends in a hail of accusations and recriminations.  And also a bit of sorrow, because their commitment to their relationship was strong, but their commitment to their work was stronger. 

Sloan and Don’s attempt to keep their relationship secret from the HR manager failed also. It failed because Sloan had submitted the form reporting their relationship to HR weeks earlier, and the HR director finally got around to checking his inbox. Don is flabbergasted to learn that he has been working so hard to keep their relationship secret, and all the while, Sloan knew she had already reported it. But this is the very basis of Jim and Sloan’s relationship—head-games. (In the last episode, they played “gotcha” with each other as a way of testing the other’s commitment to their relationship.) Fortunately, the HR director likes games also. He was only pretending to be opposed to their relationship.   

Even Maggie’s new relationship with her ethics professor has collapsed. It seems her new suitor has realized that Maggie is still carrying the torch for Jim, and he doesn’t want to be second fiddle. I think this break-up is Maggie’s good fortune. Mr.Ethics was constantly blurting out things about Maggie to her co-workers that could hurt her career. For instance, Maggie turned down an exclusive story with a government source because it might have been borderline unethical to take it. She was trying to impress Mr.Ethics at the time.  

Another reason Maggie’s new relationship had to end--there are only two episodes left until the series finale, and plot arcs must be resolved. Jim has broken up with Hallie, and Maggie and Jim are now both free to be each other’s one-true-love again. 

What plans does the series have for viewers? Will is in jail and ACN may be “sold off for parts.”  But, at least, everyone’s love life seems to be going well.

 

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The Newsroom #303 11/23/14 "Main Justice"

by Catherine Giordano

Grace Gummer plays Hallie

Boisterous Buffoonery

A “bacchanal of boisterous buffoonery”—that pretty much describes every episode of HBO’s The Newsroom, although this was the first time a character on the show flung out that over-blown phrase.   

If the previous episode was all about ethics and honesty, this episode was all about ethical lapses and dishonesty.

The FBI has raided the newsroom to confiscate hard drives and who knows what else.  They are thwarted and the effort is aborted when Charlie has the crew turn the cameras on the newsroom and threatens to broadcast the raid live. It was a bluff, but the FBI backed down.  

All the bed-hopping that happens among the newsroom’s staff is about to have consequences. There is a new director of HR and he is coming down hard on producers having sexual relationships with the people they supervise. He’s suspicious of don and Sloan and they are lying through their teeth about their personal relationship.  

The Lansings are trying to save ACN from a hostile takeover by finding a friendly buyer.  They have a possible buyer, but the cure may be most than the disease. He wants to turn ACN into some hydra-headed network of mini networks catering to 100 different niches. At last the buyer is honest. The Lansings are trying to sell the station before the news of the FBI raid gets out. That kind of news would definitely hurt the sales price. 

Hallie has a new job. She’ll be working for an online news group with a pay-per-view policy. Are these payments bonuses or commissions? Will Hallie sell out her journalistic ethics in order to pander sensationalism?  It looks like she will? 

Neal’s source got in touch with MacKenzee. The source is a beautiful young Pakistani woman and she gives Mac an ultimatum—release the news about the CIA disinformation that caused 39 deaths or she will dump all of the 17,000 documents that she has onto the media.  Mac wants to handle the news responsibly, but will she cave? 

The FBI has found Neal.  He is in Venezuela—a country without an extradiction policy with the U.S. so much for standing up for principles.  McAvoy has heroically tried to protect Neal.  He got Neal to tell him the name of the source so the FBI would focus on him instead of on Neal. The plan worked out great--to a point.  McAvoy thought that the FBI would not dare to arrest at TV news anchor star.  But at the end of the episode, he is served with a subpoena. McAvoy's boisterousness is definitely subdued as he wonders if he is as big a star as he thought he was.

There was one segment of the show that didn't seem to fit.  The government climate scientist that Peggy met the airplane. McAvoy interviews him on air apparently without a pre-interview. The government guy announces the end of the world due to climate change. No buffoonery; only bleakness. His message: We are doomed and it is too late to save us. Newsroom often weaves true facts into its stories. Is this one of those times?  Id the future of the planet as bleak as this guy presents it? The show gives us no clue. McAvoy just shrugs. Maybe there will be a follow-up in the three remaining episodes.

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The Newsroom #302 “Run” Where's the Truth

Jane Fonda as Leona Lansing

Where's the Truth

by Catherine Giordano

The theme for episode 2 of Season 3, titled “Run” of The Newsroom is truth, lying liars, and ethics. Very lofty! The problem with a theme on The Newsroom is the hit the viewer over the head with it.  A little subtlety would make the show more enjoyable. 

The Lansings

Where to begin?  Reese Lansing, president of ACN News and son of founder Leona Lansing (played by Jane Fonda) are the owners of the ACN Network which is just one piece of their media empire. The evil twins, children from Leona’s husband’s second marriage, will inherit 45% of CAN from their father’s estate on their 25^th birthday which is just about a week away.  They are planning to sell their shares to another company which will then execute a hostile takeover. Leona offers to beat the competitor’s offer. No the truth will come out. Are the twins selling their shares for the money as they claim or are they doing it to punish their father’s first family? There’s also another truth involved. Leona doesn’t actually have the money. 

Maggie

Maggie, a young producer for ACN is one her way back to Boston.  She is on a train. She overhears a government official discussing the EPA.  Realizing this will be a great scoop, Maggie slides down in her chair, out of the official’s sight and records the conversation.  When he is finished with the call, Maggie tells him that she has recorded it and asks for a comment.  He begs her not to use it even though she is legally able to do so. The official claims no fair because she hid herself.  Maggie decides that it would not be ethical to use the story. (What!  He could have seen her if he had just looked a little more carefully.)  The man offers to trade her story in place of the embarrassing one she has just recorded. She says no because that would be blackmail.  (What! That kind of horse-trading is done constantly between journalists and news reporters.) The man then gives her an advance copy of a report anyway. So Maggie will have a scoop after all.  See how things always work out when you play nice. 

 

Neal Sampat as played by Dev Patel

Neal

Back in the newsroom things are not working out so well.  Neal, a reporter,  (played by Dev Patel) has obtained stolen documents from a source.  He will not reveal his source.  The news value of these documents is tremendous.  He has evidence of how a USA disinformation campaign resulted in the deaths of 38 innocent people. Neal stands firm to his journalist ethics and says he will go to prison if he has to because he will never reveal the source. 

Neal will be in the clear if ACN doesn’t air the story because the FBI will never know that he has the documents. But, if the FBI finds out, he could be charged with treason.    

There is a big ethics argument in the newsroom.  MacKenzee, the executive producer, says they must air the story. It is their moral duty to air the story.  Will, the anchor and finance of MacKenzee is more interested in protecting Neal.  Rebecca Halliday (played by Marcia Gay Hardin) is the lawyer for CAN.  She warns them of the dire consequences if the FBI learns about that CAN has the documents. 

Neal is all about ethics and he sneaks out of the room and calls the FBI and tells them about the documents.  Within the hour, an army of FBI agents has swarmed into the newsroom. confiscating the hard drives on all the computers. Will had previously told Neal that he needed to go into hiding. Neal said he wouldn’t run. Now, Neal forgets his high and mighty ethics and runs.  

Hallie

Another ethical dilemma.  Hallie (played by Grace Gummer) is new to the staff of the newsroom. Jim, who she is “sleeping” with, is her boss.  Hallie sent out an inflammatory tweet on Will’s account which results in a mega-ton of bad publicity for ACN.  Hallie is ethical enough to admit that she did it.  She also tells the truth and says she did it for the “retweets.”  Haillee has to be fired.  Jim says, as her boss, it is his duty to be the one to fire her.  Charlie, the general manager, spares Jim this painful task and fires Hallie himself.  

Don and Sloan

And finally, a silly little romantic subplot.  Don, a producer and Sloan (the station’s money-honey”) have been having an affair.  Or something.  The way they try to figure out what it is they are having is to take turns lying to each other only so they can then pounce saying, “It was a test, and you failed the test.”  In the end, they admit that they have serious feelings for each other and decide they have to bring their affair into the open. 

Even the occasion for their story-telling is a lie. Don and Sloan are at a buffet restaurant and Sloan does not want to be seen in public going off her diet.  She makes Don pile up his plate and then surreptitiously stuffs the food into her own mouth.   

Liar! Liar!

Liar. Liar.  All kinds of lies.  All kinds of reasons for the lies.  Bam!  That’s the sound of my brain being crushed by the heavy-handed theme.

 

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The Newsroom “Boston” #301 "The Redemption Tour"

"The Redemption Tour"

Olivia Munn and Alison Pill

by Catherine Giordano

The premiere episode of the third season of “The Newsroom” made me think that the show runners have been reading my posts. Episode 301 that aired on November 10, 2014 focused on the Boston Marathon attack of April 2013.

It was very interesting to see the behind-the scenes action as the fictional news station ACN covered the bombing from start to finish. Having been burned by last season’s “Genoa” story where they got it terribly wrong, the newsroom proceeded very carefully with the story. It served them well. The redeemed their reputation as a reliable news channel.

 

CLICK HERE

While they may have been the last to drop their regular programming to begin covering the Boston Marathon story, they got it right while other stations made errors rushing stories to air before they we vetted. This episode showed the pressure that news stations are under—it is important to be first with the story, but it is important to get it right. Sometimes those two mandates collide.

 

The episode also showed the importance of traditional journalism. As the story unfolded, there were a lot of predictions that this would be the first major event solved by social media. It did not turn out to be true. Social media tried, but crowd sourcing the news engendered more problems than it solved. Case in point, men that social media identified as suspects began to receive death threats. They had absolutely nothing to do with the bombing. It was the professionals who found the culprits.

Will McCoy (played by Jeff Daniels) the news anchor at ACN summed it up nicely: “The FBI and the police did a great job. They found two needles in a haystack the size of the world in just four days.” 

The main sub plot featured Sloan Sabbith (played by Olivia Munn), the financial reporter for the station. By studying economic data she realized that CAN was about to become the target of a hostile takeover. This sub plot reinforced the message of the main plot—the painstaking study of data and facts is the way to uncover plots.  

The only romance story of the evening was in the very beginning of the episode. Will McCoy and his executive producer and fiancée, MacKenzie McHale (played by Emily Mortimer) were bickering about their upcoming wedding. Mackenzie wanted nine bridesmaids, but Will thought it was a little excessive because he did not want to have nine groomsmen. In the middle of this argument, the bombing occur in Boston and there is no more talk about weddings. Except in the middle of the show, Will says he cannot survive “without being married to this woman.” A bit over the top which only goes to show why the show must stay away from personal relationships.  

The show goes over the top a few time when both Charlie Skinner (played by Sam Waterston), the president of the news division, and Will make histrionic speeches to the newsroom. There’s a crisis going on and they are making grandiose speeches. The speeches trail off when the characters realize they look ridiculous. Apparently, the producer of The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin, has a point to make and the only way to do it is to put the words in the mouths of his characters no matter how foolish it makes them look. 

Another subplot concerned the redemption of Margaret Jordan (played by Allison Pill), an executive producer who had quite a few public meltdowns, personally and professionally, in the previous seasons. The Newsroom is caught short-staffed so Margaret is sent to Boston to cover the investigation of the bombings. When the anchor is sidelined by an allergic reaction, Margaret, who has been doing a great job as a producer, must go on camera. She acquits herself well in both roles. 

I’m hoping that Season three, which is scheduled for only six episodes is planned as the redemption tour. The Newsroom wants to go out as a serious show and not the unintentional comedy of errors that it was for the past two seasons.

 

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The Newsroom Returns to HBO

by Catherine Giordano


The Newsroom Season 3 poster

It’s baaack! 

It’s like the little girl with the curl—when The Newsroom was good, it was very, very good. The show was very, very good when it dealt with the news and the behind-the- scenes look at the workings of a television newsroom

And when it was bad, it was horrid.  When the show dealt with the personal lives, particularly the office romances, of the characters, it was very, very horrid. The characters are all high-powered professionals with serious careers, but most sixth graders handle romantic attractions better.

At the end of season two it seemed like all the story lines had been tied up, and the series was going to its well-deserved eternal rest. But now it is back for season three which will have only six episodes.

Have the writers and show runners have managed to grow up in the year since the last episode? I hope so. You can see it on HBO on Sunday November 9^th, 2014 at 10pm.

For all my complaints, it was a well-loved show among the viewers who loyally tuned in each week. You can read my reviews of all the previous episodes.  Just do a search on this blog for “The Newsroom” Or you can start here with the review of season one, episode one, titled The Newsroom.  

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HBO “The Newsroom,’ #19, “Election Night-Part II”

HBO “The Newsroom" #19, “Election Night-Part II”

Finally

Will and MacKenzie face off

By Catherine Giordano

I’m not going to bury the lead, Will proposes to MacKenzie and she accepts. Episode #19 of HBO’s “The Newsroom,” “Election Night Part II,” felt like a series finale, not just a season finale.

Spoiler Alert: Here’s another news flash—Obama wins. I think that is a nice note to end on. 

Not just the Will vs. MacKenzie story arc concluded, so many other loose ends are wrapped up too. Most importantly, no one is resigning or getting fired.   After all the hand-wringing about resignations and firings, everyone does an about face and decides that they want to stay on after all. Leona says that she will leave the decision about the resignations to her son Reese. Something about not wanting to be like Queen Elizabeth who simply will not let her son become king. She feels it is time to start passing power on to her son, and besides she would like to be alive to be proud of her son’s decisions with respect to her media empire. Reese tells Charlie that he has decided not to accept their resignations. Charlie gets in his face, loudly saying you can’t refuse to accept our resignations because we have withdrawn them. They go back and forth like this for quite a while, but Charlie apparently does not know how to win with grace and won’t give Reese the satisfaction of knowing he made the right call when he decided not to accept the resignations. Charlie got slapped in the face a couple of episodes ago.  Too bad no one was there to slap him in this episode.

Sloan tracks down who bought her book. It turns out it was Don. No one was bidding on her book, so Don made it look like a bidding war was going on as he bid using a series of fictitious names. She walks up to Don in the middle of the newsroom and gives him a passionate kiss.  So the Don and Sloan story arc is wrapped up.

Jim has a conversation with Margaret, on the newsroom floor, and gets her to finally forgive herself for the death of the boy in Africa.  So Margaret is healed of her PSTD and drops and lets go of her grief and anger.

The Jim and Lisa story arc is also wrapped up.  Lisa has a second job working for a caterer and she just happens to be working at the ACN viewing party. Jim rushes upstairs and apologizes to Lisa telling her that he did her wrong, she deserved better, and he is sorry. He almost gets her fired as he interferes with her work as a waiter, but in the end all is forgiven.

Jim and Halley have a few lovely tete-a-tetes via Skype and profess love for each other.  So Jim has gotten over his crush on Margaret and found true love. All is good with Jim now.

The problem with Jim and Margaret calling a Congressional race before the race was actually settled gets wrapped up nicely. The numbers seesaw all night, but in the end the guy they called it for wins in a squeaker, so no retraction necessary. 

And even the issue concerning the error on Wikipedia about the name of the school Mackenzie’s attended is made right. Whew. That was a biggie.

Back to Will and Mackenzie. Mackenzie didn’t hit Will in this episode.  She explicitly asked Will to stand across the room from her while they were having one of their tedious rehashing of their former relationships so that she would not hit him. I guess that is progress.

After all this time, Will has an epiphany about his relationship with Mackenzie. It occurs because Will and Charlie discussed Genoa, and Will said, “We did everything right until we didn’t.” they then decide not to resign. Suddenly Will has his epiphany--The same is true for MacKenzie with respect to her lying and cheating. I don’t get it, but evidently will thinks that she did everything right, too.

He runs through the newsroom screaming for Mackenzie. This is the “Stanley-yelling-Stella-in-A-Streetcar-Named-Desire” moment of the week. Will finally finds Mackenzie, tells her he loves her, and gives her the engagement ring he bought long ago and has been keeping in his desk drawer. A few minutes later, he announces to the entire newsroom that Mackenzie is the future “MacKenzie Morgan McHale McAvoy,” and suddenly realizes a name with so many Macs, just won’t work.  This particular issue is left unresolved.

Also unresolved for me is why Will seems to have it in for Sloan.  She is on the panel and every time she tries to speak, Will cuts her off to announce breaking news. She calls him on it saying he is purposely interrupting her. He says, “No, it is just working out incredibly well.”  I don’t know what that was about—maybe just an excuse for S loan to put and show us her angry face.

The best moment of the show is when Republican spokesperson, Taylor Warren, accuses the media of bias towards Republicans because ACN ran 14 stories negative about Republicans for everyone that was negative toward Democrats. McAvoy tells her off saying something that I have said for years.  It was wonderful to have it said on television. He said, “If Republicans do 14 negative things in a month does that mean the unbiased thing to do is to concoct 13 additional stories about crazy Democrats. A 14 to 1 ratio of negative stories and your takeaway is that there is a problem with the storyteller?” Yes!  If Republicans don’t want negative stories in the press, why don’t they just stop doing negative things?

Later Taylor accuses Will, on air again, of claiming to be a Republican in order to have a claim to credibility when he attacks the GOP.  Will tells her off good. “I’m a Republican,” he says, “because I believe in market solutions, I believe in common sense realities, and the necessity to defend ourselves in a dangerous world.”  (Will, I’m a Democrat, and I believe in those things too. It’s the second part of your answer that describes the why I’m a Democrat and not a Republican.) Will continues, “The problem is, now I have to be homophobic, I have to count the number of times people go to church, I have to deny facts and think scientific research is a long con.  I have to think that poor people are getting a sweet ride. and I have to have such a stunning inferiority complex that I fear education and intellect.”

 In another exchange between Will and Taylor, Taylor tries to claim that the tea part and OWS (Occupy Wall Street) are equivalent.  Will asks her, “Who is the OWS candidate?  The left’s crazy people hardly ever run for office and when they do they don’t win.  Who is the left’s Allen West, Joe Walsh, and Michelle Bachman?” 

A brilliant riposte for accusations of media bias and the ridiculous claim that there is a moral equivalency between the right and the left in this country was perfect as a finale for a show about the news media. 

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HBO The Newsroom #18 Election Night Part 1

Are Your Ready to Have Some Fun

 by Catherine Giordano

Marcia Gay Harden on
 HBO's "The Newsroom"

It’s election night 2012 in the newsroom, but everyone still has plenty of time for their petty inter-personal issues on HBO’s The Newsroom, episode 18, “Election Night Part I,” airing on September 8, 2013.  Before Will begins prime time election night coverage he asks his panel “Are you guys ready to have some fun?”  We, the viewers, are ready to have some fun too, but we don’t get any fun from this episode.

We do get Rebecca Greenway, the ACN legal counsel, as “liquid sex” and perhaps that is a little bit of fun. Marcia Gay Harden, the actress who plays Rebecca tells the newsroom team that she is “liquid sex,” and she does look quite the sex-pot poured into her low-cut tight-fitting fuchsia-colored dress. Her excuse for wearing it is that a viewing party is being hosted by Reese Lansing on another floor. 

Sloan gives us a little bit of fun also. It seems a signed copy of her book sold at a charity auction for $1000. Only problem is Sloan did not autograph it, and the inscription written in German was supposed to read “Please enjoy this book,” but actually reads, “Please shred this book.” Ha Ha.

Now Sloan goes into her “I’m-nasty-bitch-so everyone-had better-do-what I-want-and-do it-now"mode. She grabs Neal and demands that he track down the buyer and get the book back. Remember, it is election night and Neal has a lot more important things to do.  But Sloan gives him that fierce look that she so often shows—the equivalent of a junk yard dog baring his teeth--and Neal drops everything to do Sloan’s bidding. How does he find the time! MacKenzie has him working on getting Wikipedia to correct the name of her alma mater on their entry for her. These newsroom divas think Neal is there to deal with their petty problems.

When Sloan isn’t being a nasty bitch, she is acting like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum until she gets what she wants or moping in a corner because things aren’t going her way. It’s not really fun to watch.

You know what is really no fun to watch—Will and MacKenzie endlessly rehashing their failed love affair. It may be election night, the newsroom may have 500 races to report on, but they still have time to bicker over who was the bad guy in the relationship.  I want to shout at my TV, “MacKenzie, let it go already, Move on!. You cheated and lied and Will is never going to take you back.” During their exchanges on this night, Will informs MacKenzie that he was a “good boyfriend.” This is high-school stuff, and not at all funny or touching or anything else but stupid.

The big issue on this night is that Jim and Margaret made a wrong call in some minor congressional race. (It’s a wonder that is the only mistake since these guys can’t seem to keep their minds on their jobs.) They are debating whether to retract it or just quietly remove it from the scroll. Just then, Charlie parades through the newsroom waving some papers. He informs the team that in a very loud voice that he is holding the test that people who apply for a job as a sanitation worker must take and he is giving it to the first person who makes a bad call. (I know everyone is on edge because of the Genoa thing, but really.)

Jim and Margaret decide not to retract. It is some minor race and the statistician who is in charge of calling the race, says the race it “too early and too close to call” and also “he will win.” The statistician is a dignified middle-age Japanese woman, very prim and no- nonsense.  It is sort of funny the way she keeps repeating these two contradictory things with no explanation.  It is ridiculous when Jim and Margaret blindfold her with a sash from her dress and bring her into the newsroom.  They want to talk to her, but the people who call the race are not allowed to see the TV screens of the other networks less they be biased by the calls made on other networks. Evidently, there are quiet corners or hallways.

Charlie is still trying to resign. Leona, the head of ACN, won’t fire him and he can’t quit or he will be sued for breach of contract. He corners Reese at the party and he begs him to get his mother to fire him. Reese said he has tried, but she won’t budge from her decision to hang tough. I like Leona.  She is often the only grown-up in the room. She is fierce and she won’t let others push her around.  Previously, she had been looking for an excuse to fire Will, now that she has it, she won’t take it because doing so would look like she was caving to outside forces.

Mackenzie wants to get fired too. Charlie, Will, and MacKenzie all feel that they must be fired to restore credibility to the network.  Only will has the authority to fire MacKenzie.  She begs Will to fire her.  He won’t, and then he caves, and tells her that when election night is over, she is fired.  Maybe he realized he had enough of her pestering him about their former relationship. 

Taylor Warren, the former Romney communication director, who was making Jim’s life miserable on the campaign bus, is back. She is on the panel for election night coverage. It doesn’t make a lot of sense why a Republican would dish dirt on another Republican to Margaret just so little Maggie can one-up Jim, but Taylor does it. She tells Margaret that former General Pratraeus, now head of the CIA is going to resign over an affair.

The next episode is the season finale. Only nine episodes in season two, unlike Season one, which had 10 episodes. I wonder why?  Maybe the writers are not having fun.

Are we having fun yet?  No, we are not having fun yet.

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HBO’s “The Newsroom” #17 “Red Team III”

The “A” Team

By Catherine Giordano

Jane Fonda as Leona Lansing on "The Newsroom"

HBO’s “The Newsroom” finally brought the “A” Team into the writer’s room.  It took 17 episodes, but with episode #207, “Red Team III” airing on Sunday August 25, we at long last got an episode for adults.

 

I swear the actors even looked like older. I usually think of Maggie, Jim and Neal as high school students and Don and Sloan as college students, but finally in this episode they looked like adults.

The look on MacKenzie’s face when she has to tell Will that she has proof that Jerry edited the tape was the best acting in the entire history of the show.  I think she should get an Emmy nomination for this episode.

Nonetheless, MacKennzee can’t stop with the hitting. She shoves Jerry in an elevator.  This time I will forgive her. She had just found out that Jerry had doctored the tape that the newsroom relied upon for their reporting. Her violence was totally justified.

Here’s how it all went down. The Newsroom aired the story about the sarin attack and they are standing by their story despite a lot of pushback. Then, as I predicted there was the discovery of the discontinuity in the footage of the retired general’s interview. MacKenzie has a casual conversation with Will about the clocks on the screen in a football again and later the idea comes to her to check the clock on the TV screen that appears in the corner of the video-taped interview.  She discovers the discontinuity.

More evidence falls away in the scene with Charlie and his Pentagon source. I’m sorry to say there is more hitting in this one. The source had strongly hinted to Charlie that the story was true and even gave him the manifest which suggested illicit chemicals were on board the plane. Now in a parking garage, the two meet again, deep-throat style.

It turns out that the source had a druggie son who was in the process of getting clean when he worked as an intern at ACN. But then kid was fired (for cause) and returned to drugs. He died within the year. The source blamed Charlie.  When Charlie tried to explain the firing, the source slapped him hard across the face. Charlie, realizing that this slap came from a place of grief, just stood there and took it.  (Also, this guy was huge—not a person anyone would want to get into a fight with.)  Charlie learns that the source set Charlie up for revenge.

We also see other parts of the story fall apart. The U.S. soldiers wore haz-mat suits because they were afraid that the enemy might use chemical weapons on them. The Afghani who was tweeting live stopped tweeting not because he was dead, but because his cell-phone plan was terminated for non-payment. They found out that the soldier who had been present at the scene had traumatic brain injury which he had not revealed. A symptom of traumatic brain injury is memory loss.  Worse, MacKenzie re-watched the interview with him, and realized that she had asked leading questions.

The newsroom is shell-shocked by the enormity of their mistake. To make matters even worse, Jerry, the one person who deliberately misconstrued the attack and was fired for it, has sued the company for wrongful termination He claimed that it was a systemic failure, but he was the only one fired. This is the "is-this-guy-the -new-poster-boy-for-chutzpah-or-what?" moment of the week.The lawyers have recommended a $5 million settlement.

In the last scene, Jane Fonda, who plays Leona Lansing, the socialite owner of the newspaper, delivers an Emmy winning performance. It’s another late night meeting in the executive dining room. Leona has arrived directly from a charity gala. She’s wearing a beautiful gown and rocking it. Will, McKenzie, and Charlie offer her their resignations. 

Leona gives a powerful speech refusing to accept their resignations.  Further, she refuses to pay the settlement to Jerry. She vows to fight. She tells the Newsroom team that they “don’t earn her a nickel,” but they “make her feel proud.”  It’s a magnificent speech that makes you want to jump to your feet and cheer.

This is what I have been saying for 17 episodes so far. Treat this show as a serious drama and the show makes the A-List.

There will not be a new episode next week due to the Labor Day week-end, but I think I speak for all viewers of the show when I say, “I can’t wait.”

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