The Newsroom

I was not expecting The Newsroom to be nearly as good as it is. I'm not sure why I didn't hear more about this when it was originally on, I guess there are just so many great HBO shows it must've just got blurred in with the rest of them but this show deserves all the love it has gotten and more. Jeff Daniels has had a pretty solid acting career but this is easily his best role. The rest of the cast includes the always beautiful and talented Olivia Munn, Emily Mortimer, Dev Patel, Sam Waterston, David Harbour, John Gallagher Jr., Alison Pill, and so many other talented actors that I would be here forever naming them all. Their acting and the outstanding writing is what makes this show so special.

Rarely does a television show come along and sweep you off your feet with brilliant writing, an amazing cast and an actual message that is relevant and inspirational. Aaron Sorkin has done it again with The Newsroom! This show is truly a display of what television can achieve if we have the right people who are willing to break the rules of the mundane drab to make an engaging and intelligent show.

Jeff Daniels plays Will McAvoy, the cautious, veteran news anchor tiptoeing with his career in order to "play it safe", concerned more with keeping his ratings than stepping on toes. He has the smarts, the background and the ability to be something more, a challenger of beliefs and a defender of ideals, but lacks the motivation until Mackenzie MacHale (played beautifully by Emily Mortimer), a woman from his past, reenters his life. She is the spark to ignite his flame and gets him burning with an unquenchable passion once again.

Within the first five minutes of the show, Jeff Daniels delivers a speech of Aaron Sorkin's words about the state of America that is extremely touching, stimulating and brutally true for a vast majority of the population. It's reminiscent of his West Wing days, but with even more flare and aggression. I only hope he can keep the pace that he has set with the pilot; the bar is set high.

The Newsroom Series Review

The TV Series 'The Newsroom' was written and produced by Aaron Sorkin and premiered on HBO on June 24, 2012.

Aaron Sorkin was previously also the creator and writer of the Emmy Award-winning political drama The West Wing produced by Warner Bros. Television.

As in The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin was known for writing fast paced dialog. And that fast pace in this three season, 25 episode series about a fictional Atlantis Cable News channel (ACN) was no different.

When The West Wing came out, I had no interest in what I assumed was a comedy series portrayal of the White House, and I did not care to even check it out. Likewise, I felt the same way about The Newsroom, and never gave it any notice. It was almost 25 years after The West Wing was released that it became one of my favorite TV Series. And, now, 13 years after its premier, having watched The Newsroom, I found it to be a really great series as well.

The acting, production and especially the writing of The Newsroom was exceptional. What made The Newsroom so personally enjoyable to me is that I'm such a political junkie I spend hours upon hours each and every day glued to watching cable news channels.

What made The West Wing so enjoyable for me was the extreme political nature of the show, and learning more or less how the West Wing of the White House functioned, and more about the nature of the advisors to the President of The United States.

So, I did not expect story of The Newsroom to hold much of the same political overtones of Constitutional rights, freedoms and the separation of three branches of government. But, I found the opposite to be true.

The Newsroom reminded me that because of the Constitutions' First Amendment and the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, our ability to be free at all stems from the truth of the information we are able to receive.

The Newsroom series made clear to me once again, that there is a actually a fourth branch of government power, and that power lies in a free and unfettered press, who's responsibility it is to speak truth to power, and truth to the people, in order to ensure the people are given true informational news with which we can maintain our freedom.

The story of The Newsroom, grapples with many of these concepts while attempting to focus on disseminating the news, rather than broadcasting sensationalistic stories in order to boost ratings, advertising and corporate income. When news stories are sensationalized, facts become exaggerated, and truth suffers and becomes a victim.

The search for truth in the News Media today is ever more difficult and ever more important given the access of the Internet and the myriad of social media platforms. And now, with the inclusion of artificial intelligence, the search for the truth can be not only merely elusive, but the trust of what is real or true can be sometimes unobtainable.

The Newsroom struggles with this 'trust' waging a battle for freedom of information. And, that should remind us that we are only as free as our freedom of information, and our trust in what is truth.

In the tradition of his earlier 'behind-the-scenes of TV' shows, Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom takes a hard (and witty) look at the behind the scenes of cable news. And like all his other shows, The Newsroom deals as much with themes of honour, ethics, loyalty, idealism and love, as it does with the news. It's also written in Sorkinese – Aaron Sorkin's fast-paced, back-and-forth, sing-song dialogue that'll leave you heady on a good day but with a headache on a bad one.

So, like critics have lambasted, is it "weighted too heavily toward sermonizing diatribes (LA Times)?" Maybe. Does it "choke on its own sanctimony (NY Times)?" Perhaps. Is it "yet another platform in which to Set the People Straight is a worthwhile purpose (Huffington Post)?" Most definitely yes. But is this all really so horribly, terribly bad? NO!

The main bone of contention for critics for this show seems to be that it tries too hard to be good, do good and instill good, just like all of Sorkin's earlier work. But when did that become a crime, in times of shows about becoming the next scrawniest supermodel, douchiest reality housemate or Tim Allen's 30th comeback? What's wrong with a show fantasizing about a world upheld by a long-forgotten morality in a time infested with shows that fall over each other to portray stark, grim realities and apocalyptic futures?

The Newsroom's got a fantastic cast with enough charm to last you till the next Woody Allen movie. Emily Mortimer's already got me falling in love with her, Jeff Daniel makes you really root for him, John Gallagher Jr and Alison Pill have an instant chemistry and Sam Waterson's singularly enough to bring you back every week. Yes, it's longer than it needed to be, and yes, it could have done with a little more Noam Chomsky and a little less Don Quixote. But really, as long as it does what so few show can ever claim to together – rouse you, make you think and ENTERTAIN, bloody well at that – who's complaining?

Admittedly, I'm a fan of Aaron Sorkin. I've seen (repeatedly) and LOVED Sports Night and The West Wing, and I think Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is one of the best shows ever made. His writing has inspired me in the past, and after watching The Newsroom, I have all reasons to believe that it will continue to, well into the future.

Critics be damned, watch this show simply because it's good television. It may not change the world, but at least it's trying to.

HBO just has it all. Here comes a show about making the news. And it is amazing! Yes, a must watch. No surprise, considering their legacy.

Whenever you hear "I'm Will McAvoy and these are the news." you could think you're actually watching the real news. This is because of an extraordinary production value, we are used to with HBO shows.

The second trademark, brilliant characters played by talented actors is also fulfilled. With Jeff Daniels we have an Emmy Award winning lead, no ANCHORMAN of the show, who managed to succeed against Bryan Cranston's Walter White in 2012. Let that sink in.

Aaron Sorkin, a name I never geard of before pulls out a fresh unused story about journalism that is so captivating, that I am really sad it ended after just three seasons. One message of the show is how journalism should be. It should be telling the truth and only the truth. No clickbait, no fake news just to make more profit. In a time before the social media madness, this show already critizised how the mainstream media operates. Looking back 10 years later it was way ahead of its time.

The show covering real events like the Obama election or the Fukushima incident was great, because you get an impression how real news channels like Fox News or CNN operate.

Last but not least there is trademark number three, the infamous HBO plottwist. This time it hits you from out of nowhere. Sorkin takes profit from establishing his characters so well, that they become like a family. He rips apart one of them and it feels like he took a part of you aswell. Brilliantly written. It makes a perfect ending. Another HBO masterpiece. Thank you very much!