Starring: Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr., Alison Pill, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Thomas Sadoski, Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda, Chris Messina
Synopsis: News anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) returns from a forced vacation to find himself forced to work with an entirely new team of staff who plan to change the way his show is run.
Creator Aaron Sorkin wastes no time in throwing the audience into the deep end in his latest project, HBO’s The Newsroom, which is quintessentially Sorkin-esque from the outset. Those familiar with his previous work (The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and THE SOCIAL NETWORK) will recognize his fingerprints immediately and those unfamiliar are going to love it or hate it within the first few scenes. If you aren’t sucked in during the first seven minutes of news-anchor Will McAvoy’s opening gambit about why America is no longer the greatest country in the world then The Newsroom probably isn’t for you. But, if it stops and makes you think for a second then you’ve found your favourite new show. It’s an apologetically romanticised and inspirational look at how a group of people can come together and set their sights on doing something better.
That opening outburst during a public speech changes Will McAvoy’s career trajectory hugely. His team of staff abandon the show and he’s left with brand new staff that are almost literally thrown onto him, including his former partner McKenzie (Emily Mortimer). The team decide to change the way the show was previously run and make a news programme that is informative and factually correct and not driven by ratings. It’s an admirable effort but the crew quickly find that it’s not as easy as they hoped, especially with company presidents, gossip columnists and audience figure breathing down their necks.
The Newsroom is based around real-life news events in recent history. They cover stories from teacher protests, congresswomen being shot, oil spills in the gulf, uproar in Egypt, phone hacking, NSA relevations, primary election debates and the memorable night in 2011 when it was announced a military operation had killed Osama Bin Laden. What the members of this news team have in their favour is hindsight; Sorkin can make them look wiser and smarter than those who reported the actual news because he knows how it turns out. It also means that an additional layer of emotion can be added to the storylines and there are episodes, in particular episode 4, which superbly invoke the fear, uncertainty and devastation that reporting on live news can bring. Every episode is full of fast paced, witty and complex dialogue that the actors, without exception, deliver with sincerity and depth.
The heart of the show, however, is not the news; it’s the relationships between these characters and the way they’re allowed to progress through the process of reporting the news. Sorkin’s previous work The West Wing was criticised for not exploring enough of how the characters’ highly stressful and dominant jobs impacted on their personal lives and relationships. Sorkin has taken this on board here and the result is brilliantly rounded characters who we root for even when all the odds are stacked against them. It’s those natural failures of each individual and how they throw their reputations to the wind that draws us towards them, as they risk everything to ‘do the news well’. No-one encapsulates this spirit more than Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), the Chief-Head of their news division. He makes tough calls, fights for his staff and puts himself in the line of fire to protect them. He was raised in an era where the most respected men in America were journalists and, for ten fifty minute episodes, you can watch Aaron Sorkin recreate that magic on your TV screen.
The second season of The Newsroom started this week in the USA and should be on UK screens later this year. Grab the boxset now via this link and catch up ready for what promises to be a cracking second season if the trailers are anything to go by!
