The Newsroom

Daniels's apt monologue about America at the very beginning of the first part thrilled me, but things go downhill from there. While I appreciate that the show doesn't pander to the average viewer, that Jeff Daniels is chillingly accurate and charismatic in front of the camera when presenting the fresh news, but due to the barrage of way too banal dialogues and the overplayed emotions of most of character, the show failed to find a place in my heart. (29/09/2013)

I assumed that the more ambitious American film and television production industry had outgrown the idealism that pervades Newsroom. However, I can’t say that I’m at all bothered by it, given the polished verbal exchanges perfectly timed to the second (the ballet performed by the camera as it moves between multiple actors slinging words around in a single room is captivating), the likable characters (fittingly, there is not a single negative character on the team; the bad guys are those who have power and money), and the irresistible, albeit utopian, model of fundamentally fact-based journalism (if this is how Sorkin gets even a single viewer to start viewing the news more critically, he has accomplished his mission). Despite that, I won't be anticipating the second season nearly as eagerly as the second season of Studio 60, which was never actually made. I apologise for the messy long sentences with a lot of parentheses, but that’s how the verbal exchanges that I most admired in the whole series were rendered in Newsroom. 80% (18/09/2012)

Journalistic idealism and the struggle for its purer morality is borderline ridiculous, which fortunately returns to the waters of reality the personal positions of those involved, who simply act and speak like ordinary people. If I wanted to write stories, I'd want to be able to do it like Aaron Sorkin. The educational lessons in American politics are a bonus. This is the series event of the year (which almost passed me by due to its relatively quiet campaign). (09/09/2012)

Aaron Sorkin is cool in the end, although his idea of reporting has absolutely nothing in common with our staple news, because with Sorkin the reporters actually want to inform about something meaningful (don’t confuse this with impartial reporting, because here we have tendentious news with a more Republican bias for the “white man", full of old-fashioned, lofty ideals). Simply a classic Sorkin movie with all the trimmings, this time set in a news environment. If you expect numerous nice (or nasty) characters who, despite a breakneck tempo, are not silent even for one second, but in fact aren’t rambling and really have something to say, then... Your expectations are quite right. But there’s a hitch: it isn’t easy for an actor to manage Sorkin’s moralizing machine-gun-mouth dialogs and not everyone can deliver them without sounding like a parody of themselves. And you have to accept the simple fact that although Sorkin is exceptionally talented and capable dialog/monolog writer, he is only an average storyteller and so it has become a tradition to expect both polished dialogs but also impaired storylines. And in addition to this we can expect an absence of modern guise (not meant visually) or rather this is an old-school series; especially in the superfluous, but bearable relationship part. Season two is just like the first. Of course, there are areas for improvement. It has a storyline that runs throughout the season which is refreshing and puts some excellent characters in front of the camera (and makes for a spin-off for Rebecca Halliday). Yes, in the end there is less room for relationship management escapades and when they occur, they are often dealt with more tastefully and gracefully. The final third season then incomprehensibly dumps the best and sturdiest theme in story material terms (as early as episode two!) in favor of a fan-pleasing melodramatic homage to relationships “him with her and her with him" (or: who didn’t yearn for the slowest and most painful possible death for the Jim/Maggie duo must be a saint, making Jesus look like the epitome of maliciousness in comparison). Plus it stops the interestingly kicked off theme of “the stuffy old media versus a new, predatory media with no scruples, where both sides are equally right as they are wrong" in its tracks using personal tirades that don’t even play out (Reese, Elliot and even Neal). And it’s like that pretty much the whole season/series as such. S1: 4/5 S2: 5/5 S3: 3/5 (02/09/2012)

Pilot: An intelligent dialog-based series, that is carried by the excellent casting and quality screenplay. The role of sarcastic presenter fits Jeff Daniels like a glove and his team also look very promising so far. About why delivering quality news is so important, instead of the crap that you see on Fox, for instance, much is said on this topic. You also find out a lot about people being idiots or lazy bastards, as well as why America isn’t the “best country" in the world. And we also get the chance to see antagonism and rivalry between colleagues. All this in the first episode. What do the rest hold in store? Season one: Perfect, intelligent dialogs and convincing actors. A topic that cuts deep. There’s a lot going on here. From ecological catastrophes to America’s reaction at the killing of Bin Laden. And then dishonest or stupid politicians on top of that. The question is if the media has enough power to change anything about that. Maybe it doesn’t, but they could at least try. When I want to know what’s going on, I turn on the news, when I want to enjoy myself, I turn on a series... since when is it the other way round? You’ll like Newsroom. First it will make you angry, disgusted at what’s happening around the world, but in the end you’re really pleased. Because people are seriously idiots, but some of them are trying to do something about that. (09/07/2012)

I was hooked from the first episode. What I liked was the perfect fusion of drama and intelligent humor, which was so dry in places that some scenes would have been impossible to film without a fire watch. It was both fun and thought-provoking. The cast was perfect, the individual characters felt extremely real to me, and I would have been completely satisfied if it hadn't been for the second half of the third season, which was rather underwhelming after the fantastic second season. (06/04/2017)