New Sorkin Trailer

True, but at the same time...I think they overblew the little details of the explaining. I find it hard to believe that they at the Nancy Grace show are smart enough to think that way in "holding" their audience. Some of it was true, but I still find it hard to think they are doing all of what is said as intentional.

 

I gotta say, Don is becoming my favorite character on the show. You were trained to hate him early on because he's on the short end of the Maggie-Jim "Will they or won't they?" love triangle, but he's the one main character on this show who's good at his job without being up on a high horse all the time.

 

Agree.

 

Never has a character done a 180-degree turn in my eyes like Don did from last episode to this one. I wanted an air marshal to shoot him on last week's. Kind of dug his character this week. Weird.

 

Well, there's good journalism, and there's makin'-money, PC journalism.

Don is the one guy who's good at makin'-money, PC journalism. And the others are mumbling under their breath because makin' money and keeping the bosses happy is getting in the way of them doing their job.

Anyone would get tired, after a while, of somebody whose idealism just doesn't stop. But you also kind of want everyone to have come from that idealistic place, to have an idea of what "good" can be.

Sorkin's main characters are the rather unrealistic result of taking a kid six months out of J-school, and injecting him/her with the know-how and responsibility of a 20-year veteran. But, to me, it's an entertaining mix. Some of the "West Wing" characters were the same way. Some of the "Sports Night" characters were the same way.

 

Anyone see Olivia Munn's rack recently? She was topless in a recent movie, the male stripper movie I think, and boy. Talk about a disappointment. Oy. Egotastic has the pictures if anyone's interested.

 

She is more than welcome to show them to me privately any time. Of course, I can't think of a single reason why she would want to and my wife is very likely to object, but I doubt I would find it disappointing.

 

Were you expecting rainbows and chocolate fountains? How can anyone be disappointed in a topless female? I'll never know.

 

I don't think these things are as exclusive of one another as is sometimes thought, or as the show is trying to make them out to be.

"60 Minutes" still does some very good journalism and maintains solid ratings. Much of that is brand recognition and a timeslot it can rule, but its also made itself a destination for viewers who expect that sort of programming.

"The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are bread-and-butter political and media satire that also manage to be entertaining and draw in sizeable (for a cable late-night talk show) audiences. Outside what's billed as comedy, one could argue "Morning Joe" and "Rachel Maddow" are presently doing what Sorkin claims the "NewsNight" team aspires to do. While they don't put up monster numbers they've managed to be pretty successful.

I think I'd have more patience with the show if it drew more heavily from real-world examples of the guys who'd gotten it right, rather than just giving all the characters we're repeatedly told are great journalists a cousin or a buddy who happened to feed them a connection they needed to get the story at the perfect moment. That seems like one of the few strengths of the "recent past" setting available they could draw from, and from what I can see it's been largely ignored. There are a lot of reporters still fighting the good fight in an increasingly difficult environment, and I was hoping Sorkin would explore how they do it instead of...what he's ended up doing.

 

Ha. Definitely didn't expect rainbows. And don't get me wrong, it wasn't "kick her out of bed" disappointing. Far from it.

It did drop her down to a 6, though.

 

I liked last night's episode, unrealistic though it was. But again, I love the show's idealism. And I imagine that if any real-life network tried to pitch a debate format like that, the Dems and the Repubs both would react the way the RNC guy did in the show.

Loved Mackenzie's rant during the blackout, and even though I knew the lights were going to come back on at any moment, it was fantastic ... I laughed out loud, which puts Newsroom alongside Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louie as the only shows that have gotten that response from me in years.

Of course, it was all so predictable (again!), and it was all too convenient (Maggie's roommate having gone to high school with Casey Anthony). I don't remember West Wing being this predictable.

Still a strong show that I look forward to watching every week. I'll be sorry to see the season end.