Every week the end credits of "The Newsroom" roll, I can't help but feel conflicted.
If I was writing for The Alligator's "Political Sphere" blog (as I have before), there'd be a lot I would agree with. Just in the past episode, the show railed against drones, corporate welfare and hilariously bad cable news coverage.
But I'm not. As someone who enjoys good television (save for the occasional guilty pleasure reality game show: looking at you, "Big Brother" or "The Challenge"), "The Newsroom" yet again fails to deliver.
I was clear that I thought Sorkin had put a quality product together for this season's premiere. It seemed to be out of the woods: by acknowledging some of the most brutal failings of last season's production, the show improved.
These haven't returned so far in the second season, but I have serious issues sitting through an episode without my real conflict coming into play: do I like this show or do I just want to like this show?
I'd be remiss if I didn't address my location for season two so far - inside the beltway itself, in Washington, D.C. The power center of the free world isn't without itsNewsroomdevotees, but most admit they're hate-watching.
The Aaron Sorkin of "The West Wing" - who much of this town's young denizens grew up on and admired - is still very much there, but the story and the lovable characters The West Wing provided aren't. The pithy dialogue is quotable, still, but the moralizing tone of The Newsroom makes it feel like an hour-long lecture rather than a hour-long dramatic series.
This, unfortunately, is a fatal flaw. The show relies on a retelling of the news, but at a news network that is too good for celebrity news stories (the story on Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, was allotted 30 seconds on this week's show-within-a-show) and that always seems to get the story right.
The show is becoming one giant cliche - this week Jim stood up to Romney communications team on the press bus in New Hampshire, Neal continued to fight for the Occupy Wall Street cause as it was being disrespected or ignored by cable news, Mac and Jerry investigate Genoa further, Sloan argues against a military contractor's stock and Will wines-and-dines Nina Howard of ACN's gossip rag to kill an unflattering (albeit true) story.
What's the message? Cable news and the state of current events suck. And HBO's "The Newsroom" is here to save the day.
Unlike "The Daily Show" and its companion "The Colbert Report," "The Newsroom" doesn't take to humor to lampoon the state of events, but rather self-righteous indignity.
I didn't boo the gay solider who spoke out at the September 2011 Republican primary debate in Orlando or invest in a military contractor's stock, and I still feel like I'm being lectured to. This worked in Will's now-famous address in the series premiere, but it has continued to lace the show like a poisoned apple, and it's no longer enjoyable.
"The Newsroom" seems to be fitting the trend of having no truly likable characters, either. This works for a show centered around an anti-hero like Don Draper on "Mad Men," Walter White on "Breaking Bad" or Tony Soprano on "The Sopranos," but Will McAvoy has committed much fewer sins than the characters above.
For Don, Walter or Tony, we hate ourselves for cheering them on. There's a human element within us that recognizes we're rooting for a womanizer, a drug dealer or a mob boss, but week-in and week-out the fans are there to support.
With "The Newsroom," I've only felt that way about Charlie Skinner, played by Sam Waterston, but he doesn't earn enough screen time to keep me on board. The complications of the characters on this show merit another blog post in itself, but suffice to say that none of them want me to come back for more each week.
That said, will I come back for more of "The Newsroom?" Absolutely. I'm morally opposed to the idea of "hate-watching" a show, as I believe the base value of scripted television is to be entertaining. But as a Sorkin devotee, who enjoys the dialogue but isn't so hot on the show, I'm willing to stick it out.
My recommendations to make this show suck less follow.
First: focus on your characters, even if it means the news takes a back seat for one week. Some of the episodes with the biggest news (the premiere, the Osama bin Laden episode) did well because of their focus on characters first and news second.
Next: stop preaching to me. I understand McAvoy is a talking head in the vein of O'Reilly and Olbermann, and as a person, I agree with most nearly everything the character utters. But the way the moralizing tone slithers through every part of the episode - not just on "NewsNight" - comes off as a little insincere and tacky.
Finally: focus on a story and some form of a narrative throughout each episode. I know modern television is nuanced enough to feature multiple things happening to multiple characters in one episode, but the best shows on television allow that to happen while still lending themselves to a simple one-sentence description. That was present in "The West Wing," but it's not here.
The Newsroom has the potential to be one of Sunday night's top shows, but the preachy attitude turns off viewers who prefer their politics on Sunday morning talk shows, and the lack of focus on character and story makes viewing the series feel like an obligation, and not an enjoyable one.
