A few years ago I was turned on to an older show, a CBS phenomenon from the turn of the century called The West Wing, written by famed writer and showrunner Aaron Sorkin. It was an innovative, unique, and very touching series about the inner-circle of the US President and their struggle to keep afloat and do no harm while navigating the politics and crises of the world's most powerful office.
Sorkin's newest show is The Newsroom, an HBO drama that could work as a spiritual sequel to The West Wing. This time the focus is on the staff of a cable news network and their struggle to bring real news to the people without succumbing to the petty tactics of the tabloid mentality which has befallen cable news.
The pulse and flow of the series is very similar to The West Wing: we have plucky idealists at the pinnacle of their respective career path, fighting the good fight but failing to always keep their head. The Newsroom isn't half as innovative as The West Wing was, but it improves on the formula in two notable ways. Firstly, The Newsroom doesn't concoct artifical news stories for their fictional world, they frame their fictional story around real-life news stories. This is a very unique and engaging flourish, that also allows real ethical questions to come into play on a more realistic playing field.
Secondly and most importantly, The Newsroom brings to life a cabal warm, charismatic, loveable characters in a way The West Wing never did. I liked The West Wing's crew as human beings and individuals. I was rooting for them, I wanted good things to happen to them. But I never found it in me to really feel for them, to really relate with them or love them. They were just such dry, burdened workaholics. "Real life," the personal stuff, was never more than a burden to them. The star of The West Wing was the politics and the writing, the characters were mere vessels. When they tried to get personal, they always failed, and those were the episodes that didn't interest me.
The Newsroom, on the other hand, almost instantly endears you to these characters. They're people with lives and loves, hobbies and aspirations. I've fallen in love with all of them and I really care what happens to them. Emily Mortimer is especially beautiful and engaging as the Peabody-winning journalist & producer who keeps this tumultuous group together by the skin of her teeth.
This program has received a lot of middling reviews for its perceived preachiness and saccharine ethos. But mostly critics are forgetting that this has been both Aaron Sorkin's M.O. and his claim to fame from the start. It's not 1999 anymore and the tone of well-crafted adult dramas has changed. Today the critics are all about main characters who are vicious monsters (Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Vikings, Dexter), and anyone can die at any time (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead). But there's room on the airwaves for more than one zeitgeist, not everything has to be grim and brutal.. If you appreciated The West Wing, there's no reason you can't appreciate The Newsroom.
In the last year's time I've watched about 20 different drama shows. Out of these, four are worthy of a perfect 5/5 rating. These are: Jericho, In the Flesh, Switched at Birth, and of course The Newsroom. The Newsroom has really been able to improve upon The West Wing's formula to create something truly special: enormous fun, clever characterization, and heart-wrenching sentimentality at a pinpoint perfect note.
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