There is probably no show that engendered as much hate-watching last year as Aaron Sorkin‘s “The Newsroom.” The highly anticipated show had so much to like about it including a great lead turn from Jeff Daniels, and an all around excellent cast (Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, John Gallagher Jr., Jane Fonda, Chris Messina, Terry Crews, Olivia Munn etc). But damn if Sorkin couldn’t get out of his own way, with the show seemingly unable to go two minutes without speech-ifying, not to mention two separate and equally tedious romantic subplots that made adults act like junior high teenagers. Can Sorkin right the ship in season two?
Um, maybe, but it looks like much more of the same. The Jim/Maggie/Don thing still seems cribbed from “The Office,” with Jim even pulling a Halpert, and getting assigned to New Hampshire to get away from Maggie. As for Sorkin and his on-the-nose politics, it looks like Occupy Wall Street is the big story of this season, which surely means that the storytelling will be subtle and nuanced…right? But of course, we’ll be watching this and hoping things are better this time around.
“The Newsroom” arrives on July 14th.
Dunno, I liked Newsroom season one. It's not the best work Sorkin has done but it's hardly some embarrassing debacle. It's like the people who hate it have never seen an Aaron Sorkin show before.
This show would be a natural fit on network TV. On HBO, however, its terribleness is accentuated to such a high degree that it is actually laugh-out-loud bad.
I kind of zoned out after awhile and all I remember are guys being punched or kicked in the nuts. HILARIOUS!…?
The show wasn't great in season 1 and it will not be made any better, by having Marcia Gay Harden trying to be a villain, when the show already has a pair played terribly by Jane Fonda, and Chris Messina. More villain's is not what this show was sorely lacking.