Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
The plot of tonight's episode, “News Night 2.0,” largely centered on Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and his news team attempting to reboot their show with a stronger emphasis on actual reporting and educated opinion, and less pop culture fluff and human interest stories. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned with the first episode of the rebooted series, and McAvoy ends up with a rather botched, embarrassing episode on his hands. Meanwhile, Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) accidentally sends an email to her whole staff informing them of her previous relationship with Will.
Good old Aaron Sorkin. You gotta love his lightning-fast dialogue and token wit. It was really on display tonight. “News Night 2.0” had a lot of ground to cover, with numerous subplots, new characters introduced (namely Olivia Munn, who gets some decent screen time), new news stories and new business to attend to. Speed was an absolute necessity here. Quite shockingly, even with the heavy story elements, the episode was really more about establishing character – specifically that of Will McAvoy and Maggie Jordan (Allison Pill).
Despite a liberal tone and general demeanor, it turns out McAvoy is a card-carrying member of the Republican party, with rather strong feelings about the party's many issues, and the misguided direction of politics as a whole. It would seem Sorkin made him a Republican to oppose those who would inevitably argue against the show's politics, and he made the right call.
Making McAvoy some sort of liberal messiah wasn't the right direction for the character, and the subtle insinuation McAvoy's beliefs are actually right-of-center adds a particularly interesting flavor to the overall narrative, not to mention his character. Hopefully it will help shape (and shake up) the show's central thesis as the series continues.
Alas, because of the somewhat contrived email story, we also delve a bit deeper in McAvoy's tainted relationship with Mackenzie – a plot thread that I worry will inevitably dominate the show in episodes to come. With clear shades drawn from the romantic elements of Studio 60, Sorkin is basically borrowing from himself here, recycling a story we've all seen before. It's cute and sometimes really funny, to be sure, but the whole “my boss is my former lover” subplot is a rather dry well, one I hope Sorkin only dips into for the first few episodes before moving on.
The rest of episode focused on Maggie Jordan who, through a mishap with a press liaison she once had a relationship with, is responsible for the botched first episode of News Night 2.0. Unfortunately, the show once again borrows a few cues from Studio 60 to get its point across. Thankfully, unlike Studio 60 – a quick little series that took a sketch comedy show and treated it like it was something of great political importance – The Newsroom actually has a much greater purpose in mind: to realign and refocus TV news journalism for the better.
Like the McAvoy plot, sadly, Maggie's story is also bogged down by relationship turmoil. The seed of a budding love triangle between her, Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.) and Don (Thomas Sadoski) is planted, which could prove ugly as the season progresses. However, where the McAvoy/Mackenzie relationship feels a tad stale, the Maggie/Jim/Don story does provide some freshness, mostly thanks to Pill's charmingly high-strung performance and Gallagher's low-key Clark Kent appeal. Only time will tell if this relationship will grow dull and tiresome, impeding on the show's true message, or whether it will somehow tie into the central thesis of the series.
I rather like how this show is shaping up thus far. In a world of corrupted TV news journalism, where news and slanted opinion change between networks (and sponsors), the idea of a news program that only delivers a sense of intelligence, integrity and purified news is downright novel.
On that same level, even shows critical of sensationalized, sanitized journalism like The Daily Show resort to some of the same tactics, wild theories and sensationalism they often heavily mock. Could a show like News Night really exist with TV journalism spiraling in the direction it's been for over a decade now? I hope Sorkin can answer that question throughout the series and – like News Night 2.0 – focus a little less on the fluff and human interest stories along the way.
Source : ign[dot]com
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