The Newsroom [HBO - Spoilers]

syklops

MightyMighty737 wrote: »

I think Kayleigh's main purpose in the show was the story of her fathers death. Giving that to one of the regulars out of the blue might've been a bit much!

What was the story of her fathers death?

MightyMighty737

syklops wrote: »

What was the story of her fathers death?

Sorry, was on the phone earlier and didn't know how to spoiler so didn't include that. He was

a partner at a firm in the Trade Centre and died on 9/11.

From where we are on season two, I think they've colossaly ****ed up, and not just because of dastardly JD!

After thinking about the evidence the team have so far I'm shocked that they've decided to run with it. In Season 1, Charlie doesn't give the go ahead on the NSA story because the source isn't credible - he makes a point of saying that he was worried because the source (sorry, I've forgotten his name) mentioned beef stew. In the latest episode of S2 he says outright that Stomtomvich is a bit of an oddball who forgot that Mac and Charlie were supposed to show up. Plus it's clear that Stomtomovich has a pro-chem weapons agenda.


Secondly we have the soldier who speaks to Mac and Jerry in the cafe. Suspected of suffering from PTSD and as far as I remember, not present at the time of the extraction (?) - certainly not fully aware of the specifics of the details.


Thirdly there's the manifest which just shows an unspecified material.
I'm not including the edited video because there's clear deception there, and I can easily understand them missing it on first go.


I'm sorry, as much as I love him, I'd fire Charlie, Mac and Will would probably have to go to.

Jimdagym

Whatever happened to Will's murderous stalker? It was the big S01 cliffhanger and not mentioned since

MightyMighty737

Jimdagym wrote: »

Whatever happened to Will's murderous stalker? It was the big S01 cliffhanger and not mentioned since

Not sure, but they couldn't get Terry Crewes back for season 2. I'd imagine it's connected to that. Pity, their relationship was hilarious.

Skerries

no episode this week?

CoolioIglesias

Yay, can't wait for this to return!

syklops

Skerries wrote: »

no episode this week?

Red Team III. There sure was. Initial critics are calling it "Or how not to present a news topic", referring to the theme of the proramme and not the programme itself.

Have it downloading now.

gavmcg92

ep isn't up for me either.

Not on my regular site for some strange reason. Have it downloading now too

Crumbs

2.07 - I think that was the first properly good episode of the show.

Footoo

Crumbs wrote: »

2.07 - I think that was the first properly good episode of the show.

Ya, a genuinely great hour of TV and this coming from a big critic of the show.

And guess what, no relationship stuff. Who'd have thunk it?

Kirby

Great ep. That shot clock editing tomfoolery wouldn't have worked unless the camera was completely still....like during a free throw. But the camera was panning the court.....totally impossible to edit that the way Dantana did.

That goof aside, it was brilliant television.

leggo

Great stuff. The final scene was both maddeningly brilliant and ridiculously melodramatic at the same time (as only this show can be), but they really paid off their remaining viewers' loyalty with the climax of the Genoa flashbacks.

I've said for weeks that I'm no longer ashamed to admit I'm a fan of the show (on balance), and they've had a few episodes this season that have shown its true potential; this being the best example to date. You never know, they may turn it around yet and make the deserters regret their decision.

KevIRL

KevIRL wrote: »

Anyone reckon the basketball game in the background is whats gonna do for yer man editing the vid?

Boom

Burning Eclipse

Best episode of the show so far, over both series. Have no problem admitting that I've enjoyed it from the start as I'm a big Sorkin fan, but this episode really impressed me. It got so much right, and never let up.

Also, I think it's been mentioned here, but Don is brilliant this season. I'm so glad they freed him from that Maggie situation.

titan18

Aye, definitely the best episode, although I did love the first episode cos of Will's speech.

Lack of emphasis on relationships and not a lot of Maggie on screen really helped it.

steve_r

leggo wrote: »

Great stuff. The final scene was both maddeningly brilliant and ridiculously melodramatic at the same time (as only this show can be), but they really paid off their remaining viewers' loyalty with the climax of the Genoa flashbacks.

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Also, I think it's been mentioned here, but Don is brilliant this season. I'm so glad they freed him from that Maggie situation.

Totally agree with the 2 posts above, the final scene

when the lawyer came in

nearly went ott tho.

I never rated Don, but recent episodes have really let him shine. Jerry did a good job as the villain.

People rightfully called the show smug in earlier episodes. It was interesting to see the leads so chastened after the truth came out

ReacherCreature

That was an enthralling and gripping episode. Really brilliant. Up there with the Gabrielle Giffords episode.

If every episode was like this then it'd have a bigger fanbase and less criticism but I can't help but feel they blew a lot of earlier episodes focusing on the riff-raff. However there's two episodes left in the series so they may finish strongly but some damage may have been done. Also with episodes left I doubt they can achieve Lansing's demand of

"get it back!" (which was a cool ending)

unless they run that theme into next season.

squonk

Critic of the show as most here will know. I am a critic because I knew this had all the ingredients to be a great show but always was so far off the mark as to be deeply frustrating. Not tonight! That was great TV. In so many ways they hit it out of he park. This is what I wanted and what I expected to see week on week.

No relationship stuff! A+. Mac doing her job: A+. Will not being a big ball of smug: A+. Extremely fast paced storyline with oodles of tension: A+. Neil being exposed as largely office furniture and not a real journalist: B.

This is what I wanted to see. They need more fictitious news stories. Capt. Hindsight isn't really a show I want to watch. My only downside from tonight was the last 5 minutes. She should have let hem walk. I didn't find that credible but let's see where it goes.

Footoo

ReacherCreature wrote: »

That was an enthralling and gripping episode. Really brilliant. Up there with the Gabrielle Giffords episode.

If every episode was like this then it'd have a bigger fanbase and less criticism but I can't help but feel they blew a lot of earlier episodes focusing on the riff-raff. However there's two episodes left in the series so they may finish strongly but some damage may have been done. Also with episodes left I doubt they can achieve Lansing's demand of

"get it back!" (which was a cool ending)

unless they run that theme into next season.

Sorry but that Gabrielle Gifford episode was one of the worst episodes of tv ever made. Sorkin at his disgustingly sanctimonious worst and the most blatant use of hindsight to show us how it should have been done.

Added to that and some awful relationship stuff, they round it all of with bloody Coldplay.

If anything, these two episodes show perfectly how far this how has come.

Prop Joe

I look forward to this show every week more than any other seires and that includes Sopranos,GOT,Boardwalk etc..

I think it's just brilliant !!!!

P.S Jerry Dantana is a d1ck

wp_rathead

love this show, ep 7 was my fav so far, but okay i am confused..

season 1the entire season was about acn trying to get Will fired - they then blackmailed their way into not being fired.. then they largely **** up and the boss won't accept their resignations? seems bit surreal, assuming the son of the boss is gonna be back as a character soon as he guy with a bit of a vendetta against the crew?

looking forward next 2 episodes

Otacon

wprathead wrote: »

season 1the entire season was about acn trying to get Will fired - they then blackmailed their way into not being fired.. then they largely **** up and the boss won't accept their resignations? seems bit surreal, assuming the son of the boss is gonna be back as a character soon as he guy with a bit of a vendetta against the crew?

I thought she explained that when she said ACN causes her no end of problems but she loves it... or maybe she was just high and they will all be fired in the next episode.

syklops

Otacon wrote: »

I thought she explained that when she said ACN causes her no end of problems but she loves it... or maybe she was just high and they will all be fired in the next episode.

She loves ACN and she has a soft spot for Charlie and his team, despite the hardship they cause her. She said it herself, a guy comes in and tampers with evidence, and he gets 5Million bucks compensation and her ACN team who did nothing wrong lose their jobs? Not on my watch.

Duck Soup

Finally, I think The Newsroom has hit its groove. The formula, if you think about it, is not dissimilar to The West Wing.

A sense of being on the shop floor, with all the insidery talk, and relationships pushed into the background as the crises of the job push characters around. The Newsroom tried to reinvent the wheel, using the relationships as the driving force, which doesn't work as we're there to get the feeling as viewers as being under the skin of the industry.

If they can keep that insiders vibe going and drive all the plots and relationships with newsroom events, they look set fair for a long run. Love the show; Jeff Daniels/Will needs to step up his game a notch though. He's become a tad inert, when he should be - as Sheen/Bartlet was - the conscience and integrity of the show.

leggo

wprathead wrote: »

love this show, ep 7 was my fav so far, but okay i am confused..

season 1the entire season was about acn trying to get Will fired - they then blackmailed their way into not being fired.. then they largely **** up and the boss won't accept their resignations? seems bit surreal, assuming the son of the boss is gonna be back as a character soon as he guy with a bit of a vendetta against the crew?

looking forward next 2 episodes

Well you have to keep in mind she's also a massive, A-type egomaniac who isn't going to give into lawsuits easily and be pushed around, especially when they're in the right.

AngeGal

Duck Soup wrote: »

Finally, I think The Newsroom has hit its groove. The formula, if you think about it, is not dissimilar to The West Wing.

A sense of being on the shop floor, with all the insidery talk, and relationships pushed into the background as the crises of the job push characters around. The Newsroom tried to reinvent the wheel, using the relationships as the driving force, which doesn't work as we're there to get the feeling as viewers as being under the skin of the industry.

If they can keep that insiders vibe going and drive all the plots and relationships with newsroom events, they look set fair for a long run. Love the show; Jeff Daniels/Will needs to step up his game a notch though. He's become a tad inert, when he should be - as Sheen/Bartlet was - the conscience and integrity of the show.

I like the Newsroom but it's not in the same league as the West Wing, yet anyway, albeit the last episode was the best hour of tv I've seen in a while. Still the West Wing had a much better balance in its first season, even early episodes like a proportional response and the short list were far superior to anything the newsroom has produced this far, with the exception of the last episode.

The Black Oil

2.07

Keeping things Genoa-centric meant it worked - less potential for fingernails on the blackboard preaching. From before we know Marcia Gay Harden's character is good at vetting, and I liked how Will barely said a word during the Red Team III meeting flashbacks because it seemed likely he'd be dishing out the retraction later, though in a way, I'm glad we didn't see it. Maybe a little teacher knows best later on when recapping things with Rebecca, also that montage thing when they were on the air with the broadcast was a little odd. A few sporting references in there for levity.

dogsears

Some speculation about renewal for Season 3:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/the-newsroom-aaron-sorkin-hbo-season-3-renewal-status

Episode 7 was by far the best episode to date. By completely ignoring Maggie and all the relationship stuff and instead concentrating on telling a story the show managed to be entertaining in a manner its never been before. Really hope that the upcoming episodes are half as good and I hope that Working takes a look at episode 7 and learns from it. Hopefully Charlie can blame the whole Genoa debacle on Maggie and write her out completely.

Mr. K

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Best episode of the show so far, over both series.

I agree, this episode was the most gripping yet. Virtually no love triangle fluff and the Genoa story's implosion was great.

It would have been nice to see more of Will, hopefully there'll be plenty of focus on him in final two episodes of the season.

don ramo

dogsears wrote: »

Some speculation about renewal for Season 3:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/the-newsroom-aaron-sorkin-hbo-season-3-renewal-status

havent bothered posting here since season 2 started but as much as im enjoying the show with it peaking in the last episode, which brought me here, the show is a goner, and why anyone believes sorkin is bigger than HBO is beyond me,

the latest episode (which seem to be the best yet in the series and is looking like it could be a springboard for the show to jump away from some of the drama that has been anchoring it down here and there) has drawn the lowest ratings yet for the show at a mere 1.47 million,

its had nearly 2 full season to find a decent audience for itself and i said before the season started that if they didnt get the average over 2 million (which isnt a hard thing to do) the show will be cancelled, so far it has just about maintained it season 1 ratings which isnt a good thing for a show that is on HBO, i would be very surprised if i heard the show got renewed, id be delighted if it did, but at the same time id be surprised,

ixoy

Just watched the latest episode - easily the best of the season so far and probably of both seasons. More like this: None of the relationship nonsense, interesting insight into dealing with crises, and - for once - ACN was utterly wrong and not standing lording it over everyone else.

The Black Oil

Treme gets about half a million viewers, and is heading into its fourth and final season. How does that work? Is it because it's more of a niche show, whereas Newsroom would perhaps been seen as more of a brand show and if this hasn't worked the axe may fall?

The whole Genoa thing - strange to be watching it now given events in Syria. One thing I forgot to mention before was the reliance on (translated) tweets. Sure, it's probably what some newsrooms do and there were people tweeting when the US killed Bin Laden, but I really dislike (from a reporting/journalism rather than TV creative point of a view) that it was part of the reasons they went with the story. Admittedly, a small one.

don ramo

The Black Oil wrote: »

Treme gets about half a million viewers, and is heading into its fourth and final season. How does that work? Is it because it's more of a niche show, whereas Newsroom would perhaps been seen as more of a brand show and if this hasn't worked the axe may fall?

i actually forgot about that show TBH, i never got around to watching it, and didnt realise it was on season 4, i was looking more at Game of Thrones and True Blood, mainly cause i would consider Newsroom would be competing as a top show, on that basis it could stand a good chance of renewal, but the delay on an announcement is very odd for HBO.

Footoo

The Black Oil wrote: »

Treme gets about half a million viewers, and is heading into its fourth and final season. How does that work? Is it because it's more of a niche show, whereas Newsroom would perhaps been seen as more of a brand show and if this hasn't worked the axe may fall?

The whole Genoa thing - strange to be watching it now given events in Syria. One thing I forgot to mention before was the reliance on (translated) tweets. Sure, it's probably what some newsrooms do and there were people tweeting when the US killed Bin Laden, but I really dislike (from a reporting/journalism rather than TV creative point of a view) that it was part of the reasons they went with the story. Admittedly, a small one.

I think the Treme thing is partly down to the goodwill that David Simon built up with The Wire and the fact that they want to keep him on board for any potential future projects.

leggo

You also have to keep in mind that, strictly speaking, The Wire probably should've been dropped on a purely ratings standpoint when it aired. But HBO know the power of the boxset generation and that a show, much like an artist, can earn more money when it's dead than it did alive.

That said, Treme was a load of self-indulgent faff from what I saw of it.

evilivor

leggo wrote: »

You also have to keep in mind that, strictly speaking, The Wire probably should've been dropped on a purely ratings standpoint when it aired. But HBO know the power of the boxset generation and that a show, much like an artist, can earn more money when it's dead than it did alive.

That said, Treme was a load of self-indulgent faff from what I saw of it.

It was - but it's getting better season-on-season.

JP Liz V1

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

The Newsroom's second season will air in the UK in August, on Sky On Demand from 20th of August 2013 and on Sky Atlantic from the 26th of August 2013 at 10pm

Started tonight on Sky Atlantic

ReacherCreature

No episode this week? IMDB have the next episode scheduled for Sep. 8 and the last episode for a week later.

syklops

ReacherCreature wrote: »

No episode this week? IMDB have the next episode scheduled for Sep. 8 and the last episode for a week later.

Labour Day in the US so no episode this week.

There were 10 episodes in season 1. There was a story during the summer that Sorkin had dropped one episode during a re-write/re-shoot, so there will only be 9 episodes this season. Pity last weeks episode didnt happen a bit earlier in the season and we could see more of the fall out. As a long time defender of the Newsroom, I would liked to have seen less relationship bull **** and more substance. We now know Maggie is a bit messed up and we know why, but we havn't seen her actually implode which i thought they were hinting at with the drinking and sleeping around theme.

dogsears

Renewed for season 3, per Jeff Daniels:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/09/the-newsroom-season-3-on-the-way-jeff-daniels-says.html

syklops

dogsears wrote: »

Renewed for season 3, per Jeff Daniels:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/09/the-newsroom-season-3-on-the-way-jeff-daniels-says.html

Wo-hoo!

ReacherCreature

Despite the show's faults, I'm still excited to watch it so this is good news.

don ramo

im surprised but very happy about it, really thought it was for the chop with the ratings and the delay for any renewal news which is usually a bad sign when it comes to HBO, and i only read the delay was due to sorkin writing a script for a steve jobs film, double bonus:)

i can now watch the last 2 episode without wondering if this the last we'll see of sloan and don and the rest,

dogsears

Harumph. You might have expected HBO to come out with a press release confirming what Jeff Daniels tweeted but instead what they said was "We are excited about proceeding to a Season 3 and are continuing our conversations with Aaron about schedules". (http://www.deadline.com/2013/09/hbo-renews-newsroom-season-3-jeff-daniels/).

That seems to fall a bit short of what a formal renewal announcement would say, so there may be some intrigue yet. Perhaps they could use this as a story in Season 3 - as a lesson in how not to break a story!

shopgirl195

dogsears wrote: »

Harumph. You might have expected HBO to come out with a press release confirming what Jeff Daniels tweeted but instead what they said was "We are excited about proceeding to a Season 3 and are continuing our conversations with Aaron about schedules". (http://www.deadline.com/2013/09/hbo-renews-newsroom-season-3-jeff-daniels/).

That seems to fall a bit short of what a formal renewal announcement would say, so there may be some intrigue yet. Perhaps they could use this as a story in Season 3 - as a lesson in how not to break a story!

Sounds like season 3 is 'go' but Sorkin could be taking much more of a back seat! This would be a shame since The West Wing went down a lot after he left. However The Newsroom is not a patch on the West Wing and might actually benefit from a bit of diversity in the writer's chair.

Anyway just glad it's back on screens next summer.

The best thing that could happen would be if Sorkin took a back seat. Much as I respect the man as a writer he simply isn't half as good as his reputation suggests. His best work is adapting other peoples original or simply rewriting others work.

don ramo

sorkin is grand when he being directed, i dont think he a good person to have in charge, The Newsroom is his show, he is the showrunner and more or less exclusive writer, i think he has simply taken on to much responsibility and thats why the show fluctuates from time to time and goes down dead end storylines,

just for him taking a step back and have someone else draft a season plan and just have him come in and fill the story, thats why he has the reputation that he has, and i understand he wants to have something that he thought of, and brought to fruition, and for all the glory to be his alone, but this isnt a perfect world,

Lollipops23

I freaking love this show- yes, it's not a patch on West Wing, but West Wing went on a couple of seasons too long IMO.

LOVE the characters in Newsroom; the standard of acting is fantastic across the board.

As usual, every time the show takes one step forward it manages to just as quickly take 4 steps backward.

The last episode, the Genoa fallout was by far the best yet and with two episodes left one hoped that the show would keep up the level of quality but episode 8 was another smug, generic and self indulgently pretentious Sorkin crapfest.

There were a number of interesting and intelligent ways the story could have played out but for the first 20 or so minutes all Sorkin cared about was the relationships between characters and at this stage it all feels repetitive and so overtly famiar that they could easily just cut footage from old episodes and splice it in without anyone being any the wiser.

It's clear that Sorkin has no idea what to do with the characters beyond the obvious. Sloane's storyline was atrocious and felt tacked in simply to run up the clock and edge us over the 48 minute mark. It seems that Sorkin wants to reignite the series 1 flirtation between Sloane and Neil but I'm sure it'll be forgotten about by this time next week.

Sorkin really has no idea what to do with her as a character and seems to try and pair her off with a different character each week only to forget about it a week later. The only thing I could care less about is the ongoing relationship between Mackenzie and Will which is dragged out every few weeks only to go absolutely nowhere. At this stage he needs to decide just what he wants to do with them.

The whole Wikipedia thing felt like Sorkin once again getting all smug and self righteous by using a let peeve to fill airtime. A couple of seconds on it would have been fine but no, it has to be dragged out like everything else the show touches.

The decision room stuff was interesting and the mechanics behind a 24 hour newsroom is what the show should concentrate on more.

The lowlight of the episode and perhaps one of the shows weakest moments to date was the moment during which Don talked about Webb and Maggie spouted the "they're in love" line. It was the kind of schoolyard crap that normal people grow out of when they're 12.

With one episode left I really don't think anyone would be too broken up if the show doesn't get a third season. It simply isn't a good show. It tries so hard to be adult and intelligent but 90% of the time it feels like a juvenile and preachy kids show