Newsies Room

I've been skimming a lot of new shows recently, and most of them aren't interesting. But one that did manage to hook me, and I'm surprised by this, is The Newsroom. This is the new drama by Aaron Sorkin, and one gimmick is that the news stories it refers to are actual news stories. This does mean that the show can react far more intelligently than actual news programs do, which makes this show far more fantasy than reality. In many ways, this is fiction, in that no actual news show would even try for this, just go for the base level appeal all the time (I might be biased), but it's nice to think that this is something the news programs could aspire to... although they won't...

Anyway, Jeff Daniels is a news anchor that's been having trouble, so old-girlfriend Emily Morimer is brought in to straighten him out. And they make a big deal about finally actually presenting actual news. And, because this is drama, we get a collection of characters with lots of interpersonal conflict and such that I was skimming through near the beginning, but watched more of as the series (just 10 episodes in the first season!) went on. It caught me up in it! There's an arc, and character movement...

But the main thing, of course, is the news items. The one about the Egypt riots I thought was the most interesting. It's easy to get caught out when you suddenly realise what story they are talking about (they typically don't  reveal the date until the news story unfolds). "Oh, they'll tackle that." Next season Sorkin said he'll tackle the 2012 election, although I'm wondering if it will be a near two parter with a certain storm crashing in just before...

So, it's a series that grabs you. It makes me want to go back and watch The West Wing (which I never saw), but I'm not sure I want to get into that, nor that it will resonate as strongly given the not-so-real stories it deals with and the time since the show was on. But definitely looking forward to the next season of this show.

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