Flashback 14 months to August 23, 2011, Gaddafi was just overthrown and DSK is in the news. It looks like it’s business as usual for News Night, except the fallout from Will’s comments calling the Tea Party “The American Taliban” seems to have just started hitting the fan. Will jokes that the Taliban resented the comparison, but the reality is that the higher-ups at AWM are feeling the heat. Reese Lansing is turned away at a Congressional meeting about internet piracy, and Leona’s incensed because, as she puts it, “We own intellectual property and I want the f***ing pyjama people to stop stealing it.” The chips are falling, Leona tells Charlie, and the first chip that falls on Will is that he won’t be taking part in the network’s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of September 11th.
In the romance department, The Newsroom still feels like it’s in a first season rut. Pre-Dragon Tattoo Maggie and Don seem to be in a very happy place, which is a struggle for Jim, who happily seizes an opportunity to get out of town and on to a Mitt Romeny campaign bus. Meanwhile, Sorkin’s still pushing this unexplained sexual tension thing between Sloan and Don, which may be good for Don considering he becomes privy to Maggie’s tirade to the Sex and the City bus tour (Thanks YouTube!) and leaves. “I spent all this time thinking I was a bad guy for not being in love with you,” Don says in what has to be the most resentful part of what was otherwise a very upbeat break-up.
But the main thrust of the episode was the set up of “Genoa,” a McGuffin of a news story that’s supposed to “makes careers and ends presidencies.” The source is Jerry Dantana, a new character played by Hamish Linklater who’s an ACN producer from Washington brought in to sub for Jim. Jerry joins Sloan’s push to make U.S. drone strikes and policy a topic on News Night. One of the panellists Jerry brings in is all for drones, even if sometimes innocent civilians are mistaken for terrorists, because better safe than sorry. Despite prodding from McKenzie, Will lets foaming at the mouth go on, seemingly to buttress News Night’s political slide.
One of the problems with The Newsroom season one was the issue of hindsight. The News Night team would always cover the right issues, the right way, the first time because a couple of years later we knew all the facts. But in tackling drones, an issue that is still being debated regularly in the news, Sorkin can make a statement and be part of the argument rather feel like the wagging finger of the disapproving mother, chastising the news media for not covering the news the way his fictional characters are. Not that he’s wrong, but it was the attitude that a lot of people had problems with last season rather than the message itself.
In other news, Neal gets wind of this thing called “Occupy Wall Street,” which in August 2011 was in its nascent, pre-planning days. Neal pitches the story, noting the incredible amount of online traffic forming around this idea, but McKenzie doesn’t think there’s a story there (yet). Nevertheless, she encourages Neal to check out a meeting that night, where we’re introduced to Shelly Wexler, a cute red head who’s a Ph. D candidate and a veteran activist having cut her teeth as a teen at the WTO protests in Seattle in ’99.
Naturally, sparks fly between her and Neal, the blogger wanting her cause to succeed so he can cover the action, but sceptical Sally tells Neal he’s “on the wrong side of the camera” if that’s the case. Some of the other Occupiers seemed drawn in a broadly silly way, but what I did appreciate was the way Sorkin framed McKenzie’s doubt in the cause by having her read off a list of all the protests in New York City she gets notice about everyday. Sorkin’s at his best when he can make you see both sides of the argument, which is what he does here.
Overall, I think I’m more intrigued this year to see where The Newsroom is going than last year. The Genoa storyline has tremendous promise with the episode being bookended by the depositions of Will and McKenzie. (“The biggest thing we ever touched including Charlie,” McKenzie notes about Genoa, adding, it was “The most viewed program in the history of cable news.”)
The cast as well seems more relaxed, as if they’re having conversations with one another now, and aren’t always being hoisted on to soapboxes. The biggest improvement of all though was in McKenzie’s character, and although there were still a few Holly Golightly moments (“I left my purse up at the office.” Really?), McKenzie seemed more like an executive producer of a major network news show and less like the activities director on the Love Boat.
What I could have done without? The prickish press guy on the Romney bus that doesn’t let Jim get on because the “American Taliban” flap and telling Jim he’ll have to drive adding, “What’s Obama got the gas at?” I know some people genuinely thought that, but Romney lost the election, so why not put the best face on it? Also, I don’t know why Will was making Jenna, the “Why is America great?” sorority girl turned intern, learn musical theatre history, especially when his singing the words to “Friday” between packages at the desk is an affront to all music and not just musical theatre. It also would have been nice if the Genoa story had come down on the shoulders of one of the main cast and not on the temp flown in from Washington, but I guess Sorkin’s not at that point yet where he’s able to dirty up his perfect characters.
The bottom line is that strides have been made to make The Newsroom more of a TV show and less a Sorkin polemic on why America/the media/everyone else is wrong, and that’s what we call progress.
Leave your own thoughts about the second season premiere of The Newsroom below.