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The Newsroom (HBO Series)

Sorkin is my favorite writer so I am pumped to watch this. Sports Night was an underrated gem and West Wing is one of my favorite shows of all time. I am sure I am going to love this one as well. His dialogue is always incredible. Tried watching it last night but I was too tired
 
We won't get this for ages (if ever) in Australia but I heard it was pretty bad and only gets worse.

I'm sad if this is true because the West Wing changed my life!
 
I believe you can watch the pilot here (I'm not signed into YouTube on this computer so I can't confirm): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4ZhFDFYvEt

Watched it again this morning and had a bit more of a positive reaction. Either (1) I'm more awake and/or in a better mood, (2) I've gone through a necessary adjustment period to realize this will not be a rekindling of the West Wing, or (3) I've lowered my expectations just enough to enjoy it.

BTW, I'm a huge fan of Sorkin and found this video pretty funny: http://gawker.com/5921191/the-same-...hrases-in-aaron-sorkins-work?tag=aaron-sorkin
 
I'll be interested to see how this develops over the rest of this season. Pilots are tough because they have to introduce all the characters in a way they don't have to do going forward. For the West Wing'ers out there like myself, remember that even that Pilot, while terrific, was originally designed to have Martin Sheen's president be a minor character, that the writers then re-thought with groups reactions to Sheen's performance in the last few minutes of that episode.

I am very interested in seeing how the Sorkin dynamic works on HBO, and the bar for being successful there is a good bit different than the network shows. Typing that led me to look this up, the ratings from a Washington Post story yesterday: "Nearly 3 million people caught the launch of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” on Sunday. About 2.1 million of that crowd watched the show’s 10 p.m. unveiling. That audience puts “The Newsroom” in company with some of HBO’s most-watched recent premieres, including those of fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” (2.2 million) in April 2011 and vampire drama “True Blood” (1.4 million) in September of ’08."
 
I agree about the unique challenges of scripting a pilot versus creating a series. We've all seen shows with great pilots that quick devolve into drudge (AMC's the Killing comes to mind). I thought the West Wing pilot, with the exception of Sheen's absence, managed to introduce the characters in a compelling way while maintaining a consistent tone with the rest of the first season.

I think to your point, adwillingham, we could be looking at deeper and longer character development with the Newsroom. If that's the case, we'll have a much more accurate understanding of what this show is after episode 5 or 15 than we do at the moment.
 
I just watched the first episode and it seems pretty good o far. This episode was really tough for me to watch though, one of my really good friends died on the Deep Water Horizon, we have a golf tournament here in his memory every year that provides college scholarships. He was pretty high up in the chain of command on the rig. His name was Jason Anderson.
 
I think the show has the potential for greatness, but it is a bit of a mess. All over the place.
 
I think that's why I like it so much, my attention span is only good for about 3 minutes at a time while watching tv lol
 
I love Sorkin's stuff. I wish I had HBO!
 
I generally like the show but after awhile Sorkin's writing gives me a headache.
 
Its good, but I feel I am missing something because everybody seems to think it is the greatest show on tv. I prefer Jeff Daniels in the role of Harry Dunne. That was in my opinion a much deeper and more inspirational role and dare I say one of the best characters in cinematic history.
 
Say what you will about Jeff Daniels - the dude has range.

I thought the 2nd episode wasn't as good as the pilot (which wasn't as good as I expected it to be). It's still better than most of the crap on TV, but so far it's just a bunch of disjointed dialogue (some very heady and some surprisingly lame) being spewed by characters that are mostly underdeveloped and extremely dislikeable.

Ironically, it sort of reminds me of the West Wing after Sorkin left and John Wells tried (and mostly failed) to mimic his style.
 
Right now I am kinda in the I don't like it, but don't dislike it area....it almost seems like Sorkin is trying too hard. There have been some really good moments and some really bad ones....I mean come on as soon as the guy gave the spiel about the new email stuff who didn't know that somebody was going to send an email.....probably either McKenzie or Will that "accidentally" went to everybody??? It was so blatantly obvious.....Sorkin never used to write like that.
 
It could be that he's writing for HBO rather than a mainstream channel. I'm sure the parameters are much different, as is the canvas you can draw on
 
TripleBogieTim said:
Right now I am kinda in the I don't like it, but don't dislike it area....it almost seems like Sorkin is trying too hard. There have been some really good moments and some really bad ones....I mean come on as soon as the guy gave the spiel about the new email stuff who didn't know that somebody was going to send an email.....probably either McKenzie or Will that "accidentally" went to everybody??? It was so blatantly obvious.....Sorkin never used to write like that.
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So true - saw it coming a mile away and it wasn't funny (or believable that someone so smart would be so carelessly stupid).

One of my favorite moments in the West Wing was when Donna sent Josh's office chair away to be fixed. You knew at some point he was going to forget that fact and try to sit down, which wouldn't have been all that funny, except that it happened while Charlie and Zoey were fighting in his office and Charlie had just said something like "I work in a building with the smartest people in the world." Not quite as funny as Josh's secret plan to fight inflation, but certainly much better than the whole "I have this really private email that I meant to send to just you but accidentally sent it to the entire office" bit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaO8WltLmEk).
 
This show has got me, I'm really enjoying it. Filling the gap nicely.
 
FrankA said:
This show has got me, I'm really enjoying it. Filling the gap nicely.
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I agree...particularly when compared to the other crap and re-runs that are on over the summer, we are finding ourselves looking forward to Sunday nights.
 
adwillingham said:
I agree...particularly when compared to the other crap and re-runs that are on over the summer, we are finding ourselves looking forward to Sunday nights.
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Yeah the wife likes it too, an added benefit.

I've run through Game of Thrones on On Demand. Needed something new. This and Deadliest Catch are the only Summer shows I have.
 
This was a good episode. Still a little messy, but I love the characters. This and Suits are what make me have hope for Summer television.
 
JR said:
This was a good episode. Still a little messy, but I love the characters. This and Suits are what make me have hope for Summer television.
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You nailed it for us too, we love Suits as well.
 
Lol, the whole show is unreal. It makes me wonder about Law firms though, I hope they all graduated..
 
Loved Sports Night and the early seasons of the West Wing but Newsroom is so idealogically focused I found it insulting. Sorkin has become so obssessed with pontificating that the dialogue is mostly meandering with flashes of brilliance, which was problematic during the end of his West Wing run. The problem for me is that he so obviously hates anyone with right or center right politics that its hard to differentiate from quality writing and an attempted slap down.
 
This show.... is really good. The characters are just fantastic. Fantastic. I like them more and more with every episode. THis is a real winner.
 
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