As critically acclaimed American TV series go, three seasons is not typically representative of success – especially when one of those was just a measly six episodes long. Yet, Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’ – though admittedly not universally appreciated – has at least managed to garner a degree of praise in its short run since 2012’s pilot episode, making its early conclusion all the more confusing.
Even after the finale was aired both here in the UK and over in the US and this week, opinion is still divided as to whether Sorkin’s depiction of a primetime television newsroom – and a broad examination of modern broadcast journalism – will enhance or diminish his stellar reputation as a storyteller.
After all, this is the man responsible for the multi-award-winning ‘The West Wing,’ the Broadway play-turned-Hollywood motion picture ‘A Few Good Men’ and the transformation from page to screen of Ben Mezrich’s ‘The Social Network.’
Put simply, Sorkin is in exclusive company when it comes to screenwriters. His use of a series of story-telling devices such as rapid-fire dialogue, extended monologues and the now legendary ‘walk-and-talk’ shot are embedded in popular culture.
Seth Meyers, host of the nightly US talk show ‘Late Night,’ was both poking fun at and honouring Sorkin when he produced a sketch incorporating all of the screenwriter’s famous devices as part of Sorkin’s recent appearance on the show.
The walk and talk is trademark Sorkin: the sequence will consist of a single tracking shot featuring two or more characters engaged in breathless conversation as they walk through set, with people and objects entering and exiting seamlessly as the shot continues without cuts.
The dialogue is fast, witty and sharp. It makes you want to be a part of the conversation or at least have a similar one with your own work colleagues the next morning. And when it comes to an extended monologue, Sorkin has written some simply jaw-dropping scenes.
In the Season 2 ‘West Wing’ episode ‘Two Cathedrals’, he wrote a part-English, part-Latin tirade against God to be delivered by Michael Sheen’s president Josiah Bartlett after his secretary was killed in a car accident. Wonderfully scripted and beautifully acted, it was possibly one of the most powerful and memorable scenes in television in the 2000s. (And if we’re looking for individual examples of Sorkin’s writing prowess, there are plenty more to choose from. How about the “you can’t handle the truth!” speech from ‘A Few Good Men?’)
So how does The Newsroom stack up in comparison? While it bears many of the essential Sorkin production hallmarks, the overbearing sense with his latest creation is one of overwhelming sanctimony, which is probably the deciding factor on whether or not you’ll enjoy the show.
‘The Newsroom’ tells the story of news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels), and his staff of producers and journalists as they tackle real-life news events and the pressures of ratings and reporter ethics. As early as the first episode of Season 1, Sorkin uses the show to portray a nobility in journalism and an integrity that has been lost to varying extents in modern day media.
As the news team cover events from the not so distant past – such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – the audience are afforded the luxury of knowing more than the characters (assuming they pay attention to the news). This allows Sorkin’s news team to get it right more often than they get it wrong (or at least make a valiant attempt to do so). The Season 1 episode ‘I’ll Try To Fix You’ features McAvoy’s team deciding not to broadcast the story that Giffords had been killed by the attempt on her life (she hadn’t), when most if not all other major networks did. Giffords survived and our heroic team were vindicated.
But where some take issue with ‘The Newsroom’ is the level of authority and righteousness the characters take. It’s one thing to show them doing their jobs well, both practically and ethically, but at times the patting on the back can be at best gratuitous and at worst nauseating.
The most recent episodes of Season 3 have depicted McEvoy’s decision not to reveal the identity of a source in a particularly sensitive news story – a key moral belief that all journalists must adhere to, we’re led to believe – leading to his 52-day incarceration for being in contempt of court.
McEvoy has a clear and obvious way of ending his imprisonment (by revealing the source), but he is seen stubbornly clinging on to his journalistic principles to protect others. This is all very noble, but one can imagine the frustration felt by some viewers as, for the umpteenth time, he smirks and answers “no sir” to the prosecutor when asked to name the source.
Sanctimony in characters is nothing new for Sorkin. It’s something he used a lot in ‘The West Wing’ and to great effect in ‘The Social Network’ when writing Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. But in ‘The Newsroom’ it can, at times, feel forced, as if Sorkin is ramming his opinions down your throat.
If you can move past that, the show is very promising. The inner workings of modern broadcast journalism are explored in great depth, there isn’t an over-reliance on technical jargon so it’s fairly straight-forward to keep up with and the interpersonal relationships between characters, though a touch grating at times (see the almost endless game of cat and mouse between Jim and Maggie), add an additional element of intrigue.
Thomas Sadoski’s Don Keefer and Olivia Munn’s Sloane Sabbith provide endless warmth in their many scenes together as a producer and financial news anchor in a relationship with each other. Showcasing Sorkin’s ability to transform a character, both started on the periphery of the show, but grew quickly to become arguably the two most cherished characters.
All that said, the show has not been without its controversies. The recent Season 3 episode ‘Oh Shenandoah’ was heavily criticised in the US for the storyline involving an alleged rape victim and one of the producers’ admission that he felt morally obliged to believe the defendant’s side of the story.
Critics have labelled the show as having a ‘woman problem’ and one of its own writers Alena Smith criticised the show, tweeting that she had been kicked out of the writing room by Sorkin when she had raised objections to a scene where “a rape victim gets interrogated by a random man.”
The show has also been slated for perceived attacks on the Republican Party, which plays a heavy role in early plot lines, and for a general over-reliance on “sermonising diatribes.” Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times that “at its worst, the show chokes on its own sanctimony.”
As we can now look back on the series as a complete body of work, it doesn’t seem likely that ‘The Newsroom’ will rank at the top of Sorkin’s esteemed career, with too many controversies and criticisms stacking up in the against column.
But to dismiss it completely is a mistake. Sorkin has offered us a look into the thought processes into what constitutes news today. And though the characters might not curry favour with everyone, the show asks plenty of questions of today’s mainstream media – ones that will perhaps become the enduring legacy of the show.
Mark Tilley
Filed under: Pop Culture
