Ripping Good Yarns: The Newsroom Bulletin!

From the input I have seen so far from my fellow Rippers , it doesn't seem that many have the premium cable  network HBO.  That is understandable.  It does cost and it is only one of several premium channels that a household could have.  We have it primarily because of A Game of Thrones, but there are other things we watch on it.

It is not always easy that Alison and I can find a show we can agree on, catch it at the beginning, and then keep following.  Treme' was one of the good ones.  Alison is catching up to me on True Blood via HBO Go.  And now we have Newsroom.

Newsroom is a snappy, intense new show on HBO from the creative producer and writer Aaron Sorkin, most famous for the series West Wing.  It has that crisp walking style action that West Wing had.  You know, where much of the dialogue is delivered while people are in movement.  It stars Jeff Daniels, much smarter than his Dumb and Dumber days, as an intelligent news anchor, whose skills and news instincts have been suddenly awakened by Emily Mortimer, playing an executive producer who had a prior romantic relationship with Daniel's character.  Her dialogue is sharp, smart and fast, the best of it's kind since Lauren Graham in the Gilmore Girls.    Allison Pill is absolutely charming as the young assistant torn between the bad boyfriend and the gut who would be absolutely perfect for her.

The Newsroom tries to hearken back to a time when news broadcasts were actually about news, not fluff pieces about overweight cats and what kind of wedding cake to get, nor overly wrought political screeds from the likes of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Liely, nor even false equal time fests where an obviously false point of view is given equal time with a truthful point of view. They strive for journalism at it's finest, to get to the core of a story and better inform the public. It's set slightly in the past, and the news stories they uncover ring true, because they play off real events.

At times, it borders on pompous and and almost preachy in trying to convey it's point of view, but most often it is moving and meaningful.  Other times, the dialogue among is fairly comedic, reminding me of Back To You and News Radio.

The question is - is it a ripping good yarn?  If it was just the pompous speeches, I might say no.  But the characters are vibrant, the plot is intriguing and has some continuing elements.  So I would say yes, at least to this point, after the first three episodes.

The show, however, is in part re-creating the wheel.  The type of program it is suggesting is already done.  It is called The Rachel Maddow Show.  It is the best journalism on TV today, and when I watch Jeff Daniels is doing as Will MacAvoy, it often seems it is pulled straight from Rachel Maddow.  Check out Rachel Maddow if you haven't already.

All in all, I would give this show a 9 out of 10.