More, on HBO's "The Newsroom" ... by gimleteye

The opening sequence of HBO's "Newsroom" sets the stage through a visual paean to a golden age of television news when Rupert Murdoch held no place and viewers still could discern the meaning of fair and balanced. I'm doubtful that "Network" succeeds; either as a facsimile of how TV news is made, or how its makers are perceived and are perceived by insiders, or as cautionary tales how journalism can be thwarted by base motives. Still, any television series that takes on the Murdoch leviathan gets a round of meaty applause before the arrows rain down.

Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The Newsroom", is a smart writer and producer. His "West Wing" pierced one bubble of mythical privilege. In "The Newsroom", he tries to pierce another. In an earlier post, I broadly criticized the purpose of its office romance subplots, then back-tracked in another post, but after half a dozen episodes (and listening to Sorkin on NPR's "Fresh Air") it is clear the family/group dynamic of very bright people working under intense stress -- a central feature of Sorkin's work -- is less a tent pole than a thin tether for a dramatic dirigible.

In the latest episode, "Newsroom" -- thanks to a "Deep Throat" source-- tosses and turns as it debates whether to report out the assassination of Osama Bin Laden even before sources are confirmed. That's the drama. There are various obstructions toward the ending: the actual speech by President Obama from the White House. We all heard it.

Meshing contemporary historical events with fiction works best as comedy: cf. "Forrest Gump". But as serious drama leavened by human interest -- that's Sorkin's aim, isn't it? -- the problem with the real time meshing of fact and fiction is giving the audience reason to keep up with stories where the endings are famously known. This intellectual badminton takes up serious space in the Newsroom's real writing room.

First, the anchor / star Jeff Daniels ingests two whole pot brownies at a party he hosts for the newsroom "family" before the news arrives, played up as the biggest of his career. (Daniels' performance under the influence is mercifully restrained. Thank you, Gods of Actors.) He flees his rent-a-cop protection -- because of death threats -- bolting from his car in traffic, attracting the ire of two hapless cops who chase him into the newsroom as though from a 1930's movie with James Cagney. Secondary characters, trapped on a landed airplane that can't find a gate, are feverishly tapping Blackberry's to find out the latest, while nearby passengers are as "up" on the backstory romantics as viewers. Station producer withholds release of Osama news, because two sources are not verified, causing turmoil and panic. A minor office romance hits the skids, is revived and put back on life support. Ouch, ouch, and ouch.

But it's the payoff that is so troublesome: secondary characters deflating the anger of a flight crew they have made edgy, by announcing that Osama been killed. The rent-a-cop telling the Laurel and Hardy police who chased Jeff Daniels' character into the newsroom, the same. Poor Sam Waterston, the actor whose grizzled veteran with a heart acts as the dramatic center around which the wobbly planets spin. Everyone gets to hear "the biggest news of the decade" through secondary characters as though trickle-down humanity confers a payoff from on-high (the NSA?) for the Joe-The-Plumber-In-All-Of-Us. Only one slender character veers (on the rooftop patio from which suicide would be an easy jump) vaguely toward the trembling question: was the assassination of Osama Bin Laden worth all the cheers?

The real crowds shown on TV broadcasts after the Bin Laden assassination busting open Budweisers and chanting "USA, USA!", did nothing to assuage the heebie jeebie's of a nation and national economy gone off the rails. So what is this version of patriotic gold medalism plated to TV news?

I want the best for "Newsroom", HBO programming, for Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels, one of most underutilized stars of his generation. Sorkin ought to look for drama outside bubbles burped by an unheroic society and an unexceptional nation, but who am I to say? He's the one taking meetings at HBO. I won't stop watching, though, or even hoping that John from Cincinatti walks through the door instead of some smart, attractive new hire trying to find truer love.