Newsroom,
Showcase (Foxtel), Monday 7.30 pm
THE Newsroom is doomed but that hasn’t stopped fans tuning into watch its final, shortened series.
Returning to screens around the world last week, the show has already been axed and this series reduced to a “mini-series” of just a few episodes.
It is nice to see Foxtel has stuck to its guns and Australia is still getting it just a few hours after the US.
It’s a bit of a shame, the series, from the pen of Aaron Sorkin (the brilliant mind behind The West Wing), had a lot of potential.
Set in a newsroom of a fictional pay-TV network, it was about taking topical events and weaving them through the fictional situation. Seeing behind the news and behind the scenes.
Unfortunately it fell a little short – it’s portrayal of women being one of the big bug-bears for a lot of viewers (or at least critics) and its preachy nature.
Cable news networks need to have their integrity restored (did they have integrity?) and there is no value in Twitter, Facebook and any of the social media.
But the show, which stars Jeff Daniels as newsman Will McAvoy with a supporting cast that most shows would kill for and including Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda, Olivia Munn, Allison Pill and Chris Messina, is still good viewing.
It’s still one of the best written shows on television with thought provoking dialogue and interestingly flawed characters.
Did it live up to it’s potential with Sorkin at the head of a stellar cast and Alan Poul, Six Feet Under, as executive director? Probably not.
But it is still worth watching and better than a lot of dross that we are force fed.
This is a show that at least tries to treat us as intelligent human beings and while yes it does have its preachy moments it is, at its heart, entertaining and well-acted and worth a watch.
The opening scenes of the new series focus on the way the media handled the Boston bombing and by the end of the first episode the network is in trouble, the flag-ship news show is in trouble and the scene is set for a showdown.
And, more importantly, you want to know what happens and if a show can make you want to keep watching it (despite its failings) it can’t be all bad right?
Even if it is just to see Sam Waterson’s star turn as Charlie the head of news at the channel and his frequent run-ins with Jane Fonda’s media mogul character (someone give this pair a spin-off show please).
– Tania Phillips
