The Newsroom
The end of the fourth episode of the final season of The Newsroom was old-school. The good guy, Wil McAvoy, greets the waiting arms of Johnny Law side-by-side with his brand-new wife, who marks his dismissal with a dramatic kiss and watery eyes. It was something straight out of a classic Western or a gangster flick and it was pretty great. Cheesy, sure-but great.
Let’s take a step back. Two big things happened in this episode: Will and Mac get married and Will heads to prison for contempt of court. We knew the first of the two would happen and I had a feeling that it wouldn’t take place with 300 people in a church — Sorkin likes human moments too much to go through with something so grand. But the latter event, the one where our main character has something bad actually happen to him, is what marks this episode.
Put simply, nothing good is happening for ACN, not even the normal silver lining of journalistic integrity that marks their negative endeavors. The episode is named “Contempt” presumably because it’s the flavor of the week inside the news network. It’s what Charlie and Lucas Pruit (B.J. Novak) feel for each other. (“You and I are now sworn enemies,” Charlie mutters after Pruit signs the deal to become owner.) A serious clash between Pruit’s 21st century vision and Charlie’s stubborn ideas of noble grandeur seem to be unavoidable at this point. I’m curious to see how Sorkin resolves this one — if at all. With the end of the show looming, he could simply let Pruit pull this ship under water and make a final grand point about how young people suck when it comes to the news. It wouldn’t be wildly surpising.
“Contempt” also permeates the relationship between Hallie and Jim. When Hallie’s editor asks her to “write more personal,” the result is a first-person account of her clashes with Jim that leads to their final demise. The conversation held between the two on the balcony of ACN — the one that eventually turned into their final straw — is a particularly biting piece of writing from Sorkin. An impressive back-and-forth over what defines modern journalism and the values it holds, it is the type of scene that fit well into the plot while also tackling real world issues with some aggression. Moments like this in the show can come off as pretentious to some viewers (and some of them surely have been), but this time around, I found myself reacting to some of the things Jim was saying in a personal way. They made me think about something bigger than the show and in some sense, that has to be viewed as a success.
Outside of the marriage, this wasn’t really the best episode for love. In discussing Hallie’s piece and whether or not she was in the wrong, Jack and Maggie also hit a wall. A very awkward wall. Jack calls Maggie out for still being hung up on Jim, saying, “Any man in your life is going to be the runner-up.” Really? We’re back to this? I never found the Jim and Maggie connection to be that strong, especially not strong enough to have these kind of reverberations. She’ll never love another? I have no curiosity for where this storyline is headed, just fear.
On a much happier note, the montage of the news crew putting together an impromptu city hall wedding so Mac and Will could be joined in matrimony before he went to prison was a nice little moment. Sorkin can do montages — I know that from The West Wing — and sometimes, they’re nice ways to allow all of his characters to show off a little something. Sure, there were cheesy moments, but weddings are cheesy. Charlie walking through the halls of Julliard in order to find a makeshift band for the wedding of two people he surely views as his own children? C’mon, that’s lactose intolerant.
We always knew that Will’s refusal to give up the name of the source would lead somewhere bad — any other outcome would be too unrealistic. But the idea that the Kundu story would be broken by someone other than ACN (in this case, an AP reporter that taught Don at Columbia) is something I didn’t see coming. Pruit’s refusal to run the story in fear of the fines it would elicit is all very logical, it’s just that Sorkin has denied logic a bit in the past to make ACN look like grand bearers of real news. It’s nice to see ACN lose in situations like this because it helps the show inch away from unbelievable TV extravagance. I just didn’t expect to see them lose this much.
Sidenotes:
– Please Sorkin, no more Maggie and Jim. Please, no.
– I was kind of upset to see the HR plotline end with Don and Sloan. It really brought out the best wittiness in them. The only upside of this development is the possibility of more brunches.
– The directing in this episode was a bit overdramatic. Too many slow zooms for my liking.
– With Will behind bars, who becomes the fulcrum of the newsroom action? I don’t know if I can take an increase of stressed-out Mac or curmudgeonly Charlie. Gary Cooper, this is your time to shine.
– I’m still holding out hope for the Gwyneth Paltrow storyline.
Last week’s episode:
RECAP: The Newsroom, “Main Justice”
“Main Justice,” the third episode of the final season of The Newsroom, made one thing very clear: if you’re not on board with the Neal government docs storyline, then you will hate how this show ends. It appears that Sorkin will continue to push forward with the story as the centerpiece of the season and all else will fall to small, supplementary roles. It’s a move that makes sense because the narrative is so filled with the potential for legal and ethical dilemmas but it’s a risky move for Sorkin, especially after the focus on the Genoa story in season two rubbed some people the wrong way.
I personally enjoy it, and I think the back-to-back combo of “Run” and “Main Justice” has breathed new life into a show that could have possibly limped to the finish. I think the show is gallantly heading to the exit door on the back of classic Sorkin writing — writing that is witty, engaging and exciting.
I talked last week about the meta storyline of Will McAvoy and ACN representing Sorkin and the show itself. In that vein, the sense that the end is around the corner was very present here. At the end of “Main Justice,” ACN and its employees are a jumbled mess, heading down a road that looks as bleak as Toby from The Office’s (sorry, that name still takes precedence over his character’s real one) environmental outlook.
Last episode ended with the FBI rifling through the ACN newsroom and its computers, so Sorkin decided to solve that issue with a quick, clever, only-on-TV sequence in which Mac and company pretend as if they’re about to broadcast the aid live on the air. Turns out that Charlie is on the phone with Domino’s instead of Los Angeles control and the whole thing is a grand lesson about how everyone cares about their image, even the FBI. Mac and her (former?) friend Agent Levy square off a bit during this, an entertaining clash that ends with Mac telling Levy she’s going to get the fish at their wedding whether she likes it or not, and the fish is “going to suck.”
Mac, Will, Charlie and their lawyer, Rebecca (who looks like she’s going to play a big part in this season), are summoned to Washington and Main Justice where they encounter an aggressive justice department D.A. He tells them that Neal is in South America, a bad move on his part as it makes him look more like a radical than a whistleblowing newsman. Still, the ACN crew doesn’t budge, their resistance marked by a nice little speech from Will about his position of power in the whole situation. I really like the way Daniels has been handling this season. He is in a nice area with his approach, somewhere in between the witty/douchey newsroom maestro and the pretentious noble anchor. He’s confident yet personable, and the slight interactions of affection between him and Emily Mortimer are always a treat.
But it turns out that Will’s position is not powerful enough as the episode ends with him being subpoenaed. The Neal situation will obviously not be letting up anytime soon, made even more evident by the fact that his secret source is now known. The source turns out to be a woman named Lily Hart. She says that if ACN doesn’t run the story in the coming days, she may just release it herself — maybe on Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog. Knowing the source really throws a wrench into everything because now everyone at ACN is joining Will in especially hot water, especially Mac. Whether Hart, played by Clea DuVall, will get a lot more face time in the plot or just remain as a looming conundrum remains to be seen, but it was interesting decision by Sorkin to break her out so soon.
Meanwhile, on the business side of things, Leona couldn’t come up with the $4 billion necessary to secure ACN’s future so she has to sell off the news division to a young billionaire. That billionaire turns out to be Lucas Pruit, a young mogul played by B.J. Novak, the second Office alum to join the fray (a trend I am really enjoying). Similar to Ryan Howard in season four of The Office, Novak’s character is young and power-drunk, telling Charlie some ideas he has in mind for the station that make the news vet’s skin crawl. I like this storyline because it’s a new dynamic to challenge the unwavering integrity ACN trumpets, especially one that represents some questionable modern norms in the news business.
Last but not least, Toby from The Office comes on-air for his exclusive interview with Will and basically tells the world that their doom is right around the corner. I would assume a story like that his should help get ACN out of fourth place but the news world is crazy so who knows. This was another solid episode in the show’s home stretch.
Sidenotes:
– “The Mets need speed, the Mets need power, the Mets need pitching: that’s what I’m thinking about right now.” I loved this scene between Jim and Maggie but I want no part of a reunion storyline between the two. Please, no.
– I am very sick of Hallie. The debate over BuzzFeed-y type “news” sites is interesting, I just don’t want her on the show anymore. Sorry.
– Don and Sloan continue to be great, this time trying to avoid Wyatt the new HR guy and still be witty.
– Part of me is definitely hoping for the Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog storyline to come to fruition. Wait, no — all of me is hoping for that.
– What Office alum will pop up next? I vote John Krasinski as Jim Harper’s (weirdly similar character names) older brother or Steve Carell as one of Will’s loser friends at the wedding.
