MiniCap: The Newsroom

Welcome to The Newsroom recap 2.0! Or as I like to call it, Aaron Sorkin’s cry for help. Dude, it’s okay. You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And I’m sure someone likes you. You can let someone else write a script or two. Terence Winter does it all the time.

The episode revolves around SB 1070, Arizona’s immigration reform bill. To prove his Republican bona fides, this is a bill Will supports and he liberally uses the word “illegals” which makes my eye twitch but at least they know it’s a TW. Neal and Maggie make frowny faces to let us know how very deeply, and compassionately, they feel about this subject. I was kind of hoping Neal was undocumented.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie forgets what professionalism is and runs around asking if everyone thinks Will’s “an ass.” No, Mackenzie. They think he’s a dick. She foolishly thinks it’s because they mistakenly think he cheated on her when, in reality, it’s because he never bothered to learn anyone’s name and when he does, he proudly announces it during a staff meeting while engaging in minor bits of racism. Also, he has a lot of TV monitors and guitars lined up against the wall of his elegantly Spartan downtown apartment. He may also be a douche.

But to save Mackenzie’s ass from being the worst offender in the unprofessional department are Will, who is evergreen, Jim, who engages in loud and aggressive arguments with Maggie who, once again, steals the title of most inappropriate staffer by first getting aggressive and rude with Jim (her boss) then, oops, forgets to mention a very, very important piece of information that loses them an interview with Gov. Brewer. I’ll assume that was actually a bad thing.

Luckily, she’s a girl and boys are there to protect her. Yay? Also, Mackenzie engages in some light sexual harassment of Sloan but that’s not a problem, either, because Will engages in even worse sexism and Mackenzie defends Sloan so it’s a zero sum game with her.

Charlie’s woefully underused this week, mostly sitting in his office playing online poker with a middle-schooler and telling some guy named Reese not to meet with Will to talk about numbers because Will’s still a big baby and if his numbers slip with the new format he’ll go back to being Jay Leno and no one wants that.  Reese doesn’t listen to Charlie, though, because why listen to the head of the news division when he can fire you?

Please don’t be a stranger.

Then Mackenzie inadvertently sends an email to the entire staff instead of just to Will which causes him to completely lose his shit in front of everyone, just to remind them that no matter what she says Will’s still a dick. Then he goes so far as to utterly and completely FUBAR their first episode up to and including a heretofore unknown to Mackenzie defense of Sarah Palin that is hilariously mealy-mouthed and stuttering for a man who allegedly lives when there is no script.

So, yeah. This one was all over the place and featured way too many people shouting and talking over each other and generally being assholes for no explicable reason. I guess this is considered “character development” and “making them human” but I’m fine with two-dimensional characters who appreciate quiet time every now and then.

Full recap in a few days. Until then, you can catch up on the last recap here.

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