The Newsroom Recap: Springtime for Cairo and Madison

Then Maggie evokes the far superior Broadcast News, “joking” that she can have her Joan Cusack moment and almost trip over nine different obstacles on her way to the control room except it’s 2011 and the packages are digital and transmitted over servers except not this time but we don’t get to see her run through the obstacle course so why reference it? Psych. That’s a tautology since The Newsroom doesn’t make sense because The Newsroom is nonsensical.

As Elliot continues to be of no use since he’s trapped in a hotel, Don gets frustrated, Mackenzie scolds him while actually managing a brief bit of subtle foreshadowing about not sending an American journalist into harm’s way, and Maggie busts in to let us know she learned how to tie her own shoes. Then she slams the glass door in Jim’s face, again. Don’s had it and leaves to get that Al Jazeera guy before he talks to Maddow and shows more concern for Jim’s busted skull than Maggie does, and a new ship is born.

U.S.S. Dim

Will pivots to cover the Wisconsin protest and Mackenzie’s calling an impromptu meeting of show producers. Sloan’s on her way out since her title is “Economist” but Mackenzie needs to speak with her. Like true upper management, she thinks it’s “charming” that she would have had security stop Sloan from leaving then asks her to wait a few minutes. Sloan asks Mackenzie not to leave her sitting around the office for hours while she goes home then calls to apologize at 11. Mackenzie can’t believe she’s ever done that. She has. Twice. I’m surprised she’s only done it twice. Mackenzie patronizes Sloan that she really was sorry and Sloan indulges her. If she doesn’t have to suffer the consequences of her insufferability,Sloan, she won’t stop being insufferable.

Sloan slinks off to watch TV and Mackenzie sees Wade who’s opted for a blow-dried sleazebag look. More unctuous, less actual grease. They flirt about how he can be hern Egyptologist and she asks him to wait for her at the crappy karaoke bar because Manhattan has only one bar in midtown.

As Wade leaves, Mackenzie talks to one of the control room guys, Herb, about going 17 seconds over with Bernanke. Will uses this as a moment to humiliate Mackenzie in front of the staff, saying she has to count on her fingers, which she does. and then she tells the room Will took tap dancing lessons when he was 11. Is that supposed to be embarrassing? I guess so since the room laughs but should people who think Bigfoot is real and can’t manage basic human interactions really be laughing at other people’s foibles?

Really, Sorkin?

Obviously, because now we hear that Mackenzie thought This Old House was about only one house, which Will refers to as a “mid-century colonial.” I don’t think that’s a thing and it’s definitely not a This Old House thing. Mackenzie’s run out of embarrassing things to share about Will but he continues to belittle her. This is why Don ran from working with you. Although, to be completely honest, it’s impossible to pick a team with these two.