MiniCap: The Newsroom

Who’s embarrassed to be in this scene?

So, the big episode they were building up to even in the preseason is here…the bin Laden episode. I’m sure Sorkin will treat it with the sobriety (heh) thoughtfulness and measured drama such an historic event should inspire, right?

HAHAHAHAHAHA…this episode just reminded why so many people, liberals included, hate Hollywood liberals.

But back to the episode. It begins with a party at Will’s apartment to celebrate the one year (and one week…because everything has to be magically coincidental on this show or Tinkerbell dies) of the relaunch of News Night. Charlie gets a ridiculous call from some jackass calling himself “Deep Throat” and Will practically begs the staff to leave but they just smile and fawn and chuckle over just what a lovably irascible old coot he is because all the staffers who had any self respect joined Don in moving over to 10:00 with Elliot.  Then they play such exciting party games as “Celebrity” and chess.  Is this a Christian summer camp?

Mackenzie ticks off another box in her sexist stereotype portfolio and Will gets baked for “medicinal” and plot purposes that have little payoff, then Mackenzie, Charlie, Jim and Neal’s girlfriend Kaley all get word that something big’s about to go down.

As the rest of the staff takes the subway into midtown, Lonny drives Will the long way, getting stuck in traffic on “New York Street” on some Hollywood back lot. Hilarity and high jinks ensue as Will decides to run to the ACN offices and Lonny has to endure some very, very mild police harassment because NYPD is known to be very restrained in their response to large, angry men of color who say “I’m armed.”

Over with the characters I like, Don, Elliot and, for some reason Sloan, are making lemonade out of the bad dialogue lemons they were handed while they’re stuck on a plane waiting to taxi to their gate at La Guardia and I’m reminded how much better this show would be if it focused on them. But it isn’t so we go back to the newsroom.

Where Sorkin’s obviously forgotten what an actual high person looks and acts like and Will’s perfectly normal, except he forgot how to tie his tie. Man, this show even makes weed tedious. Then in an interesting piece of “character development” we get a whole subplot on whether or not they should scoop the President and break the news embargo before he has a chance to make his announcement about killing bin Laden, because this is the “story of a generation” even though it really isn’t since Will and probably even Mackenzie were journalists in 2001 and generations are longer than a decade. 

As they wait for the President to speak, the embargo to be lifted, and the carrier pigeon that’s supposed to bring the entire story, with sources, to the newsroom, Mackenzie convenes a production meeting to, I guess, brainstorm other possible stories until Neal suggests extra terrestrials and I wonder exactly how he managed to get a work permit to come to the US.