On the Newsroom Finale

[seekingferret]

My feelings about the Newsroom finale are odd. On the one hand, I am absolutely furious about everything that happened. (I liked Emily Yoshida's comment: "I'm on record as being overwhelmingly uninvested in this 'ship [Will/Mackenzie], but even I had to watch that scene from the other side of the room so as not to inflict similar damage to my television"). There are no words for how horribly the end of the season was a perversion of any reasonable way to understand relationship logic. On the other hand, I'm kind of worn out with being angry at The Newsroom, and my rage was kind of muted, exasperated rage. Also, I was so flabbergasted at times that I almost forgot to be angry.

Don's grand romantic gesture directed toward a woman he has decided he can't date for professional reasons made me angrier in some ways than the WillKenzie nightmare because the WillKenzie nightmare has just made no sense for ages whereas Don/Sloan had seemed like it was heading for a Josh/Donna slowplay, which I would have been okay with. If the story is: Don is attracted to Sloane, but doesn't pursue is because he is her professional superior and he doesn't wish to tangle with the problems that involves, and Sloane is attracted to Don, but is too clueless to realize that he has feelings for her, and so the two of them settle into a comfortable friendship, I am happy with that story. That is a story that works. And that was the story most of the season, until we learn in the finale that apparently what was actually happening was: Don is attracted to Sloane, but thinks a relationship per se would be seen as inappropriate given their professional relationship. He therefore behaves stalkery and controlling towards her, seizing any opportunity he can to make her feel indebted toward him as a sort of proxy for the relationship that he is unwilling to openly pursue. Sloane doesn't realize this until the end of the season, upon which realization she kisses him.

Meanwhile, the answer to Mackenzie's question about the level of Will's douchiness is that no, there is nobody in the world who is a bigger douche than Will, and he has manipulated her feelings for five years for no other reason than because it's a distracting game from his feelings of rejection. Clearly they are meant for each other and must get married as soon as possible. This cannot possibly end badly.

Meanwhile, it only takes two episodes for the crew of News Night to convince themselves that no, they didn't participate in a massively incompetent news story about important military secrets with ethical implications... they just got duped by a rogue producer. The self-importance in the scenes where Charlie and Will make this decision is beyond offensive.

Also, that whole Occupy Wall Street storyline from earlier this season that got me so exercised about its myopia? Picked up again as a throwaway line dismissing its relevance in comparison to the Tea Party in the finale. Apparently that whole storyline was leading up to this, the only true way to evaluate OWS according to Sorkin and McAvoy is by measuring their dicks against the Tea Party at the ballot box.

And I cannot even talk about Maggie's hair because I swear I will die of the stupid.


tl;dr: I am going to be watching Season 3 of this nightmare in agony. Somebody figure out how to convince me to quit?

Comments

[sanguinity]

I do not watch the Newsroom, but this review made me laugh and laugh.

Would that I did not have such deep understanding of this feeling:

On the other hand, I'm kind of worn out with being angry at The Newsroom, and my rage was kind of muted, exasperated rage. Also, I was so flabbergasted at times that I almost forgot to be angry.

...but! I want to know about Maggie's hair! Surely you wouldn't actually die of stupid?

[thirdblindmouse]

At least the characterization of Don as a controlling creep towards the women he likes has been consistent.

[seekingferret]

In retrospect, of course, you're right. Except that the show had seemed to dip away from that characterization of Don over the course of the show- in the pilot, he was the controlling creepy boyfriend who was obsessed with ratings instead of journalistic integrity, but he handled breaking up with Maggie with about as much grace as was possible in the situation and the show ended up using him as the fulcrum for debates on the ethical lines news shows must draw, instead of using him as the stick figure voice of the network. So it was disturbing to see the return of Pilot Don in the season finale.

[thirdblindmouse]

On reading your comment and looking up the cast of characters, I think I was confusing him with Jim. Maggie must have a type.

Backsliding is disappointing.

[seekingferret]

Jim? Oh, Jim is just a giant dick.

[starlady]

Just say no! Delete the programmed recording on your DVR, leave your dwelling place when it airs! Just say no! It's not going to get better!

[seekingferret]

It is so not going to get better.

Here's my feeble attempt

[scintilla72]

> Somebody figure out how to convince me to quit?

Life's too short. Take that time and spend it doing something you won't be able to enjoy in another 30-40 years.

[calledtovienna]

Somebody figure out how to convince me to quit?

Feel frustrated about the mediocrity that was the last season of Mad Men instead?

Wait, that's not helpful.

[zandperl]

Last media I kept consuming despite hating it was the Nth book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. His writing was a very easy/fast read, but I hated the world he built b/c of his philosophies, and I hated the main characters who agreed with those philosophies. In the end, I kept reading it for the torture porn b/c I was so enjoying the way he was beating up his own horrible main characters. I kept hoping they'd die, but they kept getting (temporary) happy endings.

Are you at least getting some pleasure out of this agony? If so, embrace your masochistic side and go with it. If not, bail.

[seekingferret]

So the thing is that I love Aaron Sorkin's dialogue. I love the rhythms of it, I love the way he compresses meaningful intellectual arguments into entertaining exchanges, I love the sheer joy in language it expresses. And when the show is telling stories about how hard it is to deliver the news well, I enjoy it. There's an episode about covering Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring in Season 1 that is just stellar, because it juggles the value of keeping journalists safe against the value of being first-hand on the scene at a news story with such exceptional insight.

The problem is that to get that I have to endure unbelievable misogyny and unbelievably stupid discussions of politics.

[zandperl]

It sounds to me like you're still getting something out of it. I'd say keep watching it, and write more criticisms to purge your system of that part. :)