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Dec. 3rd, 2014 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretRe: Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom:
Season 3 is pushing my rage buttons a hell of a lot less. There seems to be some self-awareness creeping in. There seems to be more awareness on the part of the writers that Sam Watterston has been playing Charlie as an incompetent drunk, Olivia Munn has been playing Sloane as a flighty flake, and the only reason why Jim Harper isn't the worst boyfriend in the world is because he's on the same show as Will McAvoy. The scene in the first episode where Charlie and Will try desperately to come up with an inspiring speech to make during the Boston Marathon bombing coverage was effective along these lines, as was the scene where Maggie apologizes for monologuing because where she works, that's how everyone talks. Being on the same page as the writers, that this is a show about people who are really good at reporting the news and really terrible at life, is making it less enraging to watch.
It's also given them the freedom to take the show into darker places. Neal is in Venezuela and may spend the rest of the show there. Will is in jail and may spend the rest of the show there. I would be really delighted if Will spent the rest of the show in jail, though I kind of doubt it will happen, but sending Will off to jail to Schubert's Ave Maria was a baffling regurgitation of Sorkinian tics that kind of worked dramatically. Will managed to be both a hero and a jackass boyfriend in that scene, and it's thought-provoking and unlike a lot of things on the show, startlingly human.
If Sorkin thinks this show is a good defense of the value of traditional journalism in the face of internet media, he needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Sometimes it seems like Season 3 is actually that look in the mirror, but sometimes reading Season 3 that way requires us to root against all the ensemble characters and root for the guest stars, and that's a little uncomfortable to do even when the guest stars include BJ Novak and Mary McCormack. But oh, man, Charlie and Sloane, if you couldn't tell that your meeting with the potential buyer was a setup for a screwjob, you need to go back to business school fast. When the ensemble characters are this incompetent, it becomes easier to root against their nonsense ideology. It becomes easier to root for the triumph of the internet as a coming together of technology and community, when the heroes of the old guard are laughable buffoons.
The less said about the Carnivore plotline, though, the better. As Will is an awful human being, Jim is an awful human being and a particularly awful boyfriend, and I am desperately praying that Hallie's realization of this fact is permanent, because no, you do not need to return to that emotionally abusive relationship, Hallie. But I really like that Hallie has been given the intellectual and emotional integrity throughout this plotline to never doubt herself no matter how big a jerk Jim has been.
I do wonder if there is something spiritually damaging about being a social media-oriented journalist in a company built around clickbait, and I think Hallie wonders, too, but I think she's shown making peace with it. The point isn't whether what she writes is clickbaity, the point is whether what she writes is good- emotionally compelling, thought-provoking, honest, and challenging. The internet will make changes both for the good and for the bad, but it will make changes- and Hallie has the brains and integrity to roll with those changes. Good riddance that she's no longer at the mess that is ACN.
Season 3 is pushing my rage buttons a hell of a lot less. There seems to be some self-awareness creeping in. There seems to be more awareness on the part of the writers that Sam Watterston has been playing Charlie as an incompetent drunk, Olivia Munn has been playing Sloane as a flighty flake, and the only reason why Jim Harper isn't the worst boyfriend in the world is because he's on the same show as Will McAvoy. The scene in the first episode where Charlie and Will try desperately to come up with an inspiring speech to make during the Boston Marathon bombing coverage was effective along these lines, as was the scene where Maggie apologizes for monologuing because where she works, that's how everyone talks. Being on the same page as the writers, that this is a show about people who are really good at reporting the news and really terrible at life, is making it less enraging to watch.
It's also given them the freedom to take the show into darker places. Neal is in Venezuela and may spend the rest of the show there. Will is in jail and may spend the rest of the show there. I would be really delighted if Will spent the rest of the show in jail, though I kind of doubt it will happen, but sending Will off to jail to Schubert's Ave Maria was a baffling regurgitation of Sorkinian tics that kind of worked dramatically. Will managed to be both a hero and a jackass boyfriend in that scene, and it's thought-provoking and unlike a lot of things on the show, startlingly human.
If Sorkin thinks this show is a good defense of the value of traditional journalism in the face of internet media, he needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Sometimes it seems like Season 3 is actually that look in the mirror, but sometimes reading Season 3 that way requires us to root against all the ensemble characters and root for the guest stars, and that's a little uncomfortable to do even when the guest stars include BJ Novak and Mary McCormack. But oh, man, Charlie and Sloane, if you couldn't tell that your meeting with the potential buyer was a setup for a screwjob, you need to go back to business school fast. When the ensemble characters are this incompetent, it becomes easier to root against their nonsense ideology. It becomes easier to root for the triumph of the internet as a coming together of technology and community, when the heroes of the old guard are laughable buffoons.
The less said about the Carnivore plotline, though, the better. As Will is an awful human being, Jim is an awful human being and a particularly awful boyfriend, and I am desperately praying that Hallie's realization of this fact is permanent, because no, you do not need to return to that emotionally abusive relationship, Hallie. But I really like that Hallie has been given the intellectual and emotional integrity throughout this plotline to never doubt herself no matter how big a jerk Jim has been.
I do wonder if there is something spiritually damaging about being a social media-oriented journalist in a company built around clickbait, and I think Hallie wonders, too, but I think she's shown making peace with it. The point isn't whether what she writes is clickbaity, the point is whether what she writes is good- emotionally compelling, thought-provoking, honest, and challenging. The internet will make changes both for the good and for the bad, but it will make changes- and Hallie has the brains and integrity to roll with those changes. Good riddance that she's no longer at the mess that is ACN.