So I think it’s safe to say that The Newsroom has a romance problem, yes? In an episode where our beleaguered heroes get further and further away from ever climbing down from that tree, an episode filled with various intrigues and reversals, the biggest takeaway is that even after all this time, they’re STILL trying to make ‘Jaggie’ a thing.
Let me be perfectly clear on this point: I do not care if Jim and Maggie get together. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I would really, REALLY prefer it if Jim and Maggie didn’t get together. I would be beyond the pale happy if Maggie and Sexy McPoyle got married and made lots and lots of babies, while Jim died alone, using his final breaths to lecture his goldfish on the perils of blog culture, ever even comprehending the stark reality that unable to take that hectoring tone anymore, his goldfish killed itself long ago…
I’m not a fan, is what I’m trying to get across here.
The theme of this weeks’ episode is futility, which presents itself in multiple forms. And glorioski, a few of them were possibly even intentional!
Starting right where we left off last week, Rebecca Halliday outlines how the process of the Grand Jury hearing will go, and the episode unfolds under within the window of the week it will take for all of it to unfold.
Will, touchingly resolute in his belief that he’s too famous to go to jail, is a mostly stoic and resigned presence this week, leaving the freaking out to literally everyone else. Mac, still in panic mode after being given an ultimatum by the source to air the story in four days, throws herself into getting the story ready to air, though for obvious reasons, she can’t tell anyone why she’s so insistent.
Emily Mortimer, having taken a backseat so far this season, gets a showcase moment where she confronts the source in order to get an extension, so they can get the original reporter and his family out of Kundu before the story breaks and his cover is blown. The back and forth between Mortimer and Clea Duvall is pretty heated and great, and kudos to Duvall for remembering that McAvoy is supposed to be a conservative Republican.
(Although it has to be said, minus ten thousand points for trusting Neal to get shit done in the first place, Duvall… it’s almost as if you haven’t been watching the show…)
Will shows up at each successive hearing, doing exactly what he said he’d do, and for his troubles, winds up going to jail for contempt.
Sorry bro; next time, try being internet famous…
Meanwhile, Charlie and new potential ACN owner Pruit have a throwdown, because Pruit is a superior, arrogant, manipulative son of a bitch. And seriously, who would have thought that BJ Novak of all people would be able to go toe to toe with Sam “Fuck’ Em” Waterston and not get embarrassed off the stage?
All this leads to Sloan and Charlie teaming up to find a better buyer for ACN, which they do… or so they think. Or so I think they think. Most of Sloan’s dialogue is utterly incomprehensible to a dummy such as myself, which is exactly why you hire an Olivia Munn to deliver it.
(Alternately, I like to consider that Sorkin simply watched a shitload of ‘G4’ back in the day. This makes me very happy.)
Aaron Sorkin is at his best when his heroes are losing. His tendency towards sincerity can often turn into mawkishness when improperly modulated (as we see almost everywhere else in the episode), but the finest moments in his career are those where he forces his characters to operate in a world where their righteousness is not a shield against cold, hard reality of compromise and self-interest.
All of this to say that I was actually relieved when the Miracle Buyer turned out to be using Sloan and Charlie as pawns in a business gambit and never really had any intention of buying ACN. The sale goes through, making Pruit the new owner of ACN, and his first act is to kill the Kundu story.
This entire enterprise was basically for nothing. Sure, they hand the story off to an old reporter lady we’ve never seen before (yes, yes; old people are still useful! We fucking get it, already…), but their attempt to redeem themselves, their attempt to halt the flow of progress, heck, even the attempt to keep Will out of jail… all for naught.
It’s a pretty bleak ending to what was all set to play out like a by-the-numbers victory lap, and it’s basically justified this final season, despite its overall unevenness.
And speaking of that unevenness…
If romance is dead, I feel comfortable saying that it was in fact, murder. The culprit? Aaron Sorkin, suffocating it with endless reruns of the Jim and Hallie Show, burying it with The Endless Wedding of Will and Mac. Also, there was whatever the fuck just happened with Don and Sloan, which… doesn’t exactly serve the metaphor, but also happened, so we’re going to talk about that, too…
So let me see if I’ve got this right: Jim is a condescending prick, Hallie is a terrible person, and I’m supposed to care what happens to either one of them?
Sorry, but nope. That’s not even remotely how empathy works.
This is where Sorkin tips his hand: if you want to explore the dynamics of modern journalism, and engage in the old media versus new media debate, by all means do that. It’s a subject more than worthy of debate. But don’t pay lip service to playing devil’s advocate and then IMMEDIATELY have your modern character betray her boyfriend for an exclusive. It makes the deck feel a bit stacked. And instead of a deck of cards, it’s a stack of pamphlets you printed up in your basement, because God forbid you just e-mail the shit; that would be admitting defeat.
And if you’re DETERMINED to do the whole straw man deal, at least make an effort to make your “Voice of Reason” even remotely likeable, and not the sort of asshole who can’t stop himself from taking passive aggressive potshots even when he knows it’s absolutely the wrong thing to do.
And for crying out loud, don’t have your primary argument be: “But it’s mean”, which when you boil it down, seems to be Sorkin’s main complaint about the internet age.
Yes, sometimes Gawker can be mean.
That is an observation, not a position paper thesis.
The worst part is that all this drags down Maggie, who has been on fire this year. When Sexy McPoyle accuses her of still having a crush on Jim, it A) Comes out of nowhere; and B) Fucking sucks ass.
It makes the otherwise fantastic sexy McPoyle look like an idiot because his argument seems to be “You’re calling Jim an asshole because you secretly still like him, not because he’s an enormous asshole and you’re observant.” When he should be saying “Hey, I just met you and really don’t know anything about your relationship dynamic with Jim so maybe I should just take what you’re saying at face value. Anyway, I’m going to shut the fuck up and look handsome now.”
Even implying that Maggie is carrying a torch for a character who has gone from charming and smug to overpoweringly obnoxious and smug diminishes her. It’s SUCH a step backward, makes all the work they did seem like a waste of time, and overall is just a real misreading of what the show is good at.
Likewise the whole wedding sequence. With Will going to jail indefinitely, Mac decides that they should just get married here and now, and we are forced to endure a montage of everybody working together to help set up an impromptu courthouse wedding.
Sorkin seems to be banking on our affection for this crazy crew of News Night here, that we’ll be touched at how they come together as more than co-workers; Gosh, it’s almost like they’re a family!
Fair enough, Sorkin, but let me say this: I’m a writer who has watched every episode of every season of your show, often multiple times, and write about it on a weekly basis.
I can name, like, MAYBE two of those other dudes.
So, you know, maybe chalk that one up as a loss…
Last, almost certainly least, and quite possibly best of all, is the Sloan and Don runner, wherein the dynamic duo run around trying to cover up their relationship, but all for naught, as they finally slip and wind up right in Toofer The HR Guy’s line-of-sight.
And then Don realizes that with the sale of ACN, they’re no longer subject to Atlantis codes of conduct, so no one is going to get transferred. Further, the HR guy knew this the whole time and was just messing with them for his own amusement.
I love this so fucking much, you guys.
I know I complained about this whole Sloan and Don B-Plot taking away precious story-related real estate. But turning it all into a pointless shaggy dog joke is so perversely brilliant that it makes me want to stand up and cheer.
Survey says: Sideplot redeemed!
So a mixed bag of an episode to be sure, but things are looking up! And while I’m dreading the inevitable Jim-Maggie nonsense we’ll have to suffer through, at least poor Grace Gummer has been put out of her misery…
CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS -Last week I incorrectly stated that the Source character played by Clea Duvall didn’t have a name. She does. It’s Lilly. But she’ll always be Stokely to me… -Also last week, I alluded to some deleted comments about Mamie Gummer that were derogatory in nature. I would like to sincerely apologize to Ms. Gummer, who probably thought that I meant her sister Grace, since Grace is the one starring on The Newsroom. But no, I meant Mamie. I don’t like her.
-If anybody has a GIF of Charlies tiny victory dance outside the sushi restaurant, please e-mail to to me immediately, c/o Cinapse.
