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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Final season of 'The Newsroom' focuses on characters rather than ideology

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Aaron Sorkin's latest creation, "The Newsroom," begins its third season.

Aaron Sorkin -- famed creator of “Sports Night” (1998), “The West Wing” (1999-2006) and, more recently, “The Newsroom” (2012-present) -- is not known for his subtlety. Indeed, “The Newsroom,” which entered its third and final season on Nov. 9, has been criticized for its flashy portrayal of fictionalized television news channel ACN and the heavy-handed lessons it doles out. The show exists in a delayed reality, in which the characters are reporting on events that happened around a year-and-a-half ago. The third season begins with the Boston Marathon bombing, which quickly becomes one of the focal points of the first episode.

In the first season, anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) goes on numerous angry tirades about the state of America and ethical journalism. The characters, in general, were entertaining, and the story was intriguing at best, but the self-righteous tone of the show exceeded even that of “The West Wing” and prevented the series from becoming something great. The second season was far better, as it dropped some of the relationship drama that plagued the first season, allowing some of the previously annoying characters to develop into entertaining, multi-dimensional people. This middle season focused on the troublesome idea of misreporting, with the crew of ACN publishing an incorrect news story. This fictionalized scandal allowed the show to take a step back from covering old news -- which had at times made the plot feel redundant -- and develop this newsroom as a whole.

Though it may be an exaggeration to say that the third season premiere of “The Newsroom” is better than the entirety of the first season, it's only a slight one. The formerly preachy Will is now a loveable curmudgeon, who is having trouble giving rousing speeches to his colleagues. Will’s failure to express moral outrage in a monologue -- one of his typical attempts to talk about what America means -- is a comedic point in the episode.  It’s as if Sorkin has realized that the strength of the show is in its characters and in its plot, not necessarily in its idealism. It seems clear that the third season of “The Newsroom” isn’t going to spare much time for preaching liberal values.

Another benefit of this third season is that all of the characters are contently in romantic relationships, removing those distracting will-they-won't-they plotlines from the first and second season. Will is now engaged to MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), his producer and previous ex-girlfriend. The tension between Will and Mac was entertaining at first, but became tired by the second season. Now that the two have decided to settle down and get over themselves, their relationship feels far more real. It has retained the chemistry but lost the irritating melodrama.

Arguably the two best but most underused characters, brilliant anchor Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) and producer Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski), are now in a relationship. The scenes when they are together are the best of the episode. Both Munn and Sadoski have excellent comedic timing, from deadpan Sloan to perennially amused Don. Though they may be minor characters, the two are so exciting to watch that they have proven themselves deserving of the airtime.

Even without romantic strife, the drama is upped in the third season -- and not simply because the ACN team is reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing. Handled with appropriate sensitivity, the coverage of the bombing is only a launching pad for the real drama of the ensuing season: By the end of the first episode, computer genius Neal Sampat (Dev Patel) seems to have convinced a source to give him government secrets regarding a fictional African country. What's more, ACN is in the middle of a hostile corporate takeover. These two arcs seem to be promising fodder for some intriguing action in the coming episodes of season three.

But the strength of “The Newsroom” isn’t in its plot, although the second season proved that a well-crafted plot can cure many ails. And it’s not all about the moral high ground and exceptional journalism in the face of adversity, although that may have been Sorkin’s original intent. The main strength of the HBO stronghold is, in fact, in the characters whom the audience has watched grow, and become increasingly realistic and developed with each passing episode. It is the characters who make the show what it is, and will be remembered when it is gone.

At the very end of the first episode of season three, Will says “We’re not in the middle of the third act. We just got to the end of the first.” Reinterpreted as a comment on the show itself, the statement is, on a literal level, completely incorrect: “The Newsroom” has reached its third and final season. However, Will's words could be taken as an attempt by Sorkin to asserts his own continued relevance in the annals of pop culture. Still, it might also mean something more. For the characters that fill the newsroom at ACN, their initial development is finally coming to a close. The show may end, but the characters and their ideas will soldier on, and perhaps even be acted out by their counterparts in real newsrooms.

Summary The strength of the HBO stronghold is the characters who the audience has watched grow, becoming increasingly realistic and developed with each passing episode.
4 Stars