The Newsroom, episode 2.07, aka and it all starts to fall apart
I mean, I knew it was going to all start to fall apart that was a given. And I might be okay with that, if I thought they were going to start putting at least some of it back together over the course of the next two episodes.
I originally thought that we might get a cheerful ending to the season. Well, cheerful-ish, in that something good would happen. I figured we'd either get something good personally, or professionally. I no longer think that. [Spoiler (click to open)]Admittedly, this is partly because I'm somewhat spoilered for episode 9, nothing much just what's in the episode description. But that's not all it is. Now, I would not be surprised if this season started dark, continued dark, and stayed dark. And it's not well-done dark, but it's still too dark for me. And all indications point to it getting worse.
I feel like the first seven episodes were a build up to the last scene with Leona in this one, when she refuses to accept their resignations over Genoa. It was a brilliant scene, don't get me wrong. But this show isn't going to allow hope of any kind this season.
It's like a Shakespearean tragedy, in which everything just keeps getting worse and worse, as the characters are thwarted by chance and hubris and ambition (in Jerry Dantana's case). And it's all coming together in this giant ball of mess from which there is no escape. But here's the thing. A play is three hours long. It is not nine hours of this crap. And I'm only at about hour seven.
I do think this season will work better as a whole than as individual episodes. To the extent that I'm considering not watching eight until I can watch nine, because I'm guessing eight will kill me. I think it's an interesting narrative structure, and I can see why Sorkin would want to do it (for a start, having the characters make this huge mistake addresses accusations that his Newsroom staff is too perfect because they have the benefit of hindsight). But the structure also has major flaws (the fact that Genoa overshadows everything else all the time, and you can't have an episode that isn't significantly touched by it).
And the thing is, I adore this show. Especially season 1. I am super invested in these characters. I should have been a lock to watch this show forever (although S3 isn't even confirmed at this point, which is a whole other thing). But if it's going to continue on like this, I think I'md one at the end of the season. If there isn't some major payoff of a good thing happening, I might be done. Because I am sick of finishing almost every episode and just feeling vaguely depressed and anxious. Sometimes, fine, but not every single episode.
Part of me hopes this season ends up being a comedy and not a tragedy, and just when it looks like everything's going to fall apart, it magically gets fixed.
But the thing is, it's gotten so bad, that that's what it's going to feel like for me at this point. Magic. Even Leona feels a little bit Deus ex machina. Awesome, to be sure, but somewhat unrealistic. And I don't know, having a show that's attempting to retake the fourth estate in the first season end it's second with no one trusting them anymore?
Having seen episode 7, and how it played out, I just keep going back to the conclusion that it just doesn't feel like something that they'd be able to recover from.
I liked individual scenes ("McMac" might be my favourite thing ever, also Will and Mac bantering about sports, Don and Jim, Don generally, Will telling Mac he'd only give up his source if she was being tortured...), but I don't know.
I just want to get through an episode of this show withought a general sense of pain and unease lurking around my chest.
I originally thought that we might get a cheerful ending to the season. Well, cheerful-ish, in that something good would happen. I figured we'd either get something good personally, or professionally. I no longer think that. [Spoiler (click to open)]Admittedly, this is partly because I'm somewhat spoilered for episode 9, nothing much just what's in the episode description. But that's not all it is. Now, I would not be surprised if this season started dark, continued dark, and stayed dark. And it's not well-done dark, but it's still too dark for me. And all indications point to it getting worse.
I feel like the first seven episodes were a build up to the last scene with Leona in this one, when she refuses to accept their resignations over Genoa. It was a brilliant scene, don't get me wrong. But this show isn't going to allow hope of any kind this season.
It's like a Shakespearean tragedy, in which everything just keeps getting worse and worse, as the characters are thwarted by chance and hubris and ambition (in Jerry Dantana's case). And it's all coming together in this giant ball of mess from which there is no escape. But here's the thing. A play is three hours long. It is not nine hours of this crap. And I'm only at about hour seven.
I do think this season will work better as a whole than as individual episodes. To the extent that I'm considering not watching eight until I can watch nine, because I'm guessing eight will kill me. I think it's an interesting narrative structure, and I can see why Sorkin would want to do it (for a start, having the characters make this huge mistake addresses accusations that his Newsroom staff is too perfect because they have the benefit of hindsight). But the structure also has major flaws (the fact that Genoa overshadows everything else all the time, and you can't have an episode that isn't significantly touched by it).
And the thing is, I adore this show. Especially season 1. I am super invested in these characters. I should have been a lock to watch this show forever (although S3 isn't even confirmed at this point, which is a whole other thing). But if it's going to continue on like this, I think I'md one at the end of the season. If there isn't some major payoff of a good thing happening, I might be done. Because I am sick of finishing almost every episode and just feeling vaguely depressed and anxious. Sometimes, fine, but not every single episode.
Part of me hopes this season ends up being a comedy and not a tragedy, and just when it looks like everything's going to fall apart, it magically gets fixed.
But the thing is, it's gotten so bad, that that's what it's going to feel like for me at this point. Magic. Even Leona feels a little bit Deus ex machina. Awesome, to be sure, but somewhat unrealistic. And I don't know, having a show that's attempting to retake the fourth estate in the first season end it's second with no one trusting them anymore?
Having seen episode 7, and how it played out, I just keep going back to the conclusion that it just doesn't feel like something that they'd be able to recover from.
I liked individual scenes ("McMac" might be my favourite thing ever, also Will and Mac bantering about sports, Don and Jim, Don generally, Will telling Mac he'd only give up his source if she was being tortured...), but I don't know.
I just want to get through an episode of this show withought a general sense of pain and unease lurking around my chest.