Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Most of the show is just incredibly forced and pedantic. No subtlety in the plot and tone. Inferior.
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When I noticed this thread, the lack of subtlety was exactly what I was coming in to post about. I don't hate the show -- it does have some compelling moments in it -- but the fact that they feel they need to force feed me ideas is what is keeping this show from being in the same category as other top quality HBO serial television shows like Game of Thrones, the Sopranos, Six Feet Under or Boardwalk Empire.
I've seen a few comments about those shows not being perfect either or being boring at times, which can be true. But what separates all the great shows from NewsRoom is that they have a certain subtlety and depth that NewsRoom simply lacks. The characters are well developed enough so that I don't need them to overtly state their feelings directly at the camera; their actions alone are enough to infer the characters motivations. They act like real people and real human behavior is subtle. I like to put the pieces of the puzzle together myself not being spoon-fed the answer.
Some examples of what I'm talking about is the jealously that Mac shows when Will is bringing his dates to the office where she can barely function in the planning meeting and references the girls multiple times. Or the silly love triangle where Jim is constantly getting his feelings crushed and then coming up with a clever but dismissive one-liner to whomever he happens to be conversing with. This kind of stuff makes it feel like 90210 should appear somewhere in the title.
However, there are still some flashes of HBO brilliance in the show. The opening rant to start of the series was nothing short of brilliant. The scenes where Charlie is fighting to keep the show alive in the face of corporate interests is also great. And I love the realistic feel of the dynamic between the control room, the producers and the anchor when they're on air.
But overall besides, the occasional swear word, this to me feels like a network show that would appear on one of the big 3 American networks. And in that case, I'd probably love the show. In some ways, HBO is a victim of it's own success (and the recent success of other cable networks producing great quality like AMC) in that I simply expect top quality program from them. There's enough interesting points in the show to keep me watching, but I feel disappointed because the show isn't quite living up to the potential that I feel it has.