[Flash Walken]

These reviews are turning into hate rants, and I don’t want to do that, so let me start with something that The Newsroom is doing very right.

Operation Genoa. So far, The Newsroom has had little dramatic tension because we know how it all turns out. These are the perils of weaving real-life events into your narrative. Sorry, but The West Wing didn’t do that. Instead, it depicted fictional events that vaguely reminded us of real-life scenarios, and Operation Genoa is kinda like that. As a result, we’re invested in developments surrounding Genoa, but we don’t know how it ends. This is narrative drama 101, and it’s flabbergasting it took Sorkin an entire season to figure it out. Note: it also helps that the actor driving the Genoa storyline is the terrific Hamish Linklater, a smart, compelling screen presence. He’s such a transformative actor that I completely forgot he played Ralph Branca in this year’s 42, which was in itself a memorable performance.

So that’s what’s working in The Newsroom. What isn’t? Nearly everything else. For starters, Sorkin is stuffing way too many current events into each episode. In this one, we had Occupy Wall Street, the execution of Troy Davis, the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, and the Republican primaries, which obviously will be a season-long arc. I was pretty interested in how they would take on the Romney candidacy and the 2012 election, but so far it looks Sorkin is only interested in using it as a vehicle to continue the ongoing relationship drama between Jim, Maggie, Don, and whatsername. With the introduction of the cute, blonde reporter on the campaign bus, the love rectangle threatens to turn into a pentagon.

I say, bring it on. She can’t be worse than Maggie, who seems to be getting stupider with every episode. Forget about the way she has so badly mismanaged her love life. People do that in her twenties. Forget about the way she confused Georgia (the state) with Georgia (the country) last season; happens to the best of us. But I will always remember this episode because it is the one in which Maggie actually speaks these ridiculous words, “Can you think of anything about Africa that is relevant to Americans?”

http://reelchange.net/2013/07/23/the...n-2-episode-2/