Jeff Daniels is everywhere at the moment. One minute he's announcing the cancellation of Dumb and Dumber 2 (not to be confused with the wank tissue Dumber and Dumberer), the next he's throwing Blackberries at us in Aaron Sorkin's fresh drama Newsroom.
The début received widespread criticism, and rightly so, but while I feel that the second instalment was certainly an improvement on its predecessor, there are still some kinks that need to be ironed out.
Unlike Sorkin's previous efforts (The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Sports Night) Newsroom is produced and shown on HBO in America and will be over here on HBO-UK, or its official name: Sky Atlantic. People who know me will probably have heard me blabber on before about how amazing a channel HBO is. Because of its non-basic cable nature, the channel can produce shows with as much nudity, violence and "MOTHER-FUCKERS!" as they like. So far, Newsroom hasn't used any nudity or violence, but the freedom on language has given rise to some great Sorkin dialogue ("You know when you hear something so astonishing that you just completely shut down? ...THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE FUCKING TIMES!").
The show does, however, fall into the pitfalls of previous Sorkin dramas like The West Wing's flirtation with a shmalzy, self-congratulating arrogance where montages and heroic speeches converge over uplifting strings and a piano riff while dropping an anvil on our faces with the words "AMERICA IS GREAT" printed on the bottom. The tune in Newsroom is slightly different, though. In this the motto is "AMERICA WAS GREAT, AND WE'RE GOING TO RETURN IT TO GLORY." Don't even get me started on the closing scene which was supposed to give us hope that Will (Jeff Daniels) isn't an 'ass' by showing us he can do nice things; all the while some pop-rock You Me At Six rip-off plays some uplifting guitars.
Being a journalist also puts me in a polarised position because I'm either going to love it (because it's what I do and I can clap at the TV like a seal saying 'har har har I do that!') or I'm going to hate it (because I can shout at the TV 'it's not like that at all!') On this basis, I hate it. It's pathetically naive and I'm not sure whether it's only naive to me because I know better, or whether everyone can see through it.
The West Wing also had the claim levelled at it that it was not non-partisan and, in fact, leaned to the left, showing Democrats in a fond light. It seems as though Sorkin has tried to reciprocate through this by making Will an affable Republican, but his liberal agenda seems to shine through.
The show naturally has a great script and a more than capable cast, but Jeff Daniels is the only outstanding reason to watch the show. Newsroom has its moments but its intelligent audience is alienated by its naivety and its common audience will switch off at the lack of humour or real drama.
