The Newsroom: Episode 5

Janessa:

Jesus, take the wheel.

The Good

• Lily’s (The Source) suicide in front of the Justice Department. Let’s be clear that this plot twist is not making it to this category because of its content, I really liked its delivery. I liked that it took Mac a second to recognize the name as Gary was giving her the news highlights of the day. It was clever. We found out that same time Mac did.
• Don & Sloan continue to be the best part of this season.
• Don begging the rape victim not to appear on television with her accuser—he was a knight in shining armor.
• Maggie begging Jim to apologize to Hallie—Scott did not seem to know that when a girl is telling a guy to pursue another girl, this is in fact flirting. Unless the girl is your sister, she likes you, and she is only telling you to go after another girl as a way to be that “go with the flow/cool calm collected/yes please tell me more about your dating life because we are such cool friends like that” girl. It’s one of our Jedi mind tricks.

The thought process behind this is that eventually this boy will realize you’re the “cool” girl he can always talk to, and he will begin to like you. Rather than you just admitting your feelings upfront, the boy comes to you, and he is none the wiser that you are in fact pursuing him (unless of course he has read this blog and has now put two and two together). It’s a clever way to disguise your feelings. Yes, you risk losing this boy to this other girl, but for us masochists, it’s a nice (but tortuous) way to be involved in the boy’s life. Because we all know they go running when you admit your actual feelings… So, the next time your girl friend is telling you to go on that date, or go apologize to that girl, she is flirting, and you should be using your telekinetic powers to figure out she actually wants to go on a date with you . Some exceptions do apply, DM me if you have any questions.

The Bad

• Lily’s (The Source) suicide in front of the Justice Department—the plot points moving this season forward are trite. In one fell swoop we lost the whole Neal plotline. What was the point?
• Will’s jailhouse roommate—why did they cast In Cold Blood killer Perry Smith?
• Casting Veep’s Sarah Sutherland (Selena’s daughter) as Princeton student Mary was an a dash awkward, these characters are far too similar.

The Ugly

• Maggie & Jim’s kiss—Nope. Awkward. Too slow. Gross. It was like watching two third graders kissing in the tube slide at recess.
• The was a sad sad fall for Charlie—I am extremely averse to anything that involves old people losing their dignity. Whether it be comedic or dramatic there is something icky about watching the older generation lose their standing. Charlie was an excellent character. Vibrant, ernest, gleeful—we only got a glimpse of this character in his final episode. Instead, we got a Charlie who had succumbed to the pressures of the new #uracn, the stresses of which would eventually kill him. Going back to my observation on triteness, Charlie’s death was an awfully played metaphor for the state of news today. Charlie was clearly meant to represent old school traditions, his death symbolizing the viability of those traditions. This character did not deserve to go down this way.

Scott:

I’m taking issue with this season. Let it die, let this show end, and let me get on to season 4 of Girls. As you’ll see, I have very little good to say about this episode.

The Good:

• The conversation between Don and Mary. Yes, this is awkward. And yes, he’s giving her good advice that she may or may not be wise to follow. If Sorkin wants to destroy citizen journalism (and I think he should, as should we all), he has to stick to his guns and apply his scheme to every situation. Don’s insistence that Mary not confront and expose her rapist on Eliot’s show might let the rapist get away with his crime, but give Sorkin points for not veering from his logic and finding exceptions to his own rule.
• The conversation between Mac and Charlie about how they do not have enough time to properly cover the news. The conversation occurs, ostensibly, because Lady Gaga’s producer must be wedged into the rundown. Call me crazy, but I think this was Sorkin’s way of apologizing for not covering the news in this season as much as he feels he ought to. He shirks the Snowden story, completely ignores the government shutdown of 2013, and does not even get close to covering the 2014 election. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I think the conversation between Mac and Charlie was a a backwards apology.
• Maggie’s impression of Jim. She was spot on. (But she’s got to quit it with that annoying newscaster voice she is using in conversation these days.)

The Bad

• The rom-com situation between Maggie and Jim. Like, for real, Sorkin. You put your two competing romantic interests in a Russian airport and have them stuck together on a plane while they adorably bicker over the finer points of relationships? The men-are-from-Mars conversation was canned, and the kiss that followed was anything but a surprise. I’m not watching Sleepless in Seattle Sochi, Sorkin. (This could have been fixed by having Maggie and Jim join the Mile High Club.)
• Lily’s conveinent death. I agree with Janessa here that her death was a deus ex machina, which is insulting, like much of this season’s plot lines.
• The evisceration of Bree by Sloan. Hear me out on this one. Bree’s irresponsibility means we have no problem hating the chubby little bastard, but hopefully this is the last of these one-sided Sorkin arguments. Sorkin avoids taking the place of the editorializing news anchor who does not have to face his opponent (see: Maddow and Hayes on the left, O’Reilly and Hannity on the right) with something that weakens his argument even more: an opponent whose impotence supposedly reflects the weakness of his argument. If Sorkin really wanted to present a strong argument, he would face a formidable opponent. His arguments are for pussies. I’m willing to put them to sleep.

The Ugly

• Charlie’s death. I echo Janessa on this one: “Charlie’s death was an awfully played metaphor for the state of news today.” (Jackson J, Sunday Night Singles. The Newsroom: Episode 5. Published online December 8, 2014.) Charlie’s fall saddened me, particularly because he was the shining editorial light throughout the series whose circumstances were forcing him to become someone he was not. Also, I image that if Charlie and I had lived on the same block in South Philly, we would be scotch buddies. You will be missed, my friend.
• The end for our cast. I imagine this is going to end with our lovely characters scattered like leaves over the journalism planet. Charlie is dead. Newsnight with Will McAvoy will be canceled, and with Will moving back to Nebraska to teach while he waits out his noncompete clause. Mac will be promoted to Charlie’s position, but she will decline and move to Nebraska with Will. Maggie will catch a break somewhere else, maybe DC or Atlanta. Sloan will end up back in the academic world, or maybe in the private sector. I see Don taking a job elsewhere, and Jim going back to Hallie, tail between his legs, to ask for a job as Buzzfeed’s Washington editor. Neal will come back from Venezuela to work at ACN, only to find that no one he knows is left in the office. And maybe that shithead Bree will be hosting an entertainment talk show.

Or maybe, just maybe, Blair Lansing arrives to buy the company back. But I’m not holding my breath.