After it airs: The Newsroom “We Just Decided To” Review

Jeff Daniels contemplates the news in the pilot of The Newsroom

Spoilers for the entire episode

After writing two academy award recognized scripts Aaron Sorkin returns, along with his snappy dialogue, to television. This time he again takes on the realm of media and political criticism in the latest HBO series The Newsroom. “We Just Decided To” shows promise and some concerns in which should be a good show down the road.

The first thing about the pilot that popped for me is the great build and introduction to the characters. The very “mad as hell” esque speech that opens the pilot is a great introduction to the news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). Until that rant McAvoy is considered the Jay Leno of the news and stays neutral so that the public will like him. Soon after his return his executive producer Don (Thomas Sadoski) and half his staff leaves. The rant, the destruction of Will’s news crew, and the return of his former lover and executive producer Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer) sparks a change in his newscast. By the end of the episode Will is a hard edge opinion driven journalist during his fresh breaking coverage of the BP oil spill.

Sorkin dialogue is always a pleasure to listen to and this show is no exception; the banter between characters is always entertaining and intelligent. There are some great lines especially throughout the first half of the episode including a line from newsroom executive Charlie who tells Don “I will beat the **** out of you I don’t care how many protein bars you eat”. Simply put Sorkin has always been great with words and here he shines again.

Another note here is the cinematic direction by Greg Mottola who delivers an absolutely enthroning visual experiences. During the beginning of the episodes shots and conversations are long and building. In the end the cuts are short and create the intensity of the Newscast (which in itself the newscast within the show is fantastic). The intensity of the final third of the episode is absolutely earned throughout the episode through interesting character building and amazing direction.

The problem with the show that may be a problem for me throughout the series is the fact that the show takes place in the near past and covers stories that were relevant only a few years ago. This gives Sorkin the power to basically give these characters the ability to have spot on news reporting and almost perfect hindsight into what is happening. The BP story that ended the show took the characters about a couple hours to research (probably not even) what might have most journalists days upon days to complete. The greatest example of this is when Mackenzie’s assistant Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) has a great streak of luck when he finds family members and roommates who work for the parties involved with the spill. It all feals like some excuse for Sorkin to make lots of political commentary and hopefully the show doesn’t go down the road of being preachy.

For the most part I really liked “We Just Decided To” and I thought it was an interesting start to a series that has great potential. I hope some of the problems don’t grow and take over the show because some of the characters and their relationships (despite them being pulled from prior Sorkin repertoire) have great potential. Ultimately the Newsroom got off to a great start and has the potential to be another good addition to the stellar HBO lineup.

So come back for more next week. For now what did the you think?