Charlie and Will are in trouble on The Newsroom
Photo Credit: HBO
A review of The Newsroom “Red Team III” as soon as I spend
$1000 to see Skyfall Daniel Craig…
“Then Get it back!”
-Leona
Man that cut to black was so awesome in every way possible
that it’s not hard just to ignore everything else in this episode. Sure the cut
is manipulative and comes at the end of a slightly frustrating moment; but man
that was so perfect in every way and it shows that Sorkin for his faults can
still make an awesome sequence that’s for sure. In fact “Red Team III” was an
interesting mish mash of great moments for the show (yes I can’t believe I’m
saying that) and frustrating ones. The result is fortunately more on the good
side and actually has me looking forward to what these last few episodes have to
offer.
“Red Team III” focused mostly on the Genoa incident and
tried to turn around the perception that all the blame was going to be put on
Jerry Dantana a character we hardly know so that we can keep the normal cast of
characters blameless and perfect as usual. For the first about 40 minutes of
the episode it was a success, and the events that transpired really made these
characters seem super stupid. The most glaring example (and maybe it makes
these characters look stupid to a fault) is the edited video. How these
characters couldn’t have figured out that the tape was edited (because it was
so poorly edited I mean it doesn’t seem like the general said what he said at
all quite frankly) is beyond me. In the end the question is with all that
investigative muscle how in the world could these people not catch it, but it
seems like they’ve made a big mistake and that for the show is a huge step.
Thus the big overarching plot for the season becomes
clearer. Turns out it’s not the government that is suing News Night it’s
Dantana, which actually makes a lot more sense when thought about. It shows
that in fact these people did screw up and were stupid thus the “institutional failure”
lawsuit. It seems to work, and the show seems to be finding its legs. The one
thing I’ve enjoyed the most about this plotline is the fact that it’s given the
show such a clear focus and hasn’t allowed the show to go off into its old sexist
and stupid romantic comedy ways. The show seems grounded now in ways that it
hadn’t before and making these characters screw up just adds to the show’s new
found focus…
…Then there was the last five minutes of “Red Team III”
which was solid from a dialogue and acting place (Jane Fonda reading Sorkin
dialogue and acting stoned was amazing) but again plot wise began to shift the
blame away from the characters again. So Will, Charlie, and Mac aren’t getting
fired over this because Leona is proud of them? Sorry that’s kind of a little sketchy
reasoning wise considering the fact that they have (according to the show)
sucked for two months. It seems really weird and a way of Aaron Sorkin trying
to desperately get himself out of this whole that he’s dug for these
characters. It all seems last minute and artificial.
That being said I do want to see how this resolves, for
better or for worse. Again this year has had me more and more optimistic about
the show because of these last 4 episodes and I’m curious if Sorkin can stick
the landing. Plus this episode did end on the best cut to black ever (any time
Jane Fonda gets to yell “Then get it back!” I’m in) which actually made me want
to watch what’s coming next. For this show that’s a huge accomplishment at this
point all factors considered. We’ve got only two episodes left and I hope they’re
as clear and focused as these last few have been.
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
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