I've only watched the first two episodes so far. My only criticisms were that the dialog seemed so frenetic, and so cute and witty and off-the-cuff articulate, that it seemed unrealistic. Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing" sucked me in and made me feel I was really in the White House. The Newsroom hasn't sucked me in yet. I felt I was watching something unrealistic.
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of turquoiseb Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 10:01 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Newsroom: Red Team III OK, I know that not many here enjoy this series as much as I do, but I'm the only person I have to please around here, and I love it. I think it's tightly written, superbly acted and directed, and it occasionally makes some strong and valid criticisms of the News and how it works...and how it sometimes fails to work. All six of the previous episodes this season have been leading up to last night's episode, when a seemingly strong story they'd broadcast came crashing down with embarrassing-to-the-network and mass-resignations-required consequences. And IMO all on the team did a fine job in presenting this story in these six episodes. But -- again IMO -- all of this was preface. It was all leading up to a scene featuring the actress who had not been present so far in the season, delivering a speech that both Aaron Sorkin (as the writer) and her (as the actress delivering it) will be remembered for long after those who rag on "The Newsroom" are dead and forgotten. The owner of the fictional News network gets called out of a charity benefit she's dressed to the nines and paid a thousand bucks to attend because she wanted to meet Daniel Craig, who was a no-show. She's not in the best of moods, because she really *wanted* to meet Daniel Craig. And to top that off, she's stoned. Then she gets called into a room and told that she has to accept the resignations of her three most key employees at the network. That's the setup. The punchline is that this woman is being played by Jane Fonda, one of the greatest actresses any of us have ever been privileged to see onscreen. My bet is that she'll be nominated for another Emmy (she already was, for her work in last season) for this five minutes of screen time. And my hope is that she wins. This was as masterful a piece of acting as I have ever seen in my life. She literally brought tears to my eyes. Those of you who like to rag on "The Newsroom" can carry on now, carrying on. Me, I'll carry on enjoying great TV wherever I find it, no matter how many others don't like it.
