What I’m Watching: The Newsroom

The Newsroom: Season 1, Episode 4 “I’ll Try to Fix You” (A-)

I can understand how some people might find this show too preachy or too liberal, or both. Yet I think it’s a fascinating examination of news, and more importantly, human interaction, with a quality of writing that far outweighs any political or moral slant. Starting on New Year’s Eve with Wade talking to Will about fraud investigations led to an unfortunate decline for the news anchor, and I absolutely loved the casting of Will’s two most notable – and more intellectual than usual – doomed flings, Hope Davis and Kathryn Hahn. I enjoyed Sloan’s involvement in setting him up with multiple women, since she seems to be the only person aside from Charlie and Mackenzie that can actually go head-to-head with him. Mackenzie staging water tossing and telling Will to try not to date anyone before they got back on air was entertaining, and I like that their dynamic has remained rather playful. Unfortunately, his efforts to block her participation in the show seem to have blown back on him, as he now risks losing his job and suffering from his non-compete clause. Realizing that it was their own company trying to disparage Will’s reputation was devastating, but Charlie seems ready to fight for Will after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting news broke and Reese stormed in demanding that Will report that she was dead, only moments before it was confirmed that she was alive. The relationship between Jim and Maggie is absolutely fantastic, and though it wasn’t always pleasant, I loved seeing it play out in this hour.