What I’m Watching: The Newsroom

The Newsroom: Season 1, Episode 7 “5/1” (B+)

This show truly excels when it’s showcasing breaking news that has yet to be confirmed, and all of its crew members are fighting as hard as they can to verify the information so that it’s reportable. Charlie getting a call from an unnamed source proved to be an unrelated event, but he was both the one who initially suspected that Bin Laden had been killed and the one who told everyone that they had to wait until they had absolute confirmation to run with the story. Mackenzie had a hard time keeping their D.C. correspondent in line, and Don, Elliott, and Sloan had quite the adventure on the plane as Don nearly got himself in enormous trouble with the prissy flight attendant. There was plenty of comedy involved in the process, specifically in terms of the relationships, with Don talking loudly for the whole flight about Maggie and Jim being told to break up with Lisa and then asking her back out after she preemptively dumped him because she could tell that Maggie and Jim liked each other. Will getting high was a hilarious development, especially because of Lonny’s fervent chase that nearly got him arrested. Will missing his text from Joe Biden was also unfortunate, though, as he predicted it would be, amusing. On the more serious side, Kaylee’s connection to September 11th was an effective follow-up to her blindfolded Guitar Hero skill, and hearing Charlie, Don and Lonny inform their various audiences about Bin Laden’s death was extremely emotional, as was scoring the closing credits with Obama’s speech.