What I’m Watching: The Newsroom (Season Premiere)

The Newsroom: Season 2, Episode 1 “First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers” (B)

I and many others who found this show’s first season extremely compelling were greatly anticipating this second season starter. With all that hype comes a certain inevitable disappointment, one which isn’t all that much of a letdown but doesn’t quite deliver as much as it could have. This show has started at a future moment and then flashed back before, but it creates an unnecessary sense of heightened drama that the show doesn’t need. I think that’s doubly true of moments like the one with the malfunctioning video where artificial suspense was created when the show is already more than compelling enough on its own. The news itself is plenty interested, and I like the professional developments of Will being taken off the 9/11 tenth anniversary report because of his Taliban comment and Neil getting into Occupy Wall Street on the horizontal ground floor from the beginning. The human drama isn’t bad either, like Mackenzie adamantly refusing to have Will pay for her drink only to demand money for her cab home and her cab the next morning from him once she realized that she forgot her wallet, and Don leaving Maggie after a solid two-week stint as a good boyfriend because he saw her confession of affection for Jim on YouTube. Jim is going to have a miserable time covering the Romney bus, but that should certainly prove entertaining, and he’ll likely have the opportunity to meet someone there while Don and Sloane finally cozy up to each other after their awkward run-in during this hour. This should be a fun season, and I’m sure it will only get better from here on out.