What I’m Watching: The Newsroom

The Newsroom: Season 2, Episode 8 “Election Night, Part 1” (B+)

This episode’s title gives away its primary plotline, but this episode is about so much more than that. Seeing Charlie advocate so strongly for the right to resign is fascinating because he’s clearly so torn up about the mistake that he made by clearing the Genoa story, and it’s transferring a sense of comic fatality to everyone around him except for the deathly serious and depressed Mackenzie. Will appointing himself a conveyor of positivity was especially entertaining, and his pre-air comments made me laugh out loud. The same was true for Don’s reflection on calling Jerry a sociopath when asked for a job reference, which hopefully won’t cost him his career. The passionate conversations between Will and Mackenzie were very engaging, but, to me, this episode was all about the lighter content, which proved to be very funny. Sloan deputizing Neal to look for the new owner of her falsely-signed book with the incorrect German phrase penned by Gary was terrific, as was Mackenzie refocusing him to try to edit her Wikipedia page. Jim making the gaffe of abbreviating Minnesota to MI was equally fantastic, and it was fun to have Jim and Maggie on the same side of something for the first time in a while. Having recurring players Constance Zimmer (Taylor Warren) and Chris Messina (Reese Lansing) around for some of the hour was a treat as well. Next week’s season finale is sure to be great, and though Jeff Daniels has been the only one to confirm it, it looks like this show will be returning for season three, which is superb news.