Why Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” is a Great Show (and Why Most Critics Don’t Like It)

Watching HBO’s great new show “The Newsroom,” two feelings come over me. First, a feeling of “I can’t believe a show gets it this honest, this succinct on these complex issues, this…right.” Second, a feeling of “Of course critics largely pan this show. It’s as much about their failures as it is the news media’s.” So, in a tradition I hope Aaron Sorkin—–the show’s creator—–would be proud of, let’s have a real dialogue about what most critics are complaining about, and the truth.

1. Why They Say They Hate It: “The show is too preachy.” Why They Really Hate It: Do people in the media like to be told they’re fuck-ups? Do they like being shown all the ways they’re not doing their job? Do people in any industry?

When a show is more or less devoted to showing you all the ways the media has failed you (chasing stories of the moment, ignoring real political shifts to maintain “fairness,” refusing to call out The Tea Party, the show’s take on the behind the scenes coverage of the Casey Anthony trial was better than the actual network’s coverage of it), I don’t expect it to be too popular with traditional media reviewers, who are all owned by corporations identical to the one depicted in the show.

The Newsroom nails the entire culture of collusion, pandering, and appeasement between not just corporations, government, and media, but also between the media and, well, more media. It examines not just big government (masquerading as small government Tea Party petty mindedness) or big industry, but also the rarely investigated phenomenon of Big Media. It says that the reason Big Media doesn’t go after targets of power more often isn’t because of a leftwing bias or (usually) a rightwing bias, but because they’re afraid to go after people on Capital Hill they might have to ask for a new tax loophole or ease on a regulation letting them buy a new satellite dish.

It goes further to show that what we think of as thousands of pieces of media—-like the show’s TMZ-esque TMI gossip rag, morning shows, and the central program of News Night—-are all really owned by only a handful of corporations and usually all puppeted by the same few people. [A brilliant ongoing subplot involves Jane Fonda’s media mogul trying to get her own anchor fired by planting stories about him in her own tabloid magazine, thus creating the illusion of fairness.]

You could see where reporters/reviewers at, for example, Entertainment Weekly (one cog in a very big Time Warner machine, which also owns HBO, Newsroom’s network, and CNN, which the show clearly mocks) might not be too happy about being told they aren’t the total kings of their domain. And even though The New Yorker is seen as more highbrow, it really isn’t, once boiled down to a dollars and sense, corporate standpoint.

2. Why They Say They Hate It: “The show is unbearably pretentious. All of the characters are just mouth pieces for Sorkin. They talk overly intellectual and educated.” Why They Really Hate It: It makes them feel guilty for going so soft on all those Real Housewives shows.

Just as the media doesn’t like to be told how bad a job it’s done, critics don’t like shows they can’t feel superior to. Sure, they say they wish there were more quality options out there, but it’s awfully hard to see evidence of that when they pan “The Newsroom” for the filmiest of reasons, and give free passes to most reality shows or inferior dramas (True Blood’s fifth season got better reviews than The Newsroom did).

I mean, to honestly say that characters are too smart? Seriously? What about the other 99 percent of shows where the characters are too dumb? I think this is just a very passive aggressive way of feeling insecure about characters that might be smarter than them. Maybe a lot of professional critics don’t know much about politics or economics or the behind-the-scenes of anything, and aren’t really comfortable with shows that do. Maybe they’d prefer something that makes very easy to follow, broad points masquerading as the deep political philosophy that “politics is fucked-up” (Boss) or shows that coast by more on family dynamics than real political know-how (Political Animals). I’ve also come to wonder if this isn’t what’s behind their unadulterated love of Mad Men…a very strong show that has always been over praised because it doesn’t speak directly about 2012 in any meaningful way, if, like me, you don’t count vague allegories as meaningful or very brave.

3. Why They Say They Hate It: “There are no dramatic stakes.” Why They Really Hate It: There are no dramatic stakes they’re interested in.

I hate this argument the most because it reinforces the notion that you can’t have a dramatic show without some type of manufactured violence lurking around the edges. It seems like damn near every drama has one struggle behind it: life or death. [Making it look like just walking down the street is a dangerous proposition in America.] Doesn’t matter if it’s a cop show, hospital show, or sci-fi show, people are watching to see if somebody gets killed.

And sometimes that makes for riveting television (especially when the characters really could die, as in Breaking Bad or The Sopranos). But what about the 99 percent of American existence that isn’t comprised of “Will I die today?” Are there no issues worth exploring that probably won’t end in a bullet? On “The Newsroom,” a middle-aged man (brilliantly played by Jeff Daniels) is struggling with the idea of living up to his potential. Yes, he’s “popular” as a news anchor with no personality or opinions, but is he honest? No. Is he really doing anything? No. Will he have a legacy when he goes? No.

His struggle to change all that is a dilemma just as fundamental as Don Draper’s identity crisis. It’s just that too many critics long ago quit fighting for anything, and no longer care whether or not someone sells out. If that isn’t a great dilemma to you, then that probably says more about you than the character you’re watching.

4. Why They Say They Hate It: “The show has a woman problem.” Why They Really Hate It: The go-to reason to hate a new show is to call it something indefensible. Call it racist, call it homophobic, call it offensive to the dwarf community, hell, pull a PETA and raise holy hell about horse deaths until HBO cancels “Luck.” And there’s no easier criticism than to say a show with a heroic male lead and a veteran, well-known male creator just doesn’t “get” women.

But what happens when you get a show that isn’t intolerant of anything but the Tea Party and cowardly media? That proudly wears its heart on its sleeve, and isn’t going to take cheap pot shots at a minority community? The simple answer is to invent bigotry that clearly isn’t on the screen.

So The Newsroom has been branded sexist or lacking in competent female characters. I’m not sure exactly what show people were watching when they drew these conclusions because I saw some of the sharpest women on TV this summer. Just look at Jane Fonda’s ultra-capable, shrewd media mogul. Hope Davis’s conniving tabloid editor. Adina Porter’s more than competent fact checker. And, best of all, Olivia Munn’s razor-sharp, passionate economist. What is so condescending about these portrayals? I’d argue that the shows with an actual woman problem may be The Real Housewives-type shows (never have women looked nastier, pettier, dumber, and more useless) Newsroom has a problem with.

Of course, the characters most detractors really have a problem with are Emily Mortimor’s “flighty” producer and Allison Pill’s fuck-up intern. I won’t budge an inch on Mortimor, who I don’t actually find that flighty. She’s repeatedly called “The best producer in the business,” meaning “better than any male producer in the business,” so I’m not sure how giving her occasional flashes of emotion, slapstick comedy, and ultra-idealist passion is a bad thing. People can be great at their job and occasionally scream at people…I know, shocking that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

And Allison Pill’s intern is annoying because, from what I can gather, she’s supposed to be slightly annoying. She’s still not a complete idiot, just someone very young and just starting out in a very ruthless, very driven business. I’ll admit that her character is overplayed sometimes, but I just chalk that up to Sorkin’s not-so-secret love of old screwball comedies (hence the rat-a-tat dialogue and convoluted love rectangle…ironically, the one area of the show that doesn’t work but nobody mentions). In fact, I would argue that the show’s younger cast just isn’t as interesting in general compared to the older leads, but I wouldn’t limit that to gender…Of course, I’m also not looking for a reason, ANY reason to dump on the show either…

5. Why They Say They Hate It: “They used Coldplay’s ‘I Will Fix You’ at the end of episode four instead of dialogue.” Why They Really Hate It: Maybe Chris Martin cut them off in traffic or took a shit in their Cheerios one morning, hard to say unless they really, really hate Coldplay.

This one is just sad. They’re dumping on this moment in the show like it’s the first TV episode to ever end in a montage set to music. [Rescue Me was doing it practically every week in their first few seasons.] They said it was overly sentimental and maudlin, but shouldn’t the attempted assassination of a congresswomen be slightly more dramatic than ordering lunch? Plus, reviewers seem to think that the “fix you” is referring to the characters fixing the news media (again, that old inferiority complex raging up).

But I interpreted it more as the news fixing the characters. Without covering the news, none of them could fully function as people (which is why Leona’s threat of firing Will is so scary) and aren’t very good at the “normal things” in life. The news fixes them as much as they fix it. But then again, maybe I’m just capable of not assuming the worst about this show—–other reviewers should try it sometime.

In other words, here’s looking forward to season 2 and (hopefully) more seasons after it. Grade for the season: A- (with a few A+ episodes like “Amen” and “The Black Out, Part One: Tragedy Porn”)…Grade for the season finale: A-