[Will (to Lewis)]
And with a straight face, you’re gonna sit there and tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The U.K. France. Italy. Germany. Spain. Australia. BELGIUM has freedom. (laughs) Two hundred and seven sovereign states in the world, like, a hundred and eighty of them have freedom.

[Debate Moderator]
All right...

[Will]
And you, Sorority Girl, just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know. One of them is there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in literacy. Twenty-seventh in math. Twenty-second in science. Forty-ninth in life expectancy. A hundred and seventy-eighth in infant mortality. Third in median household income. Number four in labor force and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.










I like it already..I will watch after reading that.

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too didactic and masturbatory; didn't read

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Gfy Beardown.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

FOX hired someone with 3 Muhammad's in their name?

I already like the 2nd episode, 4 minutes in.

Edit: 12 minutes in they imply the NYT is conservative-leaning. Chill out Sorkin.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I probably like liberals more than conservatives(in the way that i like water more mudwater), but this show is becoming a little much. At least come from the narrative that it's a liberal leaning show(meaning Newsnight 2.0), or is headed that way. This is becoming indigestibly preachy. What's worse is they are still advertising it as a legit newsroom trying to bring legit bipartisan news to the public.

It's funny(in the sad, ironic sense), because usually conservatives play the "Voters are dumb and gullible" card during elections and here is a very liberal show banking on "Viewers are stupid and gullible" angle to keep an audience.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I especially dislike Sorkin's cheap ploy of making the protagonist a nominal Republican who otherwise just so happens to share Sorkin's trademark backseat liberalism--that America "did great things," whatever those may be, because someone smart and handsome (preferably a white guy) who always knows best for everyone benevolently wiggled his nose and made it so--as if this will throw anybody off the scent. Whether it's worse than The West Wing's treatment of Republicans, which was roughly "rrrrrgrgrgrgrrrrr, me conservative, conservative hungry!!! n'gruuhhhh," I haven't quite decided, but to wrap the same old crap in different paper, as if to say "see, even the bad guys think it's bad!", doesn't impress me. There are still liberal Republicans somewhere out there in the wild, and I'm sure many are fed up with the hijacking of all conservative ideology by theocrats and Fox News, but despite what the unholy alliance of Aaron Sorkin and the Tea Party would have you believe, they're not mere double-agents for the Democrats.

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I thought the second episode was significantly worse than the premiere episode. The dialogue was a bit too much and over the top in alot of scenes. And who the hell doesn't know how to send email and would use an * when you are sending to one SPECIFIC person? That was a ridiculous premise.

Olivia Munn was awesome though

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I'm on the same boat with you.

The show is too predictable in its lame tropes and bullshit.

I'm giving it one more episode. Probably. Damn the Walking Dead and NFL need to come back to Sunday nights ASAP.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'm blatantly stealing from (I think) the Onion's AV Club, but someone pointed out that the worst trick in the book with The West Wing was that a character would commonly face a dilemma between doing what is easy and what is right. You know, the one that got Carmela Soprano. Anyway, it would invariably come down to taking the moral shortcut and personally profiting in money or advancement or whatever, or forsaking those delights for the call of the moral high road, and it was always the moral high road. Fine, but then in a shocking turn of events, it turns out that the moral high road brings with it all the money and advancement you would've gotten anyway because it was just such a goddamn right thing to do all along and the universe has a way of rewarding you for this. The real world doesn't really work like this Goofus & Gallant shit, but this isn't the real world, this is Aaron Sorkin's sandbox where his metaphorical team wins the metaphorical World Series not just every year but every day. If you catch The Newsroom pulling this, it's fork-stickin' time.

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That time is coming soon. The show sucks.

Renewed for a second season.

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

I really liked the first episode but didn't really feel the episode from last night. I went from believing I had found a new show to watch to more liking than not recording the next episode and watch it whenever I get to it.

Caught the first episode and liked it, just watched the second one and thought it sucked..episode 3 will be the decider if this makes the dvr list.

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First episode is solid, but I don't see how this show can last too long. This seems more like a great miniseries concept. There's no subliminal message with this show - the news sucks, and Jeff Daniels is the personification of journalism's present profit-driven industry. Dialogue is snappy enough, and the personalities are the affable bumbling, will-they-won't-they romance reminiscent of early Office episodes, etc. It's got pieces.

Something's missing, and I can't put my finger on it.

edit: The fact that the awkward-yet-brilliant new guy is named Jim, and he's got a crush on the awkward quirkily attractive "realizing her potential" girl who's got a hostile boyfriend who works in the same place is so blatantly a ripoff of The Office's Pam/Jim/Roy triangle that it is kind of insulting.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

That young blonde needing xanax just ain't getting it done. They should have cast someone who actually is at least decent looking...

This show can't help but have a few moments that are hopelessly partisan. It's about to lose me because it's not worth sitting through. Was West Wing this pathetically transparent?

Example: A conservative congressman who won his district by double digit points ten times in a row suddenly loses the popular vote 72-28. The two reasons he lost? 1.) He co-sponsored a very bipartisan reasonable sounding bill with a Democrat. 2.) He refused to call Obama a socialist although he stressed he disagreed with his politics and how to run a country.

I don't care how good the rest of the show is. It's impossible to try to remain credible as a serious drama or statement on current media or whatever the fuck this show desires to be if it has holes like that within the script.

Anyone who thinks Sorkin is doing a great job should be ashamed they let their politics effect their television viewing. I don't care if he portrays Republicans as stupid assholes because they mainly are. But Democrats are far from the shining knights of truth and freedom they are made about to be. If this show were even half as good as it is made out to be it would take on both sides of the aisle with equal courage and vitriol. As it is, it's a sackless show that serves as the vehicle for Sorkin to verbally masturbate his leftist love all over the tv screens of moderate viewers.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

West Wing was awesome but Republicans were portrayed as morons for the most part, culminating with Florida Governor Robert Ritchie. Ainsley Hayes was great however in berating the liberal Sam Seaborn numerous times.

As far as Newsroom, I don't think it has been that over the top. As you said, there's some moments here and there, but I can get past it. At least for now.

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This actually happened. Maybe not the landslide that was portrayed but it did happen. Keep watching.

Anybody who watches something written by Sorkin then complains about it being too Lefty really needs to have their head examined. Or at least look at the history of his work. LOL

I need a nude scene!

Go see Magic Mike apparently.

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Sorkin isn't even a bona fide leftist, as he has no respect for anything grassroots (look how much he hates the internet) and relentlessly fetishizes credentials. He's just a boring old Kennedy nuthugger who wants a benevolent king to make the world happy and safe for Type A crackheads who obsess over English light opera.

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You realize the premise of the show is showing the corruption of media bias and and wanting to show a factual, nuetral show? Then spinning that show? Ironic.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Fuck all you guys.

Ok not really.

I like the show. Well most of it. The will-they-or-won't-they of Jim and Maggie is annoying. And the cliche "suit" barging into the studio and saying "if you're not first you're last" is boring.

But Sam Waterston is the fucking best. His Burgess Meredith impression last episode had me rolling. Jeff Daniels has grown on me as well since the first episode. He was Sam Seaborn tonight trying to reform the women.

It's Sorkin so you know what you are getting going in. It's not a documentary. It's his middle finger to Fox News and corporations, not to mention those wacky Tea Partiers.

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I'm glad someone's finally giving it to them.

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Me too.

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