So last night was the premiere of Newsroom on HBO. Obviously, the highlight here is that Aaron Sorkin returns to television after adapting the Social Network. He's the biggest name on Newsroom's ticket despite the presence of Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston. In short? Newsroom has the capacity to be very good, maybe even great. But that's no fun, so here's the long version...
The pilot episode is not all that different from his pilot of Studio 60... (had that show aired on HBO, it would probably still be on. It was fantastic.) where a key figure melts down and the audience will go through the rebuilding process in the aftermath. Jeff Daniels hits the ground running. He's terrific as the lead. It's the surrounding cast that made the pilot feel empty. You immediately know you're supposed to root for Dev Patel. You know you're immediately supposed to hate Don, the overly ambitious dickhead Columbia grad. Unfortunately, Sorkin doesn't take the time to make these characters multi-dimensional just yet. Sam Waterston is the grandfather figure you HAVE to love because of his fun quirks, but there are a couple of instances where he tries to yell that will make you laugh when you're not really supposed to. His voice cracks like a pubescent boy. The current verdict on the rest of the cast is pretty open-ended as most haven't had enough screen time for me to form any opinion on.
Like I said above, Newsroom has the capacity to be very good. Maybe even excellent. But it will require Sorkin to occasionally lay the narrative to the side in order to provide depth to the characters outside of Daniels and Waterston. If not, this show is going to end up feeling pretty empty.
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