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Critic Reviews
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I'd rather spend time with an edgy show that aims high and sometimes falls short, than one that doesn't.... Welcome back, Mr. Sorkin. It's a pleasure to have you.
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Aaron Sorkin can write crackling dialogue. Believable characters, not so much.
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In between the romantic dramas, a lot of sharply written comedy and some long passages of news-wonk stuff, it aims to make viewers do a little thinking.
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Fans of Sorkin's work, especially his previous shows "Sports Night," "The West Wing," and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," will be pleased to see The Newsroom has all the hallmarks of its predecessors.
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There's no question The Newsroom is eye-rollingly full of itself. But it's also recklessly full of wit, passion, anger and humor--and timely purpose.
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The Newsroom is a message-driven delight--at least for liberals--that's bogged down by uninteresting characters.
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What works about the show outweighs what doesn't, but others will read the results differently.
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Through the first four episodes, Sorkin teeters between abject fantasy and believable fiction. Strong performances by Daniels, Waterston and Mortimer serve to offset some of Newsroom's excesses and missteps.
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There's plenty of heart here--and some very sharp writing and acting, too.
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Newsroom is both entertaining and irritating. The info is important and good, but the quipping banter with which it's delivered, isn't. News junkies will be hooked.
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The Newsroom is the worst of Aaron Sorkin and the best of Aaron Sorkin.... Mostly I like Sorkin's optimism, the very quality that many of my colleagues are hanging him with.
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If you're not put off by some of those Sorkin traits--and honestly, they are ever-present--then The Newsroom might be a drama that hooks you with what it's ultimately trying to say about some complicated issues.
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The Newsroom boldly wants to smother you in both ethical debate and its own self-reflected glory. [29 Jun 2012, p.58]
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The Newsroom is timely, well acted, and big-hearted, but offers few surprises.
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The Newsroom characters grow a bit over the show's first four episodes and begin to seem less like types and more like fully-defined people, but they never feel altogether real, the unintended consequence of inhabiting an idealistic fantasy land.
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The Newsroom essentially presents viewers with two options: Lament how the series doesn't match the lofty crests of Sorkin's finest work, or admire the show's ambitions and embrace of serious ideas, and grudgingly roll with its uneven tides.
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The extremes of smart and wacky writing styles have never been so much at odds.
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Daniels is great, biting clean through clotted dialogue that's twinkly yet sanctimonious. [2 Jul 2012, p.40]
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The series is kind of a mess, but one you can't really look away from.
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At its best, and that doesn't come into full view until the third and fourth episodes, The Newsroom has a wit, sophistication and manic energy that recalls James L. Brooks's classic movie "Broadcast News." But at its worst, the show chokes on its own sanctimony.
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The Newsroom is both wonderful and terrible.
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The Newsroom is convincing as a faux newscast. It's less convincing as good television.
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The Newsroom's focus is on putting on a show, and because its weak points are howlers and it will be a hoot to laugh not with but at them.
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That transcendent mixture of confidence and fear, of humility and clear-eyed self-assessment, evident in so much of Sorkin's other work, is what turns a sermon into a work of art. And that is precisely what is missing here.
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The results are a captivating, riveting, rousing, condescending, smug, infuriating mixture, a potent potion that advertises itself as intelligence-enhancing but is actually just crazy-making.
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It's clear that Mr. Sorkin's main interest in The Newsroom runs to concerns other than characters and storytelling.
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The West Wing gave us rich characters, a sense of proportionality and an infectious feeling of romance with the country and the people who want to make it better. The Newsroom, after four exhausting, smug episodes, gives us none of that: just Aaron Sorkin writing one argument after another for himself to win.
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Sorkin's writing lapses into self-parody, leaving savvier viewers to marvel at how quickly the show goes awry.
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The Newsroom treats the audience as though we were extremely stupid.
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When The Newsroom isn't obvious and self-congratulatory, it's manipulative and shrieky.
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Monstrously misconceived and incompetently executed, powered by a high-octane blend of arrogance and contempt, The Newsroom is an epochal failure, a program destined for television's all-time What Were They Thinking? list. Not since NASA's first Vanguard rocket blew up on its launch pad in 1957 will Americans have seen anything crash and burn on television with such hellish spectacularity.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 446 out of 541
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Mixed: 54 out of 541
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Negative: 41 out of 541
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Jun 24, 2012
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Jul 3, 2012
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Jun 26, 2012