Aaron Sorkin HBO drama "The Newsroom"


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Captions in the promo tease that "the most trusted name in news is about to lose his audience" and asks "how do you fix breaking news?"

Dev Patel, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Munn and Jane Fonda also make an appearance in the trailer.

Other cast members confirmed for The Newsroom include Terry Crews, Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr, Thomas Sadoski and Sam Waterston.

Newsroom is the third series in Aaron Sorkin?s Behind the Scenes trilogy, following Sports Night and Studio 60. The one-hour drama is set at a 24-hour cable news network. The story revolves around an anchor (Daniels), his new executive producer ( Mortimer), his newsroom staff (Alison Pill, John Gallagher, Jr., Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Thomas Sadoski) and their boss (Waterston).

Jane Fonda will also recur as Leona Lansing, the CEO of the network?s parent company: ?She?s a titan and her corporate concerns often conflict with the reporting of the news outlet she owns.? TV Line likens the character to Ted Turner, the CNN founder whom Fonda was married to from 1991-2001. The character?s name is a tribute to two powerful women: the late Leona Helmsley and Sherry Lansing, the first female studio head.

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I havn't saw Jeff Daniels since Dumb & Dumber, this looks pretty interesting.

I have high hopes for this...Studio 60 was good

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I have high hopes for this...Studio 60 was good

This is the first time i've heard anything about the 'trilogy', this does look good but don't think i have time to download the previous two unless highly recommended?

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This is the first time i've heard anything about the 'trilogy', this does look good but don't think i have time to download the previous two unless highly recommended?

West Wing is very highly rated and Studio 60 was short lived

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

While the obvious comparisons to "The West Wing" - of which I am, have been, and shall always be a humongous fan - are inevitable, I think based on that premiere that this one's a winner all on its own. Great casting, good performances, nothing that stood out as lame or misplaced to me, and now I have something else to look forward to on Sunday nights (the other shows I currently keep up with are "Falling Skies" and "Continuum," a really rockin' show from the Canadian TV network called Showcase, it's a time-travel oriented tale that I highly recommend people check out).

I for one appreciate intelligent drama of which there is so little of on TV nowadays, what with shows like "The Big Bang Theory" and mindless stupidity seeming to be the popular stuff. I had hoped Sorkin's next big TV project after The West Wing and Studio 60 would have been a network show but, it seems the broadcast networks just don't care about such things anymore so, all the good shows are on cable networks now. I'm glad that HBO rolled the dice and took a chance on this one, but honestly I don't think it really matters:

It's an Aaron Sorkin show, and that's all that needs to be said. ;)

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Fantastic first episode. I really liked it and looking forward to Sunday.

I'm intrigued and do like HBO's dramas and Aaron Sorkin's work. However, sorry to rain on your parade, the pilot is always meant to be great. I have not seen it, but will wait until another couple of episodes air before deciding whether or not to commit.

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I'm intrigued and do like HBO's dramas and Aaron Sorkin's work. However, sorry to rain on your parade, the pilot is always meant to be great. I have not seen it, but will wait until another couple of episodes air before deciding whether or not to commit.

not on all shows, I have seen shows that have had massive hype only to be awful when the pilot comes out and I never returned

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not on all shows, I have seen shows that have had massive hype only to be awful when the pilot comes out and I never returned

That's why I said "meant to be" ;) Whether it is or not varies case-by-case and there would always be exceptions. As you would probably know, unless a full-season pickup is received just on script's basis, pilots decide how many episodes are ordered to begin with, are used to attract advertisers and showcase for international syndication.

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I thought the pilot was excellent. It definitely has that "West Wing" feel but with a sense of urgency about it that I really enjoyed. I noticed straight away that this pilot was following very similar to the first episode of the West Wing. I don't know if Aaron wrote it like that as a homage or call back to his earlier work or it wasn't intentional but I thought it was nice either way. I knew from Aaron Sorkins interview at The Wall Street Journal's All Things D Conference that the show would jump around in time and focus on real news that has actually happened and I thought that was a genius idea which gives the show a sort of relevance that was sometimes lost in the fantastical plots of his past shows.

So yeah overall I was impressed and I'll definitely be watching next week.

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That's why I said "meant to be" ;) Whether it is or not varies case-by-case and there would always be exceptions. As you would probably know, unless a full-season pickup is received just on script's basis, pilots decide how many episodes are ordered to begin with, are used to attract advertisers and showcase for international syndication.

HBO is usually a good network in terms of renewing...but who knows the critics have already rounded on Sorkin for his show

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I just read some reviews and I can see what the critics are getting at. The staff in the news room did just seem to go for low hanging fruit they didn't feel like real journalists who would be digging away at a story to gain tiny morsels. They all seemed to be quite lazy and brazen and wanting to get a full scoop laid on their lap from any source possible. It did feel unrealistic but at the same time I've not worked in cable news so for all I know that is what the people are like. Sometimes reality doesn't make great TV.

But having said that I still enjoyed the show regardless of what the critics are saying about it.

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I liked the first episode, definitely going to add this to my list of shows.

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