Credit: Melissa Mosely/
HBO
By Amy Amatangelo, TV Gal ®
I used to love Aaron Sorkin shows. I watched every episode of Sports Night. I never missed an hour of The West Wing. I even liked Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (no really, I did). The man knows how to make compelling, smart, entertaining TV. I don’t even mind that he repeats himself. One of my favorite YouTube things ever last year was this.
So when The Newsroom, which follows anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and the fictional ACN cable network, premiered last summer, I was excited. Until I watched the first episode.
You can read the rest of this post over at Antenna Free TV.
Are you all set with The Newsroom or do you like the show? Excited for Sunday’s second season premiere? Talk about it below.
TV Gal® 
Amy, I hear you and even more importantly I understand you but you’ve posted in the past, there are some shows that you can’t just quit. I’ve asked, “why can’t I quit you?”many times to my TV set but it it’s from the creative mind of Mr. Sorkin, I’m in!
So true Jesse! It is kind of a fascinating conundrum. Why are there some shows I don’t like and never watch again and some shows I don’t like and don’t think are very good but can’t seem to stop watching?.
When I first saw the billboard for Sports Night, “Sports Night is about sports like Charlies Angels was about law enforcement” I knew that was a show for me. I love ALL the Sorkin shows and I eagerly look forward to Season 2 of The Newsroom.
I totally forgot about that great tag line! Thanks for reminding me.
Hi, Amy! Well, we watched the first two episodes last night. Everything you say in your Antenna Free post is true–and yet … we still love it. I definitely want Mac and Maggie to be less … how they are and more … how they aren’t (although from your comments, it appears that they will not change anytime in the near future). After the strong women on Sports Night and The West Wing, I’m disappointed that these ladies aren’t as functional as Dana, C.J., Donna and Ainsley Hayes. But there is so much I can like on the show that I’m willing to suffer through the parts I don’t like–at least for now.
Moving on: Did you kill off The Killing? I dropped it during the Rosie Larsen days, but this season looked interesting so I tuned back in. It started off slow, but it’s finishing strong.
I don’t recall whether you’ve discussed House of Cards–did you watch it? Did you like it? We loved it. We’re usually not into the flawed protagonist, but Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are so deliciously reprehensible that we couldn’t stop watching.
And I put Orphan Black in my Netflix queue just for you. 😉
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Hi Patty, I agree. There’s something compelling about The Newsroom despite its obvious flaws. I actually didn’t kill off The Killing. I’m reviewing every week over at Pastemagazine. com. http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/07/the-killing-review-reckoning-episode-309.html
As others have said, I agree with much of what you say in your post (though not all), and yet I still absolutely love the show. I haven’t seen The West Wing, though I plan to, but I loved both Sports Night and Studio 60. Perhaps after watching West Wing, and seeing what a really successful Sorkin show is like, I’ll feel differently about The Newsroom. But for now, I love it, despite its many problems (and I didn’t buy the Sloan/Don romance either).