TV: The Newsroom, Season 2, Episode 2

The Genoa Tip

There are plenty of typical Newsroom highs and lows this week, but let's talk about the structure of what appears to be a lengthy if not season-long arc.   The viewer learned last week that Jerry's Genoa black op tip is at best misguided.*  It may develop into another season-ending rabbit-from-hat moment like last year's showdown with Leona, but for now we know that fairly serious consequences are in store for our heroes.

And that makes the hemming and hawing about Jerry's credentials and whether or not he is an "idiot" superfluous this week.  That he is also, pointedly, Not Jim and is thus free to be later revealed as:

a) an idiot
b) a rogue agent who is controlled Manchurian Candidate fashion by the Koch brothers
c) a good guy blinded by hubris, free to fall upon his sword and is never seen again

None of which are things that could happen if he were Jim, but at least we'd care about the outcome. Personally, my money is on option C, but there's  possibility of a penitent B in combination.

On the other hand, Maggie's ill-fated Africa story -- around which ominous clouds gather this week, before she even departs -- offers similarly little narrative suspense as we already know the result: she gets PTSD and a more flattering haircut.

Also interesting, and while not directly contradictory of much in the first season is the back-story of Will being a legal correspondent who seized the mic on 9/11  -- and here I sigh audibly at Sorkin playing the 9/11 card again -- who never let it go following a Ratherish moment after sixteen hours of 9/11 recap.  For such a myth-making piece of professional biography, it's curious this origin story wasn't given more air last year, particularly during the bin Laden week.  Will's legal background seldom comes into play, but the strong emphasis this week suggests it will be a recurring element during this deposition-framed season.


Good Sorkin:

The by-now predictable but always satisfying confrontation between Will's moral superiority and Everyone Else, tonight played by the NYPD.
Daniels' appropriately weary, 16-hours-on-the-air delivery of his 9/11 moment.

Bad Sorkin:

Sorkin versus the internet.  Between the Youtube part, the Foursquare part, and the
moronic intransigence of the Youtube poster/blogger, this is three-fer.
The two anonymous staffers, nodding reverently at Will's 9/11 footage: we get it, Will is a genius.
Even I think the antagonism toward Jim on the Romney bus is laughably over the top.
* Also, sarin gas? Would droning a school just be too Homeland for this show?