Election Night: Parts 1 and 2.
The first part of the season finale shows all of the Newsnight crew consumed with at times literally hand-wringing guilt for the mishandling of Genoa and nearly as much bad blood for their ACN overlords to permit a mass career-seppuku among the Newsnight staff.
As Will and Mac and, especially, Charlie prattle on and on about the fiasco of Genoa, the fatal flaw of this season (and to a degree, the series) becomes apparent. We are never once shown that this is a crisis of anything. Charlie moans explicitly that there is a torch-and-pitchfork mob outside the gates of ACN waiting to bring back the head of Will McAvoy. We are told, told, told, and never shown. In fact, there is no man-on-the-street character to even present the response to Genoa; the closest to an outsider view currently available to the audience is Jim's Romney junket rebound girl.
If the primary perpetrator of Genoa had been, say, Jim or Maggie or anyone from season one, the handwringing would be expected; this would be a crime with serious dramatic weight. But that is not possible for our Newsnight heroes: paragons of journalistic virtue so pure, they can only be distraught that an outright villain in their midst has... tarnished their brand? It's so abstract any viewer could be forgiven for the material seeming remote at best.
This is especially a shame, since there's plenty of possibilities to internally show the damage of the Genoa scandal. Let me suggest one: the very poor, very underfed character of Northwestern Girl (so underfed I needed to look at what I wrote for Season 1 to find her "name"). While my prediction of her as Maggie Lite for Jim rebound was undone, the NWG actually received nothing at all worthwhile to do this year. She was a fan of the show! How valuable to the weight-of-Genoa cause would her response have been? Her disillusionment with her heroes?
The second part of Election Night gives us nothing new: more handwringing, more refusals to accept resignations and so forth. No, much as season one ended with a whimper, season two backs out of any lasting fallout from events thus far and instead concentrates, again, on the quadrangle. However, the way it burns through several milestones -- if not resolutions -- the last act of the season finale feels a lot like a series finale. Jim and Maggie, Jim and Lisa, Lisa and Maggie all making peace with each other, Sloan finally hooking up with Don after a season spent in neutral, and, oh yes, Will and Mac finally getting engaged. All of which is set to more Sorkin dad-rock.
That I can be completely disappointed by this series once again and yet still find the banter about Mac's name-to-be amusing is pretty much, again, The Newsroom in a nutshell: so disappointing, occasionally fine. If Sorkin continues the show, I guess I will watch it. It would be nice if he'd let someone else write it.
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