Tonight, some (HBO subscribers) will be treated, for a brief period, to an abbreviated and final season of Aaron Sorkins The Newsroom. It started in 2012 with an opening monologue that I thought could single-handedly wake up a nation. Perhaps Mr. Sorkin thought that as well. It illustrated the tedious semantic bickering between points-of-view of our dualistic political system. It showed the psychological stress that can affect a human tasked with conveying the news, now widely for sale, with some measure of integrity and ethics. It showed the naivete of younger citizens who know so little about how our country is run but have been bombarded their whole lives with how star-spangled awesome it is. In less than eight minutes, Jeff Daniels delivered Sorkins words with profound dramatic finesse in that classic You cant handle the truth! fashion that was done previously by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men and countless times by the wonderful cast of The West Wing. Daniels concludes what begins as an off-the-chain tirade where he slaughters every sacred cow he can think of, but then stops short, recognizing the veracity of his words and ends with a wistful resolution, The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. With Thomas Newmans gentle score underneath, I remember tears coming to my eyes when I first (and subsequently) watched that scene. So textured, authentic and resonant. I hope Sorkin packs a profound wallop in these last half dozen or so episodes. Theres plenty more to bring to bear. It is a show, one of the few I care to watch, that Ill greatly miss.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 18:13:53 +0000
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