The Newsroom: "The Greater Fool" Review

Note: Full spoilers for The Newsroom season finale follow.

It's rather wonderful when an entire season comes together, culminating in a powerful finale that not only satisfies on an emotional level, but also on ties up loose ends in an equally satisfying manner. This was "The Greater Fool."

Weaving the complex subplots of nine episodes worth of material into a perfectly potent finale, "The Greater Fool" also left enough room for the show to continue to grow, especially with the small, but significant twist involving Mackenzie's choice for intern.

The romantic elements, while a touch cheesy -- especially the contrived but admittedly hilarious scene with Maggie scolding and shouting at a bus of Sex and the City fans -- also reached an important pivotal point. Many, including Rainn Wilson, have compared the Don-Maggie-Jim love triangle to the Jim-Pam-Roy subplot from the early days of The Office. Hell, even The Newsroom's Jim bares a slight resemblance to John Krasinski's Jim, not to mention the same name.

What seperates the two love triangles is how Sorkin handles the character of Don. On The Office, Roy was a brute. He drank. He played with the boys. He often treated Pam poorly. He had only a thin layer of dimension to his character. He was a foil for the relationship, nothing more. He served his purpose well -- to create romantic tension between Jim and Pam. With The Newsroom, Don is not just a foil. He's not a villain character. In fact, he's quite the opposite. While the audience may not root for him to succeed with Maggie, his dedication to the relationship, foolish or not, makes him a tragic figure (as well all know how it will end) and adds meaning and subtext to the whole dynamic. Don's a person, too. He deserves to find someone he truly values, and who values him as well.

A few seeds for how that love triangle will slowly unfold -- including the not-so-subtle hint that the triangle is actually a square -- will prove fascinating, even engaging in season two. While I've long moaned about the relationship fodder strewn throughout the series, it clicked for me tonight. And while I'd still prefer to see it dialed back just a bit, I find myself oddly looking forward to what will happen in future episodes with the characters.

Same goes for the Will-Mackenzie romantic subplot. The big reveal for Will that Mackenzie was actually in the room the day he had his public meltdown could have played with schmaltz and melodrama, but instead ended on a more, shall I say, Moonlighting note, with the two comically screaming at one another. It added a playful tone to their otherwise heavy-handed romance and teased at a more enjoyable future for the two. As Will admits, true love always wins. It's a silly notion, but if that's the direction the show wants to take, by all means. In many previous episodes, the romance felt shoehorned in -- added for color, flavor, something to keep people, those who otherwise wouldn't watch an overtly political show, watching. With "The Greater Fool," however, while still dominant, the romance felt organic, even delightful.

As for the rest of the episode, well, it was a staggering piece of television. Numerous subplots were expertly tied together. The wiretapping story collided with the Leona (Jane Fonda) subplot from early on, and reached an outstanding, and tear-jerking, conclusion. TMI's Nina (Hope Davis) got to do the right thing (sort of). And Will, who thinks himself foolish after Brian (Paul Schneider) publishes his scathing article, comes to realize that the greater fool is what this country is built upon.

Probably the most stinging element of this episode was, of course, the absolutely brutal assault on what Will labeled, "The American Taliban." Instead of calling out the entirety of the Tea party or the Republican party, Will outlines how radical thinking has sabotaged a party he firmly believes in. This aspect of "The Greater Fool" is likely to garner a pretty volatile reaction from those who agree with many of the sentiments and statements Will criticizes here, but Sorkin's writing is concise and confident, and "The Greater Fool" leaves you with a lot to think about, regardless of your political affiliation.

Like pretty much any scathing attack, there's bound to be a retort of some kind, not to mention others who simply won't believe Will's final assessment. It's not likely to sway anyone teetering on the edge, either. That said, Will's final news cast of this season does set up the direction his attacks will go in future seasons. While it may leave some Republican viewers bitter (let's be honest, this season has mostly glossed over any credible anti-Obama arguments), it's an interesting direction for the show, and should lead to more than a few compelling episodes.

The Newsroom has been an absolute delight to watch this season. While not every episode is a masterpiece, the whole is what really counts, and Season 1 is terrific. From Will's biting monologue that opened the series, to his equally biting final news cast, The Newsroom has been a daring, emotionally engaging TV series that rarely lets up. The characters are fascinating and the message of the show is one people need to hear. And I'm not talking about the Republican bashing. Rather, I'm speaking of the show's real intention -- to refocus what it means to be a TV news journalist. It's not about being balanced, it's about communicating. Sometimes, for a TV news viewer, that communication is hard to hear. And sometimes, for the journalist, it's hard to say. But regardless, a news reporter needs to do one thing -- always be honest. That's why I love The Newsroom, and I can't wait to see what's next.

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The Newsroom: "The Blackout Part I: Tragedy Porn" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

After coming off two rock-solid installments, it was only natural that The Newsroom hit a somewhat muddled, exhausting episode. “The Blackout Part I: Tragedy Porn” is the first of a two-parter, and much like the first few episodes of the series, it crams enough plot for two or three episodes, and rarely slows down enough to breath.

“The Blackout” is a bit repetitive, treading over stories that have already played out in previous episodes, while adding a convenient conspiracy that makes the show feel more fictional that it would otherwise be. And, once again, the relationship dynamic of the show seeps directly into the core story, infecting a subplot about Will hiring a reporter (Parks and Rec alum Paul Schneider) to write a piece about News Night. This reporter also happens to be the man Mackenzie cheated on Will with.

Let's start off with the negative portrayal of woman in this week's episode. Every single female character flew off the handle, or displayed petty behavior. Maggie (Alison Pill) got furious about how her faith was being hijacked by the likes of Michele Bachmann, and was made to feel bad for getting angry about it. When Neal (Dev Patel) approached Sloan (Oliva Munn) about trolling her to gain him access to the trolling community, she threw him against a wall. When Mackenzie was told that News Night would cover the Casey Anthony story, she had to be put in her place. She was also made to feel terrible about her past decisions throughout the episode.

It's almost ironic how the New Night team mocks Nancy Grace's expertly manipulative dissection of the Casey Anthony case, but then follows it up by suggesting the Anthony Weiner sexting controversy was spawned from one woman's desire to make herself famous, and get vengeance on a man she was flirting with (on a side note: that woman was played by Alison Beck, who played a love interest of Paul Schneider on Parks and Rec). Was it meant to be ironic that the show was offering up a similar petty judgement?

The only negative male character here was Will, but his flaws were allowed to be dissected in a more positive manner. And at his weakest point in the episode he sought the advice of his therapist (David Krumholtz).

Aside from the negative portrayal of woman in this episode – which is a common criticism of Sorkin's work – "The Blackout" never quite seemed to find it's footing, dancing around issues and skirting past subplots. The episode felt too fast and too jam-packed. Why not introduce the journalist in last week's episode? Or why not spend one week focusing on the wire-tapping/hacking conspiracy story. If Sorkin wants to go there, he should spend some serious time with it.

Or why not spend the whole episode dissecting how we viewed the Casey Anthony case – mocking how news journalism resorted to tabloid fodder for almost a month. While the episode does spend some time with this issue, it would have been fascinating and fun to see Sorkin mow down the public narrative. The same goes for the Anthony Weiner sexting subplot, which tied in nicely with the Casey Anthony material, but never quite got enough screen time to fully develop.

Naturally, some of these issues will be resolved in the episode's second part, but it seems like next week will focus more on the blackout itself, which abruptly ended this episode.

Regardless, the first half of “The Blackout” was a mixed bag of sorts, and not a very satisfying episode. It repeated the “we're going to get Will fired” story over again, and basically drew much of the same conclusions. Admittedly, this arch was more about how easy it is to fall back on old habits, but traipsing through that mud just isn't nearly as fun or moving as where the show has been progressing these last few weeks.

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