The Newsroom

Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) began developing the idea for a News Drama in 2009, which eventually went on to become this show, The Newsroom. It stars Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber) and Emily Mortimer (The Kid). Daniels is a new anchor named Will McAvoy at the ACN (Atlantic Cable News) who, after a semi-breakdown (a genius one in my opinion) comes back to work to find that most of his staff has moved on to bigger and better things, all but a few loyal people stay behind to help him rebuild.

Sam Waterston (Law & Order) plays Charlie Skinner, the ACN News Division President, who starts to rebuild Will’s team, including a woman he’d worked closely with but had a falling out. Will is furious but the first night the team is all together they knock out a rapid fire, ingenious broadcast of a current event surfacing at the moment, before any of the other stations. Then, like a beautiful train wreck in reverse, we follow Will and his staff as they rebuild themselves and make an impact on their profession.

From the first fifteen minutes of the show I was in love. This show is like a love letter to people who remember when the news really was non-bias and opinion wasn’t a factor at all. No fad stories, no terror headlines to stir the American people into confusion and panic. It was plain hard facts and nothing more.

The Newsroom takes a look at the news as it is now and imagines a bold new world of broadcasters and fact checkers who make it their business to put out the most straight forward news featuring nothing but fact and refusing to bow down to corporations who have bought and paid their way into the newsroom to guide information so that the economy and politics swing their way.

The cast is amazing spitting out rapid fire dialogue and intertwining the newsroom in with their personal lives. Love stories come and go, personal crisis’ pop up, and morality goes head to head with inner office politics. Amazing stuff.

PICTURE QUALITY:
I was a bit disappointed going into The Newsroom considering almost all of my HBO Blu-Rays have been pretty spot on. Some of the problems including minor aliasing and a picture that picks and chooses between crystal clear and decent enough to be considered HD, but not HBO HD. No real big complaints like excessive grain or haloing, but this production is too fantastic to be near perfect in HD.

BONUS FEATURES:
~THE RUNDOWN: Creator and Executive Producer Aaron Sorkin along with Alan Poul (Executive Producer), Greg Mottola (Co-Executive Producer), Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, and Sam Waterston discuss in detail their experiences shooting the first season in this exclusive conversation.
~MISSION CONTROL: A behind-the-scenes look at the state-of-the-art sets with the cast and crew.
~AUDIO COMMENTARIES: Five audio commentaries with cast and crew including Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer and many more.
~INSIDE THE EPISODES
~DELETED SCENES