Raw Data: The Genoa Tip

Initial thoughts and observations for episode 2-02 of Newsroom, "The Genoa Tip" written by Aaron Sorking, Dana Ledoux Miller and Adam R. Perlman.  Miller and Perlman have been working on the Newsroom staff. The episode is directed by Jeremy Podeswa who directed this episode of Homeland.

• Thinking more about these new credits...they show more mundane locations and activities associated with New York and the newscast, almost generic, where as the old one evoked old timey broadcasters like Murrow.  The theme was also more sweeping.  This kind of lies there.
• The episode begins August 25, 2011 and will span several weeks.  
• Did they bring the funny?
• "Ask A-Rod." is great for a throwaway
•  Maybe I am a sucker but it seems particularly shortsighted to not help a fellow reporter frame their shot when you clearly have the time.  It's small thing that is going to get done anyways and may help you in the long run.  Or maybe it's just expected people know how to take care of themselves and it's obnoxious to ask someone to do that for you when everyone else is managing on their own.
• This girl looks like one of the girls that got eaten by zombies in the Season One of The Walking Dead.  Being out at these rallies in East Chabumble, New Hampshire, I can't help but picture "walkers" stumbling out of these trees and attacking the Romney campaign.  Aaaaaaaahhh! 
• Interesting that Will has only been doing the anchor desk for 10 years.  It means he had a rocket ascension with a near immediate disenchantment.  Considering the show starts in 2010 and he's already the Jay Leno of newscasters at that point, he became complacent pretty quickly
• The footage of Charlie and Will is a new approach to an old tool, the flashback
• Charlie's wearing a necktie and not a bowtie and appears to be in a more hands on role at the time.  Or it could be he's doing what he can in a crisis.
•  Stuck some good music * in the bar scenes
• "Take it on the Run" - REO Speedwagon
• "Always on my Mind" - Willie Nelson version
• "Hold the Line" - Toto
• Brian Fantana is doing some good old fashioned process of elimination journalism in tracking down a member of this black ops team
• Their whiteboard running down possible stories includes "Bachmann HPV nonsense"
• Would have liked the two rings to Jim's phone go unexplained, but no, Maggie, who is awful, had to ruin that too.  It's unlike a Sorkin piece to drop that obvious bit on us via dialogue
• Is she going to get kidnapped and make everyone feel sorry for her?  I hope not.
• Her roommate, whose name may or may not be Lisa, was a bit dramatic with her hug of death.  Still, it was nice to see her call Maggie (who is awful) on all her b.s.

 * I'm always really proud of myself either for recognizing the song (thanks WDVE) or deciphering enough lyrics to Google them.  

What People Will be Angry About
Accusing Sorkin of manipulation regarding the Troy Davis case.  I thought this was well done and gave depth to Don and Will.  Will refuses to re-try the case on the air partially due to his background as a prosecutor.  He could have gone one way or the other in terms of his views on the case, but he separately believes one thing about the case and feels it's his duty as a journalist to act in the exact opposite manner.  With Don, it gave him a passion piece that he's followed consistently for a decade, presumably before his own show went soft.   

Ultimately, Sorkin can't re-write what happened and the newsroom is toothless to provide any help.


Evoking Past Works

I can't help but think of Danny Concannon running down the flight schools looking for the pilot of Abu Nazir's plane which mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.

All the scenes of Jim on the campaign trail, especially drinking and working, bring to mind "Manchester Parts I & II".

Will and the news team being hit in the face repeatedly but impotent to do anything, he takes the most solvable problem of bailing Neil out of jail, not unlike Jed Bartlet beating the Teamsters negotiations into submission in "The State Dinner" while he looks helplessly at the other things flung at him that day.

The Troy Davis case...there is an episode of SportsNight "Dear Louise" where a friend of Issac's (whose name he did not initially recognize), a former Negro League baseball player, is carjacked and beaten.  Casey and Dan report on the man's hospitalization.  Later in the show, a note is passed around and the control room becomes solemn as they ready a graphic to report that he passed away.  It is incredibly well done and packed an emotional punch SportsNight mangaged to dish out nearly once an episode.  The mood and Don's frustration echo this.