- A several month time jump, we're in March 2012.
- This episode happens close to real time (not accounting for showing simulteneous events in a more digestible manner), lasting about an hour (the length of Will's broadcast)
- It's also written more like a play, which you'll see more of in Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie, which is completely real time
- Also happening, ramping up to the Illinois primary, which Mittens won handily
- It may have been planned this way to start but a bottle episode re-allocating resources would make sense considering the mulligan *
- If it is a result of saving resources...I think it is one of those times where less resources make you more creative. The plots meshed well together, like Neil looking at the NewsNight hashtag, linking the LGBT kid and Will's vanity exercise
- Ultimately though, I think it is just Sorkin being the playwright he rightly fancies himself. The best scenes he writes have a theatrical quality to them, often evoking a play (think Noises Off)
- Think the bugged scotch in Charlie Wilson's War or the Billy Beane's horsetrading on the phone in Moneyball
- Maggie (who walks really slowly on city sidewalks) says something in the control room, but it's a guess. Nothing like relying on Maggie's (who stands on the left side of the escalator) guesswork!
- Then again, a shot in the dark can't be any worse than work she puts effort into
- Why does Jim even bother to put on a tie? He looks like shit every day of his life.
- Jim harps on Maggie (who orders her steak well done) for her appearance and rumpled clothes, which is a great example of the crow calling the raven black **
- If a real life media analysis of Will's tie took place it'd say the purple means he's trying to appeal to moderates. When in reality it would only provide something for the people who picked out his tie and the people talking about his tie to talk about
- Maggie (who says "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less") is making herself useful by waiting for an e-mail. And only that.
- Does anyone have a problem with her performance?
- Only every Newsroom viewer
- Did they bring the funny? Don did.
- Don in the shot (!)
- Another quote from Don involving Germany and 15-20 years of building rage...will get the exact quote
- "Mr. Munch!" - more in the delivery than the text...
- "Ba-ba-booey motherfuckers!" - and not just the line but that payoff and unexpected twist
- Mac verbally and intellectually smacks around this kid who gets himself in trouble for tweeting behind the scenes, reminding me of this story
- #D2R
- A serious moment about Maggie, from a writing standpoint I like how her alcohol abuse, or whatever it is, isn't hiding a bottle in her desk or spiking her Big Gulp (cliche....), but going out on the town a lot more, which results in drinking, as a way to combat loneliness.
- Related, this episode does a good job in general averting expectations. Don and Sloane's talk culminates in a funny phone call and beat down rather than a make out session. The 'trapped Syrians' get karmic comeuppance rather than be a part of some News Night team to the rescue plot.
- After several Godfather-esque moments in Sunday's Breaking Bad, Mac "settles all family business"
- I think an epic quote like that is somewhat overstating what occurred on News Night
- It actually doesn't even factor as high on the Godfather scale as when Lisa went Michael-Fredo on Maggie (who takes the elevator up one flight. Yes we're back to that)
- And so we'll see the next few weeks how Will deals with his father's death.
- And Stephen Root! What an awesome actor. I know he's so well known for Milton in Office Space but he'll always be Jimmy James from NewsRadio to me. He's also on Justified these days as the most awesome judge in the world.
- Also, what a cast NewsRadio had. The whole was so much better than the sum of the parts. I wonder if that show is streaming somewhere...
- Genoa is lurking in the background of every episode, but hardly the primary concern. Kind of like how Jim and Pam always had a thing going on in the early seasons of The Office, but it was rarely the main focus of the episode. The meeting between Charlie and his Naval Intelligence friend went like so many of those West Wing meetings.
Not a lot in this one due to relatively little media criticism. The errors associated with the Zimmerman tape are still fresh in people's minds.Though I would not be surprised to see Mac catch some flack for saying the kid's announcement isn't the kind of thing they do on that show ("oh, they're so self righteous!"). Or maybe some jabs for having Sloane embroiled in this naked photo thing. Because, you know, Sorkin hates women.
* Articles contains some of the self-congratulatory nature of media patting themselves on the back for suggesting improvements to the show and lauding praise on Sorkin for taking their suggestions
** I don't think I had a chance to mention I finished A Dance with Dragons and no longer risk inadvertent spoilers pertaining to Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.
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