verdict on the newsroom

Hot on the heals of a frosty North American reception, Aaron Sorkin's drama The Newsroom has had its UK debut on Sky Atlantic.  Whilst it is certainly not perfect, its difficult to see why it got quite such a mauling stateside.  Could this be this the start of a Sorkin backlash?

Set in the context of the current US cable news market, with FOX News on one side of the political spectrum, and MSNBC doing its best to head to the other extreme; The fictitious ACN network in this show seems to be based on CNN, stuck in the middle,  in decline and not quite sure what to do. 

In a rather rushed set up, the grumpy newscaster, Jeff Daniels, loses most of his production team to a rival show.  New producer, Emily Mortimer, rides to the rescue and urges Daniels to stop being so safe and get his journalistic mojo back.  By plunging us straight in to this bright new world of news, it seems like a bit of a missed opportunity not to show us what was wrong with the old world first.

On the positive side the show looks great, has a great cast and is rather compelling.  It was an interesting approach to focus on a real news story (BP/Gulf of Mexico).  

Less good is the rather preachy nature of the show.  We get self flagellating speeches about America and the quality of TV news.  I don't think it would be too controversial to say the show has liberal leanings.  It was also extraordinarily shouty.  There were some false notes, like why would it be a revelation for a news channel to respond unscripted, to unfolding events? 

That said, it is a good show, and with all its faults it is still way better than most TV drama.  But I couldn't help thinking that it could have been done in a better, more interesting way.

The opening credits are very evocative, showering us with images of the golden age of American TV news - naturally Walter Cronkite was there.  So maybe it should have gone for a period setting like BBC series, The Hour.  Imagine if it had been set in the seventies, with the unfolding Watergate scandal as a backdrop.  Or in the Eighties, with the Ronald Reagan presidency in the background.

Another direction it could have taken, would have been to base the series on one of the less fair and balanced news networks.  There is certainly an interesting story to be told on what goes on behind the scenes at those channels.   One has to wonder whether the "good people doing good stuff" setup that Aaron seems to have chosen, will stay compelling in the long term.  But lets hope it does.  Maybe it will get its teeth stuck into the 2012 Presidential race.

No post on professionalism in American TV journalism would be complete without this classic Bill O'Reilly "We'll do it live" clip.