Its about idealistic journalism. how journalists should try and do the right thing as they have a moral obligation to society who depend on them for the facts. But the fun, witty , charming way this is portrayed makes the show such an interesting watch. Another reason for this show being one of my favourites is that almost all characters have something worth rooting for. Every story, the acting, specially the dialogues (and there is such a large amount of it in very high speed) are great. The title soundtrack somehow reminds me of Vande Matram.
The biggest tussle for my favourite spot is between two facets of the show. The characters who are flawed still so amazingly inspiring. Honorable, good at their job, witty, fun, real, alive. And the dialogues. There are times when three or four people are delivering their dialgues at braek nek speed (The spelling mistake because I am typing at the same speed). All the political terms fly over my head, but the wit… I laugh so much that it hurts. And am amazed at how noone takes umbrage at anything their colleagues say. No acting good, be normal.
The show starts with a confusing sequence. A man slightly dazed sits on a podium and answers questions trying to be smart and funny. There is no real answer in anything he says. Till a girl from the audience stands up to ask him, “What makes America a great nation?”. He tries to weasle his way out of answering till in the far end of the auditorium he notices someone with a placard that says.. “It isn’t yet, but it can be.”
Will McAvoy – You could call him the central protagonist on whom the story revolves. It is he who was not doing a great job as a reporter of a daily news show. The TRP game played here as well, till he starts doing his job sincerely and well. He is great at what he does. Only negative I can think of is he isn’t that good looking. A middle aged, smart man.
MacKenzie McHale – She is so absolutely charming I dare you to not fall hopelessly in love with her. An idealist to the core. Not preachy at all. So much fun to hear her sincere speeches, see her mess up, be completely human, helplessly in love, heartbroken, excited, actually super excited. I do believe you need positive people around you. I would love to have such a person around me. Inspiring. Compulsive obsessive lovely.
Jim Harper – He came into Will’s office with Mac. Very sincere. Hardly ever makes mistakes. Loyal and still never afraid to speak up. Makes perfect judgement calls. Can’t handle this thing called love, but all that craziness makes the frenzy of getting the night’s show ready even more interesting.
Maggie Jordan – Completely scatterbrain. When we start off she is new, but she fits right in. quite competent. Wanting to prove herself. Makes bad choices and makes a lot of good choices. Whatever the chaos all around she will give her all to get the news flowing.
Neal Sampath – He is played by the original chaiwala, Dev Patel. Handles the online side of the Newsroom. People didn’t even know they had a blog. Follows leads on twitter. geeky, hacker talk. How can I not be ensnared.
Don keeper – When we talk about character development in a show we could look at a person like Don. At the onset I was sure he will be the bad guy. He is not. It does help that he looks nice and has a set of piercing eyes (I should use this phrase again someother places. I like the imagery it conjures..) . He may be curt, more wordly than the rest, but again is genuinely nice. Good at his job as the rest.
Sloan Sabbith – She is all brains. Howard MBA grad if I am not wrong. Social misfit, but who cares. She is extremely endearing because she cannot be normal. She is intelligent and an outsider. Slightly different from the crowd and I like her the way she is.
Charlie Skinner – If my husband ever starts a company, and I plan to visit him frequently there, I wish that both of us are bosses like Charlie. He looks frail and sometimes i feel sorry for him. Actually I needn’t be sorry at all. He fiery. And it is his convictions that let this mad lot do what they have set out to do. Screen them from the fire, encourages them to dare to dream. A very nice character.
Phew.. if you stuck through this long list and reached here.. thank you. They are all that memorable that I could not pick a few and leave the rest. Had to mention them all.
Before I end..I found something I had hastily typed after the season 1 premier of the show .. on the type writer my husband has gifted me. I plan to use some of these lines for IPK because I think it fits there too.
Why do simple things make such a difference? That one moment which inspires you? Makes you believe so strongly in love..in happiness that it almost physically makes you breathless.. Everything clenches in your gut with anticipation. Pure joy of watching, listening, feeling, living..
Simple scenes, lovely background score.. hard to follow easy to lose track of the fast paced dialogues.. Yet thrills you.. excites you.. You wish to reach out and stretch your wings and soar into the blue sky..
Newroom. Completely practical premise. A show about a tv news channel. And it manages to evoke a response in me much beyond what would be practically possible for such a show.
