Weekend Watch: The Newsroom

It came to my attention that my friends had horrendous taste in entertainment one night over a one-pound bag of gummy bears. Despite my homeschooled best friend Danny’s attempt to refute my argument that gummy bears were simply a poor choice of snack late at night, he continued to munch on them with an energy of a caveman attacking meat on a bone. But I digress.

Danny, more than anything else, was my roommate, a guy whose mind was sharp enough to use Excel Spreadsheets as easily as making hamburger helper and who displayed remarkable athleticism on the ultimate frisbee field. It was this sharp mind of his that I both revered and inspected on a nightly basis as we sat a basketball goal’s length apart, discussing various stories of the day. It was on one of these peaceful nights that I decided to reveal my divinely manifested wisdom of what real television was.

“Danny, you haven’t seen any TV shows right? Because of homeschool?” I joked towards him, his goofy smile ringing across the room.

“No, I know nothing about the world,” he retorted happily.

My other roommate Zane walked in, shirtless and tired from a day of nursing classes that I deemed unwise because of my superior path in communications. He plopped down on the couch with a defeated sigh. It was time for our nightly routine of “Let’s Watch Zane Play A Video Game Until We All Go To Bed.” But it was at this moment I knew inspiration could only strike us at our weakest moment. Zane, much like Danny, was quick-witted and remarkably intelligent about relationships and the world around him, with creativity and vision compared to Danny’s cleanly structured brain.

And boy did I have a show for them to devour.

I plopped down next to Zane with a satisfied grin on my face. After all, I had seen the show before. Therefore, it was obvious to approach this process in the most alpha-male way possible.

“Boys, you ever seen The Newsroom?” I asked gleefully.

Both Danny and Zane shook their head in anticipation. I simply rolled my head back and groaned like I had just realized that school was cancelled for snow that would melt in under a half hour (Southern jokes are great, right?).

I directed them to Amazon Prime and clicked on The Newsroom. The night had started and wouldn’t end for a long, long time.

Written by the legendary Aaron Sorkin, The Newsroom is an extremely fast paced (so fast you need subtitles) political drama that revolves around a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional news media station called Atlanta Cable News. Jeff Daniels plays an uptight, angry, stupidly smart anchor who is both volatile and in desperate need of relational guidance. His newly hired staff and bosses are demanding he improve the program for viewers while he battles his never-ending war on civility and unbiased news presentation. With underlying plots of romance bewteen characters that say everything you’ve ever wanted them to say, it’s an absolute masterpiece. It’s one of those shows that makes you feel smarter after watching it. It was the perfect show for Zane and Danny.

Hence, it’s important I reiterate why this is good television. Shows that simply draw us in with shallow emotional tugs between characters with poor acting experience do little to stretch the abilities of our minds. So much of our lives revolve around shallow interactions, shallow work and pathetically immature drama. After all, we’re college students. But the idea that our break from reality should involve nothing to train our minds is an insult to what we are capable of. We have a world that is demanding our attention without telling us that our time is more valuable than what it’s offering.

Yet, TV shows like The Newsroom do indeed challenge our thinking. They push us to say new words, look at the world differently and obsess over the intelligence and creativity of people we think we can become someday. The very first episode starts with Jeff Daniels at a conference with college students at Northwestern University where he begins his famous “America Is Not The Greatest Country in the World” speech. No matter where one stands politically, the greatness and smoothness of the dialogue between the characters in this show makes you walk away inspired.

I wanted Danny and Zane to be inspired like I was. No longer would we numb our minds with television that does nothing to push our worldviews to the edge. It was after the final scene of the opening episode that I turned to look at Danny and Zane who were now locked onto the screen, their eyes wide. There were even a few grunts of approval during several soliloquys during the episode.

“Well guys, what do you think?” I asked nervously.

Zane shook his head. “Wow,” he said in awe, as if realizing for the first time how incredible Aaron Sorkin’s writing really was (see “The West Wing”).

Acknowledging his approval with pride, I glanced over at Danny. His face was unmoving and had not moved since the opening scene of the show. I squinted at him.

“Danny, it’s past midnight…..another one or no?”

For a moment Danny didn’t move. He was clearly processing the pros and cons of staying up until 3:00 a.m. Then with an eruption of enthusiasm, he shook his head yes so hard I was concerned for his physical safety. I smiled and clicked on episode two.

Whether a visionary or business major, The Newsroom has the ability to capture and enthrall. It’s a show you can’t eat chips during, and it’s a show that might be too much for some. But for my roommates and myself, it was a night that went much longer than anticipated. A moment of silence for the one-pound bag of gummy bears, please.