The Newsroom trailer

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In case you haven't seen it, there's a trailer up for Aaron Sorkin's new series, The Newsroom,* the third in his less-successful-than-The-West-Wing** behind-the-scenes show-within-a-show trilogy.*** This one focuses on a cable news show, and in particular a news anchor (played by Jeff Daniels) who appears to be having a really bad week.

*Formerly More As the Story Develops.
**I'm guessing. But come on.
***The first two, of course, being Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Given that the quality of the show seems to be roughly inversely proportional to the length of its title, I'd say the title change was a smart idea.

Thus far, it doesn't seem to deviate from the familiar Sorkin formula (well, the main character's a Republican, I guess that's different) - idealistic, good people trying to do good things despite being stymied by obstinate partisanship and evil corporate overlords, all the while being incredibly witty and clever and talking very fast.

I remain cautiously intrigued, but we all know I'm going to watch it no matter what because it's Aaron Sorkin. Thoughts?

Comments

[chaila]

I feel like I will definitely have to give this a try too, because it's Sorkin, but it might depend on how much of an ensemble it is. His condescending, blowhard dudes can be a little much, if not tempered by lots of focus on lots of other people. And I already sort of want to slap this guy, hee. I don't think I made it past the pilot of Studio 60's self-congratulation, so I'm curious to see which way this one goes!

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Yeah, I could not stand any of the leads on Studio 60, but we'll see, I guess.

[(Anonymous)]

I was just thinking about Aaron Sorkin today when I was writing a grad school about wanting to do my thesis comparing different showrunners/creators who have cult-like followings. I'll watch the trailer when I get home (I'm on my phone), but your tentative approval sounds like a good endorsement.

[(Anonymous)]

This is Lexi by the way. Stupid phone doesn't automatically keep me logged in!

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Yeah, the thing with Sorkin (as with many showrunners) is that some of what he does is brilliant and some of what he does is infuriating, and you just have to wait and see which one wins out on any particular show.

[pocochina]

IN IT TO WIN IT. Partially because Sam Waterston doing Sorkin dialogue in that trailer was like music to my ears, and partially because I am gleefully anticipating the inevitable TRAIN WRECK. (WHAT EVEN IS a moderate Republican in 2012? You'd learn more about America as it is from TVD. You know, the one with the VAMPIRES.)

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WHAT EVEN IS a moderate Republican in 2012?

Heh, I think it means "small government/fiscal conservative who doesn't want to be associated with Tea Party/religious crazies that have taken over the party"? Which is not too much of a stretch for a news anchor - I'd have a much harder time buying a moderate Republican politician. But in terms of the general public, I know a lot of Republicans who are just over on the sidelines shaking their heads in dismay. :-P

[slaymesoftly]

I'm there!

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Woo!