The Newsroom 1.02 ‘News Night 2.0’ review: Will Will have the will?

You know what’s really hard to do when your lead character seems like a total ass? Convince everyone that he’s not a total ass. It’s a daunting task, but The Newsroom decided “To hell with it! We’re just going to tell everyone he’s not an ass and maybe they’ll believe us.” That was the main point of concern during tonight’s episode — and what I’m sure is the norm of many Sorkin shows — we have to be told a lot of exposition just to get by. For example, something as little as two characters who don’t get along so that it can be a running gag. Or for instance, something has huge as Will and Mackenzie’s past.

But damn, if Emily Mortimer didn’t give a subtle yet telling performance when talking about her cheating on Will.

It’s not that Will seems like a complete jerk or anything, he just doesn’t seem all that caring…not as much as Mackenzie wanted everyone to believe anyway. It wasn’t until his short scene with Maggie (played by Kristen Bell, I don’t care what you say) where he wanted her to stay with News Night that I thought, “Yeah, okay, I can see a little bit of what Mackenzie is talking about.” Sadly, there’s not much we can do about the talking exposition because of the environment the show lives in. Sure, Mackenzie feels as though she owes Will for her wrongdoings but unfortunately, the boss who yells about all the time and can’t get one person’s name right in the office doesn’t exactly warrant a rugged “but lovable” look — not from the characters that work at News Night and not for anyone watching at home.

Overall, I think the supporting players, perhaps particularly Maggie, got the better elements of making their characters whole. I know the show wants me to think Maggie is just the greatest, and I understand that she continues to unbelievably screw things up, but the show is winning me over with its argument. And with that, I think the show’s second outing suffered a bit from just not getting to the zenith of its adrenaline rush like last week’s episode.

That said, I very much appreciate the struggles Will had between having strangers love him and wanting to be the integrity of the News Night 2.0 team. So much so, the show won me over again in its final scene. But that doesn’t mean that’s the show I want to see. In fact, I’m not so sure what it is yet. Sometimes during this episode it veered so off into soap opera and political diatribe and back that it was absolutely glaring.

And really, Mackenzie sent a mass email because of an asterisk? And why wouldn’t she call him? And who didn’t see this plot point coming from a mile away? Ridiculous.

I guess I’ll have to wait until News Night 2.0 is actually executed.