'The Newsroom' Is The Best Scripted Reality Show On Television

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I'm officially obsessed with The Newsroom. I finished the first season in two days, and I'll likely rewatch it four times before the end of the week.

photo from: hellogiggles.com

I finally got into Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom over Thanksgiving. I'd been interested in the show from its first previews, and even attempted to get started on it this summer, but was unsurprisingly distracted by the naked crazy artist/musician on top of me at the time...

The show presents imperfect humans (Will, Mac, Jim, Maggie, Don, Sloane, Charlie, and Reese)  inside a controlled environment (the newsroom, the network), making their best attempts at achieving some ideal condition through passionate action. Everyone involved in News Night 2.0 is intensely committed to journalistic integrity, with the aim of honestly informing the electorate and holding politicians accountable.

It's a noble prospect, and an excellent, timely premise. The show forces moral questions, while using real world current events, quotes, and footage. It's cleverly written, and all the characters are so perfectly book-smart, and so well spoken - when it comes to work. Their personal lives are another story entirely. The fact that these skilled, and seemingly "together" individuals flounder haphazardly through their interpersonal relation is what makes the characters human, allowing the audience to relate.

The most unrealistic aspect of the show is how public, and tolerated the office romances are. But, you let it slide because what's a good night time drama without some work place love?

Aaron Sorkin (middle) is my hero.

What I love most about The Newsroom is that it makes me want to write again, though not for the usual reasons you'd expect good art to inspire an ambitious artist. The Newsroom doesn't makes me want to make something good so I can show it off parade it, and inflate my ego. It inspires me to continue the cycle of creation, to write something that inspires others - which I believe is the most noble aspiration of any creative endeavor.

Watching The Newsroom reminded me the purpose of good storytelling, true the purpose of all art: to connect us to our humanity and revive our passion to live fuller lives. At least that's what I expect, and feel, good art does to me.

My writer fire has been missing for a while. I discussed this a couple of weeks ago with a few friends. Sometimes you hit a wall, sometimes it's "the block," and sometimes you're just lost in your head. I was lost in my mind.

Writers' block doesn't scare me. You [read: I] can write through it with the acceptance and knowledge that you aren't going to like anything you put down. You accept it and you let it go. From then on, it's just an exercise. Athletes don't always beat their best time in every practice. Practice is conditioning, and that's why I can write every day even through writers' block. Because writing is what I do and if I don't do it then I'm not a writer. And if I'm not a writer, then I don't know what I am...

But when the fire goes out things get tricky. When I'm not even interested in crafting a narrative, exploring themes, opening misconceptions, learning characters, and uncovering (or fabricating) new truths about myself, then I know I'm in trouble.

I was in trouble a few weeks ago. I was pushing through it, because thank God I know enough to know I have to write everyday, and that every feeling, funk, elation, and depression will pass. Thank God I'm back now, and I'm ready.

Thanks, Newsroom.

Favorite Episode: Episode 5 - Amen
During a staff meeting Will explains the Jersey scene in Rudy, after Mackenzie calls him out for crying whenever he watches it. Then later, one of their embedded reporters gets snatched and Will pays the ransom with his own money because the network wasn't going to pick up that liability. Maybe anyone could've seen this turn coming, but I didn't. Instead, I bawled my eyes out. You know how I feel about well-acted cheese.