I'll Try to Fix You

Aaron Sorkin's new show The Newsroom continues to get a bit better with each new episode. Tonight's episode was the strongest yet.

The characters are slowly but surely beginning to take on identities of their own, above and beyond being vehicles for Sorkin's dialogue. Perhaps the strongest storyline tonight involved the love triangle of Jim, Maggie, and Don. It was interesting to see how each of them dealt with guilt in this hour. Jim felt so guilty over finally giving another woman a chance that he lied to Maggie. Maggie felt so guilty about flirtations with Jim (that she knew weren't completely above board) that she lashed out at him far beyond what was called for. And Don... well, he may have been the most interesting of all, apparently feeling no guilt whatsoever about being a bit of a jerk to both Jim and Maggie, relinquishing any high ground he may have had in the matter.

Will continued to be the main mouthpiece for Sorkin, though his targets shifted this week to be other "journalists" more than the political figures targeted in earlier episodes. But he had interesting character moments too. Apparently, his commitment to speaking he truth has spilled into every aspect of his life, and made him a real champion of putting his foot in his mouth. Writing Will as anything but an always-perfect paragon helps counterbalance his mighty rants.

But perhaps most interesting of all is the way the story continues to race through time. Two more months of real time passed before tonight's installment. What originally seemed like a series meant to lag a few years behind the present day now appears to be poised to catch up to the present day by the end of the season. Does Sorkin have an agenda there pertaining to current events, or does the story he have planned for the threat from Jane Fonda's executive character simply need that much time to play out?

There was a misfire this week, in the dopey Bigfoot side plot that the character of Neal was saddled with. Where other characters (especially Will) are shown in both noble and foolish moments, Neal seems to play the fool all the time. He was mocked from the beginning as a mere blogger (it's clear what Sorkin thinks of that), and has since bounced from one silly fixation to another. I hope there isn't anything lower than Bigfoot in his future, or the character might never stop being a joke.

But overall, The Newsroom has officially crossed the line now for me, I think, into something I'm going to look forward to each week. Though I do have to wonder why, in this summer period with so few interesting television series running, while the tiny handful that are all seem to run on Sunday?