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Waltzing Along posted:I don't mind Jim at all. Don't really get the hate, actually. His, thankfully, ex-gf was horrible. Hope she's off the show now. Maybe you, too, are a terrible person.
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Dec 1, 2014 06:06
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 13:01 |
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Hahahah the HR guy was trolling them. Thats hilarious
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Dec 1, 2014 11:01
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Foo posted:Jim is literally the worst. edit; I like watching the Newsroom cast suffer. Nutso tech billionaire and HR man literally just doing his job do this and so I like them. edit2; Jim is literally the worst. edit3; Maggie's new boyfriend is a conduit to tell Maggie that she really does love Jim aaaaaarrrreee yyoooooouuuu kiddddddiiinngggg meeeeeeeee edit4; JIM IS LITERALLY THE WORST Pierson fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Dec 1, 2014 |
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Dec 1, 2014 11:03
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Waltzing Along posted:gently caress drat Ryan is more unwatchable than ever. Glad he is in at most two more episodes after this. I watch The Mindy Project too which also stars Chris Messina as Mindy Kaling's boyfriend, so I had to let out a laugh when Chris's character mentioned in passing that Ryan/BJ stole his girlfriend. All dat not-rly-but-in-general-TV crossover.
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Dec 1, 2014 12:23
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Ugh, the more I watch it, the more I think The Newsroom should have been mercy killed after the pilot.
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Dec 1, 2014 12:50
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Fetus Tree posted:Hahahah the HR guy was trolling them. Thats hilarious Twofer 
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Dec 1, 2014 12:57
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Bloomberg Terminal getting some sweet product placement. I hope ACN gets shut down and the cast has to go work for Buzzfeed or something.
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Dec 1, 2014 13:01
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You absolutely didn't deserve that montage and you definitely didn't deserve Ave Maria over it you motherfuckers.
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Dec 1, 2014 13:29
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Pierson posted:edit3; Maggie's new boyfriend is a conduit to tell Maggie that she really does love Jim aaaaaarrrreee yyoooooouuuu kiddddddiiinngggg meeeeeeeee It's literally just the moment when the deaf woman tells Josh Lyman why Donna is pushing so hard for him and said deaf woman. There was a moment when Jim suddenly decided to needle his girlfriend for writing about her personal experience with Plan B that I thought "gently caress old media and gently caress Sorkin if they think that is acceptable behavior." Maybe they don't think that (in which case it was just terrible writing,) but yeah, Jim is the worst.
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Dec 1, 2014 13:35
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pokeyman posted:Hey op where you at? I'm writing now. The Season 1 finale is some weird poo poo.
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Dec 1, 2014 14:52
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I'd say the best way to describe this episode is as overly dramatic, slightly ridiculous, but nontheless still enjoyable to watch.
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Dec 1, 2014 15:06
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I was waiting for an "I love you..... I know" from Will and Mac during the post-wedding arrest. Star Wars did it better. 
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Dec 1, 2014 17:15
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LordPants posted:Twofer A black guy and a Harvard guy.
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Dec 1, 2014 18:05
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Show just feels boring this year. I hated the Genoa stuff from s2 but at least there was other stuff that was interesting. This year is just boring. Maybe, it's the lack of real news stories or something. I never really cared for the dumb relationship drama aspects. But I liked the news stuff well enough.
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Dec 1, 2014 18:35
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Were we supposed to be on Jim's side during that entire episode? Because at no point did I really care about him and actually just actively hated him.
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Dec 1, 2014 18:46
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Max posted:Were we supposed to be on Jim's side during that entire episode? Because at no point did I really care about him and actually just actively hated him. It's ok, and possibly healthy, to hate the poo poo out of him and his scumbag gf at the same time.
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Dec 1, 2014 19:06
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Season 1, Episode 10: “The Greater Fool” I've been having a lot of trouble defining “The Greater Fool.” Make no mistakes, this is a bad episode, but I've found myself completely unable, for two weeks now, to firmly latch onto anything. The scenes make sense on their own (well, most of them), but structured like they are, in the context of a season finale, they add up to nothing. I'm having trouble even remembering most of this episode, let alone finding ways to tie it together. With the exception of one major plot, the episode just runs in place, not resolving anything. None of the romance plots have any sort of resolution, which is infuriating considering how much time we've wasted on them. They at least get setups to continue; from what I understand, the other major plot just ends. The Newsroom has had myriad problems with structure, and I just can't understand it. Someone else might say this reads like a first draft, but I say it reads like a throwaway script Sorkin used to dump all his worst, most indulgent ideas that somehow ended up getting shot anyway. The main “news” plot in this one is about voter ID laws disenfranchising the poor and minorities through the example of Dorothy Cooper, an issue near and dear to my heart and also grossly mishandled. Not particularly in the way they cover it, it just has all the usual flaws of this show's coverage with an unstated “Take that, Republicans  ” after every sentence Will speaks, but in the way they choose to inform us about it. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself there, so let's start from the beginning.Lonny and Mac have been trying to contact Will for hours, so they go to his apartment and find him laying on the ground in his bathroom, unconscious and bleeding. If you thought, “gently caress, that's a way to end that Neal plot,” like I did, I'm afraid you officially have too much faith in this show. Turns out he was vomiting blood because he took a whole bunch of painkillers, depression medication and alcohol because—seriously—Brian from the last two episodes savaged News Night in his article. It's a giant gently caress you to anyone who might have gotten even remotely invested in that plot, god knows why, and it somehow retroactively makes those episodes even worse than they already were. The end result of the article is that Will decides to quit, a decision the show wisely doesn't try to play as real for even a second because like most scenes in this episode it's framed as a flashback. He decides to go back to work when his nurse asks him why he isn't covering important issues like voter ID laws, because her great-aunt is being prevented from voting. Did I mention the nurse's name was Cooper? It's not even really surprising, because it's emblematic of the show's take on these issues. There's something I've been trying to get at for a while now: The Newsroom is about time travel. Not in the literal sense, of course, but in the way it handles these issues. It's an Assassin's Creed game being “historical” by making you best friends with Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli. It's that scene from Back to the Future where Chuck Berry's cousin sees Marty McFly playing Johnny B. Goode. History exists only as a conduit through which to affect these characters. The issues don't matter, only their reactions to it. When I heard that The West Wing had some alternate history going on I thought it was weird and indulgent but maybe it was the opposite. Maybe it was the perfect way to divorce the events of the show from reality as thoroughly as possible, in order to focus just on their own storytelling. By contrast, I look at The Newsroom and I see self-absorbed tripe. This is where I finally started being actively disgusted by what the show was presenting to me. The other main story, which deals with the end of both the phone hacking and Leona stories, is pretty bizarre on its own. Charlie has to inform Hancock that due to his record they can't attach his name to the story, which destroys him because all he wants is respect from his children, and he ends up killing himself before sending one last file to Charlie. I honestly felt bad for the guy even if the entire turn of events felt manipulative as hell, but then again I'm kind of a sap like that. Meanwhile, the tabloid reporter who wrote bullshit about Will comes to warn Mac that she knows that Will was high while covering the death of Osama Bin Laden, and that she'll have to write about it if she finds a second source. I seriously cannot loving believe that, of all things, came back as a major plot point. Will, Mac and Charlie are stumped on how she knows that, until Will mentions that he sent Mac a voicemail that night mentioning he was high, which she never got. In one of two scenes in this episode that are actually somewhat effective just because there's a palpable energy and joy in watching them figure this out, they're able to reason that Mac's phone was hacked and the message deleted, giving them the last bit of evidence they need. Of course, it's immediately undercut by Will quoting from the end of Don Quixote and a schmaltzy-as-all-hell montage of the team trying to dissect stupid Republican soundbites set to Baba O'Riley. One step forward, two steps back. They confront Reese and Leona about the evidence, saying Hancock's file contains incontrovertible evidence. It actually contains a recipe for beef stew, which is so absurd it doesn't even qualify as a bluff. Why would they assume Leona wouldn't want to read it? By the time she does, though, it's too late. Reese has admitted to “staying competitive” and they've already blackmailed Leona into leaving Will alone. They also try to convince her not to sell out so hard and actually stand for something, but I'm not sure how much that's gonna take. Of all the plots in this episode, the romantic ones are the most outwardly frustrating. Maggie knows Jim probably came to see her in the previous episode, and is getting sick of Don's refusal to commit. Jim is still with Lisa, and is trying to find a way to show he cares about her interests while Maggie pines, Don has some sexual tension with Sloan, and Will finally finds out Mac was the woman with the signs at Northwestern. None of these plots go anywhere, but the stuff with Jim and Maggie is just absolute nonsense. See, while Lisa and Maggie are out at dinner, Maggie, feeling jealous, is unable to prevent herself from telling Lisa that Jim probably didn't actually want to get back together with her, because Maggie is a terrible person. Lisa, understandably, leaves, with Maggie chasing her, only to be stopped when a bus splashes water on her and she stops to yell at it. Specifically, a bus emblazoned with the words “Sex and the City.” I can't loving count the ways in which the Sex and the City bus tour scene is bad, so I'm just going to go down the most obvious points. For one, “Sex and the City bus tour.” Why would you do that? Why? Second, it's night. Why is this bus driving around when it's dark out and you can't actually see any of the settings from the show? Is this an actual thing? Next, everything about Maggie's rant about the fakeness of Sex and the City is indulgent nonsense that serves absolutely no purpose. For what it's worth, it's also hypocritical nonsense, because who the gently caress is Aaron Sorkin to be criticizing fakeness in The Newsroom? I don't think I've ever seen such a tone-deaf scene in my life. Finally, oh yeah, Jim was on the loving bus, and he heard the part where she ends up confessing to liking him. It's a reveal so blatantly, terribly telegraphed I had to omit the part where Jim talks about the bus tour just to maintain the tension in this writeup. After Maggie runs away, Jim catches up to her and they end up deciding to go out after Maggie breaks up with Don for not committing. Except that doesn't happen, because Don asks her to move in with him when she gets there. The weirdest part of this whole thing is that Jim knew this. Don told him that he was going to ask her to move in with him. What did he think would happen? When I said these plots go nowhere, I meant it. Jim and Lisa are broken up again, I think, but that's really it. There's also the just comical end to Neal's trolling story. His great idea is to incite the trolls by claiming the FBI is after him for “sending the death threat,” which will draw out the real troll's need for credit. It's patently absurd on its face, and it ends with Will getting 100 new death threats. Seriously. Neal is a moron. There's one more scene I enjoyed, and it's at the very end of the episode. The college student who asked Will “What makes America the greatest country in the world?” is interviewing with Mac for a position despite Will still hurling abuse at her, because she wants to be a “greater fool” along with them, someone willing to take the hard risks and lead the way. Will tells her to re-ask the inane question, and tells her it's actually people like her who make it the greatest country in the world, and he hires her. And you know what? gently caress it, I liked it. It's cheesy, but I'm honestly overdue for some actual loving idealism from this show and it was nearly effective. My standards have been lowered considerably after the last few episodes. I'm just trying to latch on to whatever I can.
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Dec 1, 2014 19:08
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Sex and the city bus tours are an Actual Thing, the real worst part of that scene is the fact that sorkin wrote a show for entitled liberal white men that's masturbatory pointlessness to make entitled liberal white men feel amazing and he then had the hypocritical nerve to call out sex and the city for being the exact same loving thing just for entitled liberal white women The entire first season of the newsroom just is a real capper on how much distaste sorkin genuinely has for women at all times
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Dec 1, 2014 19:18
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MrAristocrates posted:This is a pretty bad show, huh? Yep, but wow is it ever cathartic reading your reactions to it. Thanks.
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Dec 1, 2014 20:38
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Yeah I changed my mind, the scene with the co-ed is pretty bad.
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Dec 1, 2014 20:42
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But it's so close to being great.
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Dec 1, 2014 20:45
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I'm pretty confident you're going to love season two. It has everything... more women, field trips, fake news, bloggers. Good luck 
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Dec 1, 2014 21:09
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Max posted:Were we supposed to be on Jim's side during that entire episode? Because at no point did I really care about him and actually just actively hated him. Jim was 100% correct and 100% a douchebag for how he went about what he did. Also, is the assumption supposed to be that Neal gave Will a false name or was he just using "he" to be misleading.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:32
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sportsgenius86 posted:Jim was 100% correct and 100% a douchebag for how he went about what he did. Neal never gave Will the source.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:33
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MrA: Can't wait for you to start season 2.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:36
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Toshimo posted:Neal never gave Will the source. I read it as Will referred to the source as a he because that's how Neal referred to the source, not because of what you're suggesting.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:59
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Toshimo posted:MrA: Can't wait for you to start season 2. Holy poo poo I'd forgotten all about that. What a trainwreck.
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Dec 1, 2014 22:00
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Pierson posted:edit3; Maggie's new boyfriend is a conduit to tell Maggie that she really does love Jim aaaaaarrrreee yyoooooouuuu kiddddddiiinngggg meeeeeeeee Pierson posted:You absolutely didn't deserve that montage and you definitely didn't deserve Ave Maria over it you motherfuckers. I have come to the conclusion that Aaron Sorkin has turned into a loving hack.
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Dec 1, 2014 22:42
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Toshimo posted:MrA: Can't wait for you to start season 2. oh my god
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Dec 1, 2014 22:59
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MrAristocrates posted:oh my god "Hey, this character is mentally traumatised. How do we best communicate that fact to the viewer?" "Give her short hair with unusual coloration." "Brilliant!" I can't even remember how long that particular plot dragged on, but it felt like loving forever and easily thrice as long as it needed to be. The pacing was all kinds of weird and the resolution made me wonder consider if Sorkin's hands maybe literally are made out of ham.
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Dec 1, 2014 23:16
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With the Ave Maria montage at the end, what was with Sam Waterston's part? It looked like he was peering into rooms at some mental hospital where the patients were all involved in music therapy, and was personally picking out a band of mentally disabled musicians for the wedding, wtf
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Dec 2, 2014 00:31
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Hedrigall posted:With the Ave Maria montage at the end, what was with Sam Waterston's part? It looked like he was peering into rooms at some mental hospital where the patients were all involved in music therapy, and was personally picking out a band of mentally disabled musicians for the wedding, wtf You really watched that sequence and thought mental hospital, not school?
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Dec 2, 2014 00:33
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Idk. It was all the locked doors with narrow windows I guess.
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Dec 2, 2014 00:34
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You didn't see him walk into one of the most prestigious music schools in the country?
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Dec 2, 2014 00:49
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That scene was a little confusing to me as well because it had the level of gravitas stapled to it that usually come attached to scenes like 'beloved old mentor dying peacefully after his student becomes the master' or 'protagonist beholds the next generation he has trained before retiring', rather than 'old man browses school for wedding singers'. In fact 'stapling gravitas to it' could describe the entire series as they attempt to impart West Wing-level importance and weight to a series that weighs about as much as a fairly big cheese-wheel.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:05
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Hedrigall posted:With the Ave Maria montage at the end, what was with Sam Waterston's part? It looked like he was peering into rooms at some mental hospital where the patients were all involved in music therapy, and was personally picking out a band of mentally disabled musicians for the wedding, wtf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQsVBolPNs
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Dec 2, 2014 01:09
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MrAristocrates posted:oh my god I cannot loving wait. I need this. I need closure.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:40
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Toxxupation posted:Sex and the city bus tours are an Actual Thing, the real worst part of that scene is the fact that sorkin wrote a show for entitled liberal white men that's masturbatory pointlessness to make entitled liberal white men feel amazing and he then had the hypocritical nerve to call out sex and the city for being the exact same loving thing just for entitled liberal white women You don't have to go that far to make a comparison between his hypocrisy, he guest starred multiple times on Entourage which really is the exact male equivalent to Sex and the City.
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Dec 2, 2014 01:43
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Waltzing Along posted:You didn't see him walk into one of the most prestigious music schools in the country? Guess I missed that half-second shot, sorry duuuuude
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Dec 2, 2014 01:59
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 13:01 |
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Also to the goon that first mentioned two-fer, thanks for that. It was bugging me why that dude was so familiar. I feel like that dude got cast because they couldn't get the kid from west wing
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Dec 2, 2014 02:14
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