The Newsroom DVD revealed that Ken Finkleman's project following the "Escape" movie was to be called 100% Perfect Girl. We have this instead.
I can't really think of what to make of this new incarnation of the Newsroom. The comedy is gone, replaced by a very, very dark satire. It's certainly less accessible than the previous one, and even more so than the movie. I can't figure out if this is intentional, or whether Finkleman desperately wants to move onto different things and wants to put this dead horse out to pasture as cruelly as he can.
An alternative take could be that the previous cast improvised much of the script, making it absolutely hilarious. Now that the cast is deprived of comedians and now uses true-blue actors, that ad-libbing is gone, and the show is far drier. Jeremy Hotz and Mark Farrell have been replaced with Jody Racicot as a character with no personality (to date), Douglas Bell as a reluctant co-conspirator to the distorting of the news, and Matt Watts whose sole function seems to be listening to George's ranting. Nancy Beatty has been replaced as George's boss by Kate Trotter, and Tanya Allen has been replaced as the intern by Holly Lewis. Only 2 original cast members remain (Finkleman and Keleghan), along with Hines, likely an intentional gesture after the disastrous ratings shown for the Escape film with a nearly identical cast to the first series.
While the expected potshots on today's issues are certainly there, the broad laughs are not. That about sums it up. It's a shame, because I hate having to be so predictable about sequels/spinoffs.
I can't really think of what to make of this new incarnation of the Newsroom. The comedy is gone, replaced by a very, very dark satire. It's certainly less accessible than the previous one, and even more so than the movie. I can't figure out if this is intentional, or whether Finkleman desperately wants to move onto different things and wants to put this dead horse out to pasture as cruelly as he can.
An alternative take could be that the previous cast improvised much of the script, making it absolutely hilarious. Now that the cast is deprived of comedians and now uses true-blue actors, that ad-libbing is gone, and the show is far drier. Jeremy Hotz and Mark Farrell have been replaced with Jody Racicot as a character with no personality (to date), Douglas Bell as a reluctant co-conspirator to the distorting of the news, and Matt Watts whose sole function seems to be listening to George's ranting. Nancy Beatty has been replaced as George's boss by Kate Trotter, and Tanya Allen has been replaced as the intern by Holly Lewis. Only 2 original cast members remain (Finkleman and Keleghan), along with Hines, likely an intentional gesture after the disastrous ratings shown for the Escape film with a nearly identical cast to the first series.
While the expected potshots on today's issues are certainly there, the broad laughs are not. That about sums it up. It's a shame, because I hate having to be so predictable about sequels/spinoffs.