Post by The Curmudgeon on Feb 13, 2013 15:46:49 GMT 2
Sometimes a great TV show can sneak under the radar, among all the media and online hoopla and hype surrounding (superb) TV shows like Homeland and Breaking Bad (which STILL hasn't got a network in the UK yet), a genuinely clever, funny, poignant and fucking brave TV show comes along and threatens to blow them all out of the water.
Such a show is The Newsroom. It lay on my planner for a few months before I decided to give it a try, and I'm almost finished the first series and what I've seen so far strikes a sword right in the heart of media vultures and misinformed scaremongers like Fox News.
The plot: a respected newsreader starts a media storm after declaring, gasp, America ISN'T the greatest country in the world. He then gathers up a team of reporters and broadcasters to actually report THE NEWS. No celebrity gossip. No scandal. Nothing but cold, hard facts about things that MATTER. Of course, they still have to answer to a network who are more concerned with ratings than, you know, telling people what's happening with the world. Every episode is based around a real life event from the last few years as they uncover and report on it.
That may sound particularly worthy and po-faced, but it's often very funny, the characters are spot on and the performances are always top-notch. It's written by the same guy behind the West Wing, and the first Youtube search comes back with "The Greatest Show Ever Made." Make of that what you will.
So I have no idea if this show is a big hit in the US or not (but I bet it's got a LOT of hate towards it from the Bill O'Reilly's of the world) but it is absolutely worth a look. Keep an eye out for it. You'll never watch the news in the same way again.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC8ovJYAU3U
Such a show is The Newsroom. It lay on my planner for a few months before I decided to give it a try, and I'm almost finished the first series and what I've seen so far strikes a sword right in the heart of media vultures and misinformed scaremongers like Fox News.
The plot: a respected newsreader starts a media storm after declaring, gasp, America ISN'T the greatest country in the world. He then gathers up a team of reporters and broadcasters to actually report THE NEWS. No celebrity gossip. No scandal. Nothing but cold, hard facts about things that MATTER. Of course, they still have to answer to a network who are more concerned with ratings than, you know, telling people what's happening with the world. Every episode is based around a real life event from the last few years as they uncover and report on it.
That may sound particularly worthy and po-faced, but it's often very funny, the characters are spot on and the performances are always top-notch. It's written by the same guy behind the West Wing, and the first Youtube search comes back with "The Greatest Show Ever Made." Make of that what you will.
So I have no idea if this show is a big hit in the US or not (but I bet it's got a LOT of hate towards it from the Bill O'Reilly's of the world) but it is absolutely worth a look. Keep an eye out for it. You'll never watch the news in the same way again.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC8ovJYAU3U
