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HBO has ordered a second season of its Aaron Sorkin drama The Newsroom and a sixth season of its vampire drama True Blood. The renewal of Newsroom comes just over a week after the debut of the series starring Jeff Daniels — the June 24 premiere drew 2.1 million viewers at 10 PM. That result actually put Newsroom ahead of the 1.4 million viewers True Blood drew for its 2008 series premiere. Still, Newsroom‘s debut number was less than half what True Blood earned at 9 PM on June 24, when it drew 4.7 million viewers across two airings. The sixth-season renewal of Alan Ball’s Southern vampire series comes less than a month after the kickoff of Season 5.
Related: Sorkinisms (Aka Self-Plagiarizing): Video
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Enjoyed the Sorkinism in last nights episode.
High powered female exec. begging to be friends because she has no friends.
Also two professional women are shown to be embarrassingly incompetent; both of them get shown up by their male bosses, and both are obviously THIS close away from falling into their arms. Dames and careers don’t mix in Aaron Sorkin’s world.
Everyone I know hates True Blood now, and no one likes Newsroom. HBO keeps pulling this stunt, renewing bad shows, and everyone still falls for it.
I like The Newsroom but I can see why many wouldn’t. It has somewhat of a conservative edge. True Blood is going through a funk but I think fans’ complaints will set it back on the right track.
A CONSERVATIVE EDGE???? You obviously have never seen 5 minutes of this awful, terrible, ridiculous show.
Surely you jest. This without a doubt is one of the best shows on especially when dealing with common sense subjects like raising the debt ceiling. duh
True Blood is still one of the best shows on all of TV, not just HBO.
HBO would have made a major mistake if it had NOT renewed it. most networks would kill to have a show this good.
Second episode of Newsroom was terrible — people screaming at each other for the whole hour. Stick to the subject – handling the news, — not personal relationships. You would have thought that Sorkin learned this with Harry’s Law!(which he did then; much better show this year)
Wait, what???? You’re confusing Sorkin for David E. Kelley but my guess is that you haven’t seen either show. Holy Christ, no wonder you don’t get it.
Every episode is people yelling at each other the entire time. Every f-ing conversation is an argument. Newsroom makes me want to punch my cat in the face.
NEWSROOM IS THE BEST. Keep it coming HBO – this is what I miss about you! Take the hate of the teabaggers as validation – you’re doing a great service and it’s great entertainment to boot!
I LOVE The Newsroom. The writing is quick and clever. True Blood sucks, however.
Good. We need more shows that idealistic.
True Blood has jumped the shark. Who cares. Everyone is now supernatural and so there’s no one to identify with.
Newsroom broke my heart. I wanted so much for it to be good and relevant. But it’s not. It’s just more silly “people yelling at each other” scenes form Sorkin.
HBO’s early renewal thing is tired. We all know these things are pre-negotiated.
Both shows are crap.
Failed writer alert.
Heeheeheehee…
Agree. Both are very pedestrian. Where are the good writers?
I really enjoyed last nights episode and the lead actress I really liked last night after being disappointed with her in the pilot. Jeff Daniels really knocked it out of the park. I’m glad I stuck with the show another week.
The Newsroom is terrific. Nobody on television writes dialogue like Sorkin.
Nobody in the world speaks like characters on a show written by Sorkin.
Who, um, says dialogue has to, ya know, reflect how people, er, um, speak in the real world? And stuff.
Or most TV writers. If people on TV talked like people in our day-to-day lives, we’d get bored.
Dialogue? If my dialogue you mean people screaming at each and have conversations that NO ONE EVER HAS, then, I guess you can call it terrific. Worst show ever.
TrueBlood is back on track. Last season was awful. This season has been refocused. Teen Wolf on MTV is the best supe show on air.
The Newsroom or earnest people yelling at each other. My God, tv has left Sorkin behind. News flash, it’s not the late 90s anymore. Girls, Shameless, Breaking Bad, Homeland, Game of Thrones all shows that eat Sorkin’s lunch without really trying.
Step your game up.
Was thinking the same thing. Whenever the blonde would talk I thought “Why isn’t Lena writing this?”
Nobody talks or acts like those vapid creatures on Girls either. I’d agree with the Shameless comment though.
HBO is having some kind of nervous breakdown.
is THE NEWSROOM (even that changed title speaks to the problem) renewed in spite of the fact that it’s a drama, or because of the fact that it has enough comedy to fit HBO’s new mandates?
when i think of all the amazing potential HBO has squandered in the last six months by giving projects like THE CORRECTIONS, DA BRICK, GOLIATH, and LUCK the boot, i truly worry for them.
i’m looking forward to HBO’s lineup, in, say, 2016 when they get back to serious, risky dramas and not this populist “reward viewing” bullshit. hopefully.
it’s just television anymore.
HBO started to fall apart when they ordered John from Cincinnati instead of Aspen Pulp…
I’m still bent that Deadwood never got a final season (or final seasons). Too bad Milch didn’t hand the reins over to someone else and/or just take a lesser creative role.
When John From Cincinatti bombed, it was like twisting the knife for Deadwood fans.
Deadwood still is a favorite, but HBO had a regime change at the top (Chairman from HBO went to Starz – bring more Torchwood!).
How do you know THE CORRECTIONS, DA BRICK and GOLIATH were good?
Who knew that a show that’s actually LITERATE and had a POINT OF VIEW would draw so much ire.
Stick to your bullshit “reality TV.” The Newsroom is for GROWN-UPS. As if it being on HBO wasn’t enough of a clue.
Amen. Thrilled it got picked up for Season 2. It’s a wonderful show and every one I know from my Mom (72 years old) to my wife and I to our co-workers are watching it.
Amen, brother.
It doesn’t feel like it’s for grownups, it feels like it’s for middle-class adults who define their intellect by the things they watch
Boom.
Best comment on here!
As opposed to those whom haven’t seen the show as it doesn’t fit their narrative and try and hide their lack of intellect with snark. BOOM CHACKALACKA!
Best. Show. On. Television.
That title belongs to either Justified or Breaking Bad. The Newsroom is just shy of unwatchable.
^In your opinion. I love The Newsroom!
We have a BINGO. Stale and smug is not a great combination. Just an awful show.
Justified is the Deadwood of today. With a marshal replacing a sheriff and not much change in anything else. Even the setting and characters don’t differ much. Newsroom is what I call “on the ball”
TV. WestWing style. Snooze you lose.
Disagree…it is completely unwatchable…horrific television. It actually upsets me to watch these characters interact for 30 seconds.
Aaron Sorkin is the most accomplished screenwriter in Hollywood (West Wing, Social Network, A Few Good Men) were all fantastic, but the truth is the Newsroom is a complete disaster. I was very disappointed with the pilot and made it half way through the second episode last night before I just couldn’t take it any more. EVERY scene is one person bloviating at another with tired, tedious, boilerplate arguments. There is apparently no interest in character or storytelling. As with Studio 60, Sorkin can’t calibrate his writing for a show where the stakes are not life and death thus his characters all sound pompous, arrogant and extremely self-absorbed. Of course HBO is renewing it, there was never a chance they wouldn’t before it ever aired, but it’s an embarrassment to both a fine network and writer.
I could not agree more – and from what I hear – most HBO execs feel the same way.
Unfortunately i’m also in this camp. Love Sorkin but Newsroom doesn’t work and I don’t think it can find its feet for one simple reason… casting. Jeff and Emily are fine but the younger cast are a disaster. There’s v little talent, appeal or chemistry here. Just one opinion.
apparently things get unbearable around episode four – that’s when it really goes off the deep end.
you’re right too – sorkin needs important stakes to surround his prose “you can’t handle the truth!” in order for his schtick to work. newsrooms just aren’t that important, or that well regarded these days. he’s betraying a lack of awareness of the times.
I have more respect for politico.com than I have for CNN for gods sake.
HBO are indulging him. two seasons is likely all we will ever see of this thing. Its a real pity he couldn’t find new unfamiliar ground for himself. he is somewhat just bloviating through well worn character types in this series. He couldn’t risk that carryon in moneyball because he doesn’t know the milieu enough to reduce it to his preferred screechy screamers.
“Apparently” sounds like you haven’t watched it. I can’t wait for the next issue and will be airing this with and for anyone with any common sense left to them – meaning no teabagers. Bravo Aaron and HBO – I’ll own this one on Blu-ray when done.
Totally agree. Sorkin is a gifted writer, but he chooses boring subjects in his post-West Wing era. Why he wants to write about television escapes me–neither his show about late night television, nor the one about cable news seems particularly compelling. I got through the pilot of “Newsroom,” but turned off haf way through the second episode. Don’t expect to go back. The email stunt involving McKenzie was so lame and predictable–if this is the writing of the second episode, what the hell is going to happen in the second season? I’ve ben underwhelmed thus far. These weak efforts only make me pine for the good old days of West Wing. Now that was a show!
Development of a new series of this caliber is not so obvious – this one has not disappointed and is picking up steam. Of course those whom are brainwashed Teaparty/Limbaugh intellects will hate it – it doesn’t speak to them, but about them – and they’ll never see the truth, for they’ve been told to not believe their eyes – and they don’t.
‘The Newsroom’ is absolutely brilliant! The only need i had after watching the episodes was wanting more. So good.
And i can’t stop loving Aaron Sorkin. This is excellent TV. Part of me has been wishing though that NBC was in a better position to have a time slot for such a show.
I miss Studio 60.
Really enjoyed last night’s True Blood but his season has mostly been exposition-heavy. Does the average viewer need so much of it? Have a feeling that the threads Alan Ball has planted throughout his five-span as showrunner will come to a head by season end.
Love the ensemble, but half of the minor characters are foaming at the mouth for screen time and when they get it. Yes, every episode – it slows down the main arc. The only way out is killing a good 4/5 of the ensemble in a mighty blowout. Might also serve to give Hudis a clean deck to showrun on.
Renewing Newsroom is just a sign of how far HBO has fallen. This show was obviously renewed before it aired; I am willing to bet it is 24 Epi guarantee.
I have only seen two epis but this is by far Sorkin’s worse creation.
This is HBOs Redemption. This is an excellent show has “nailed” every story line and subtext brilliantly. If the idiots would just shut up long enough to listen – they would see the light and truth from which this “dramedy” is drawn – and how it should be. Kudos to HBO – Brilliant show, brillian writing! Thank God for a voice of intellect and reason in a dumbed down world of cheap Hate AM Radio and Faux Newz Cable. Holding a mirror to the insanity is a beautiful thing. Enjoy it while we can and before we’re all unemployed under a Romney Rule and it’s no longer funny, but tragic should our “legitimate media aka mainstream media” continue to follow thie carnival opinionated Faux Newz down the toilet.
I love NEWSROOM. Yes, maybe SHAMELESS and BREAKING BAD are grittier dramas, but what’s wrong with a little idealism? I feel bad for all of you cynical people. You’d rather see shows about drug dealers and potential terrorists than about a man trying to change himself and the world for the better? There’s room for both kinds of stories and, at this point in time, a protagonist who voices our frustrations is not only timely, but necessary.
It’s not idealism though, it’s wish-fulfillment. It is also cynical by the way, it’s probably Sorkin’s darkest show to date. Sorkin believes that the system is messed up. The problem is that rather than admitting that the system is broken, he thinks that it’s just a case of everyone not trying hard enough. Look at the title of the pilot – “We Just Decided To.”
And please, have a little intelligence. It’s not about preferring shows that deal with drug dealers or terrorists. It’s all about the writing. Sorkin is dealing with lighter topics (in comparison to those shows) but that doesn’t necessarily make it better (or even good at all). If the writing on The Newsroom was as good as Breaking Bad or Homeland then there wouldn’t be all this backlash.
Do you think people wanted the show to be bad? So many people who love Sorkin’s work went into this expecting something great (Sorkin + HBO) but were extremely disappointed because the result was disastrous. This is not Sorkin’s best work by any measure.
Watching the title sequence from the Newsroom I swore my TV was channeling NBC in 1998. As previous posters have mentioned, TV has passed Sorkin by. The Sopranos lost all those Emmys to the West Wing, but they got the last laugh as they ushered in the world of multi-faceted, complex characters and Sorkin specializes in snappy dialogue. Watch an episode of Mad Men or Homeland from this season and then watch the Newsroom. The Newsroom will seem like the Beach Boys.
I like ‘Homeland’, but I am a little bewildered that some people think it’s in the same league as ‘Mad Men’ or ‘Breaking Bad’. The show is tailored around two strong, compelling, well-developed characters, but – with a few exceptions (the daughter, chiefly) – the supporting characters are either blandly written or they are stuck in boring subplots: why are we supposed to care about Patinkin’s marriage problems? Why?
Great shows, perfect to watch back to back. 2 socially concious shows with substance. The Newsroom is what the U.S. needs now.
I love Newsroom. I have a feeling a lot of the hate is coming from either dumb people too slow to understand the true purpose of the show or those who are in the “news” business and it makes uncomfortable.
You know people can understand the purpose of the show and dislike it at the same time, right? That you enjoy hilarious email gags and fast talking is not a testament to your superior intellect.
@Toby – good response.
I really enjoyed the first episode – it was very exciting.
The second episode, though, was a big disappointment. I’ll stick around for the next couple of episodes but if it doesn’t get back on track, forget it.
come on. ” the true purpose of the show ” is for sorkin to write his dialogue in a fictional tv production environment – for the third time – with greatly diminishing returns.
Sorkin writing for drama for TV is a great idea – any new sorkin is a great idea. Sorkin picking an environment (tv news) that is fundamentally not of the now, and populating it with very thin characters shouting about how important it all is, is, it turns out, a really really bad idea.
when david simon analysed the press in the fifth season of the wire, quite a while ago, he dealt with denuded staff, cheap owners, plaigiarism, fake stories, and the effective death of the press. he was right on the money.
Sorkin meanwhile, in presenting his dramatic interrogation of broadcast news, an entity in easily as bad a shape, simply has everyone running around screaming about how important everything is, and how smart they are, and how much it really matters. Broadcast news doesn’t really matter that much anymore, that’s why the tenor of this show feels a little stupid and offkey. Its blowing smoke of broadcast news’s ass. I doubt even news enjoys the sensation. It’s 2012 – not 1985. the show completely misses the times.
That’s unfair.
I think there are plenty of smart people who like Newsroom and there are also plenty of smart people who don’t. Just like there are people who like it despite being aware of it’s problematic elements, there are also people who understand what the show is about and what it’s trying to do, but don’t think it’s effectively accomplishes those goals, has gender portrayals they find reductive/disappointing, and/or isn’t providing characters and drama they want to follow.
Sorkin’s particular style can by polarizing. What some people really love about it is what rubs other people the wrong way. And then there are people who love it inspire of some things they don’t like and people who find those very same things to be deal breakers. There’s nothing wrong with any of that.
But assuming people who don’t like the same thing you do is a result of them being too dumb to get it fails to synthesize a point even The Newsroom itself has tried to make.
Jim, your post is spot-on.
/Thread locked
Jim, it’s also possible you are a mediocre mind yourself and are so impressed by the pedigree and pomposity of the show that you can’t discern true quality from mediocre tripe. In fact, that seems like the far more likely scenario.
I don’t understand… so you’re saying that the Newsroom is like a litmus test for intelligence? In the future, will the Newsroom Test usurp the IQ test as the primary factor in gauging mental acuity?
What are you talking about?? This show is nothing but a complete handj ob to “those in the news business” – it makes them out to be these moral geniuses who need to tell the little people what to think because they know better and are right. You are the one that has missed the purpose of the show. Like someone posted on here earlier – it’s for the simple ones to act like they are clever because they watch The Newsroom. Get over yourself…
The Wire and Deadwood drink the Sopranos’ milkshake. That is all.
But without THE SOPRANOS HBO doesn’t usher in Deadwood or The Wire
Last nights episode was a real gabfest.
I like Jeff Daniels. Simple name, simple show. No struggle watching him. Total down time.
Let’s not forget that “Alan Ball’s southern vampire series” was created by Charlene Harris, the author of the original books. Too often the source material is forgotten and people need to be reminded who first faced that blank page and made something of it.
Would really prefer hbo spent the money on fleshing out GoT.
Now that we be great news!
Seems to be a lot of people here bitching about Sorkin’s writing ability, but have yet been able to master the English language. Maybe it’s more likely they are pissed that someone didn’t buy their script.
I made it through the pilot of The Newsroom. Tried to watch the second episode, but gave up during the second 20-minute run on scene. It’s stagey as hell — a style that really doesn’t mesh with the handheld shooting format.
Maybe if they shot it traditionally like the West Wing? Maybe if they trimmed the draggy, theatrical scenes… maybe it could work, but I’m done. Such a shame when the cast is so great.