The Newsroom is meant to please, not to preach
Really, I wouldn't call Brian Moylen a writer if he still can't get the grasp of appreciating tv shows with an open mind. Alas, the Guardian's tv show reviewer couldn't help himself to crap all over HBO's drama series The Newsroom, written by Aaron Sorkin.
Hatewatching is a term I found while reading an opinion piece by Ann Donahue in The Guardian, and I would like for it to be banished. If you're smart enough you will agree with me that hatewatching will absolutely result in hatereviewing it, and I wouldn't read anything by someone who isn't capable of watching something without hating it firsthand.
I honestly don't know why these people who call themselves writers cannot comprehend the purpose Sorkin had in mind while writing The Newsroom. My definition of a good writer is that one would be capable of attracting the audience to come and experience a world that one created simply with words. And by watching all three seasons of Sorkin's The Newsroom, I feel that I can absolutely say that Sorkin is a good writer. The Newsroom is funny, informative (with the history and not with how journalism works), witty, and downright full of heart. It is idealised and romanticised in terms of how a newsroom works according to some reviews, yes, but the Newsroom wasn't created to define that.
Moylen, Donahue, and a number of "hatereviewers" wrote complete egotistical reviews without looking at different perspectives. Maybe they felt attacked and ambushed by how Sorkin define a newsroom in his series, and so they attacked him back by writing that he didn't write the truth of how the news work. But I still can't find anything wrong with how he defined journalism, and honestly I don't know why he gets all these attacks by defining something according to how he understands it. His definition may not be the truth, but it was laid out simply for entertainment. If Moylen wants to write a drama about the truth of how a newsroom works, cut all the crap and just do it, and let's see how the audience liked it.
The Newsroom isn't perfect, that I can say, but I pledge to stand by it. Sorkin deserves more than he gets, and I simply haven't watched his other works but I will, solely because of The Newsroom. The Newsroom isn't the worst thing on television, that is a fact Moylen cannot understand.
Every other person who called Sorkin a smug and a know-it-all writer shouldn't be saying stuff like that because it would make them seem like a smug too. It's not like The Newsroom is some kind of a report on how a newsroom works, it's simply just a good television, a rare one at that. And for those of you who attacked Sorkin on how he handle his women characters, you forgot to point out the idiotic stuffs that the guys do on the show. Also, a tv show isn't based on sexism, so if you're saying that it's bad because the girls' storylines are based on the guys, shame on you, because you're ignoring the fact that Mackenzie was pointed out to be smarter than McAvoy, and Keefer is also inferior to his partner, Sloan Sabbath, and Maggie also turned out to be a strong and confident character in the end even after everything she's gone through which she did without a guy at her side.
A comment by walterjmontiel in the vanity fair review stood by The Newsroom by saying:
"Most of the criticism towards The Newsroom seems to stem from the fact that it wasn't made-to-order for the reviewers. Nobody is analyzing the show dramatically, they're analyzing it socially. They look at The Newsroom as some sort of new, hour-long version of an Upworthy viral video. The responsibility of the writer is not the responsibility of a blogger. The point isn't to voice opinions, the point is to construct drama - THAT is the the biggest flaw in all of modern art criticism. We've been swallowing highly-opinionated, hyper-sensitive, ultra-reactionary blogosphere for so long, in which idiots without half-a-brain to consider other points of views just spout nonsensical rubbish at 300 MPH that we can't even tell tell the difference between what's meant to be drama and what's meant to be an opinion. We assume it's all just someone talking directly to us.
The Newsroom, finally, suffered from people thinking it was an actual newsroom - when, in fact, it was just damn good television."
I completely, 100%, agree with what he's saying above. I just don't want people who are smug and know-it-all to criticise over something they think is smug and know-it-all, they need to just enjoy the show and appreciate it dramatically. Just watch the show if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Review links:
The Guardian
Vanity Fair
Huffington Post
Whoaa, what a nice review!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you that a good writer should engage the audience so they can imagine the situation clearly only with words.
You should watch Revenge and Pretty Little Liars, those two are nice!
Btw, I'm also from Boom Community, nice to meet you!
High Five!
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