Aaron Sorkin's NEWSROOM: 3 and Done

HBO has finally given its verdict on The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's drama about the goings-on behind the scenes at a cable news network. Sorkin & Co. -- which includes lead actor Jeff Daniels and co-stars John Gallagher, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Alison Pill and Sam Waterston -- made it through a bumpy first season and a more interesting second season that still didn't set the ratings on fire. When Season 2 closed out last September, there was talk that The Newsroom had been renewed for a third year, but it wasn't confirmed. That finale episode seemed to tie up all the ends pretty neatly, plus Sorkin's schedule was busy and complicated, and the show has a pretty large ensemble cast of in-demand actors. So negotiations continued...

Well, now the official announcement has been made. Yes, there will be a Season 3. But this will be its last go.

I had my problems with The Newsroom and how Sorkin put together his storylines, even though his cast is first-rate and I enjoy seeing actors like Daniels, Gallagher, Patel and Waterston -- and Hamish Linklater and Chris Messina, who also appeared to good effect as the episodes wore on -- put together characters through the vehicle of Sorkin's trademark snappy dialogue and erudite speeches. Note that those are all males. That's the biggest problem for me with Sorkin's work. His female characters are generally emotional disaster zones who just don't make sense, even when played by otherwise good actresses like Mortimer and Pill. And Hope Davis and Kelen Coleman. Jane Fonda, Mamie Gummer and Constance Zimmer fared better in the second season, but really had very little to do when all was said and done. Plus Sorkin kept centering the attention on Mortimer's erratic MacKenzie McHale (even the name is ridiculous) and Pill's listless, wounded Maggie Jordan in ways that simply didn't work and dragged the proceedings back down to the soggy swamp of crazy ladies and the men who inexplicably yearn for them. Jeff Daniels and his character Will McAvoy had more spark with Hope Davis's ethically challenged reporter than with klutzy, up-and-down Mac, and neither John Gallagher or Thomas Sadoski showed even a flicker of chemistry with Alison Pill, even though they came to life just fine with Mamie Gummer and Olivia Munn respectively. In fact, Sadoski's snaky Don Keefer became one of my favorite characters when paired with Munn's Sloan Sabbith, unexpectedly redeeming both of them.

So, yes, I had my issues with the show. Given how much the last episode felt like a series finale, it will still be interesting to see where we go next, however. Will Sorkin pull another Operation Genoa (inspired by the real Tailhook fiasco at CNN) as a framing device for the whole season? I think he will. Where will he pick up the various romances, since nobody got fired except the evil Jerry Dantana, Will and Mac got engaged at the 11th hour (just so she can become MacKenzie McHale McAvoy, don't you think?) to the sappy sounds of "Let My Love Open the Door," Don and Sloan got closer, and Gallagher's good-guy Jim Harper created a rapprochement between estranged roommates Maggie and Lisa without indicating he was romantically interested in either of them but instead keeping the thing he has going with the more emotionally balanced girlfriend played by Gummer.

So I'd imagine Sorkin will find some way to bust up Will and Mac temporarily, keep playing footsie with Don and Sloan, and push Jim back together with Maggie, which certainly seems like his endgame, even if I find it less than intriguing. Real stories that cropped up in the right period include the government shut-down, Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend, Anthony Weiner, Paula Deen, Rob Ford, Duck Dynasty, Bridgegate and Chris Christie, and a whole lot of talk about the NSA and its eavesdropping on everybody and everything. I can't imagine Aaron Sorkin could resist that last one.

We will see, when The Newsroom returns to HBO sometime this fall.

Aaron Sorkin's NEWSROOM Is Back for Season 2

After hitting it big on film with screenplays for Moneyball and The Social Network, West Wing writer/producer Aaron Sorkin returned to television last season with a show on HBO called The Newsroom. With all the trademark Sorkin bits and pieces (amazing cast involved in pediconferences, pontification, references to musical comedy, insults directed at bloggers or internet users, smart, snappy, rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant men who know everything, mostly stupid women who make a mess of their lives... The Huffington Post's Maureen Ryan has a whole bingo card full of 'em), The Newsroom took on the world of TV news, including an anchor, producers, reporters, interns and the brass at a mythical network called Atlantis Cable News, or ACN. Its episodes go back in time, to show us how ACN covers stories we already know about, like the night Osama Bin Laden was killed, or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from British Petroleum.

Jeff Daniels leads the cast as Will McAvoy, ACN anchor and rock star, who screwed up when he refused to say (during a filmed moment) that America is the greatest country in the world or to fall in line with knee-jerk patriotism/jingoistic games. The show got mediocre reviews and mediocre ratings, although it was good enough for HBO to bring back. And back it is.

This season, McAvoy is once again in trouble, but it has to do with a story his crew went after, a story about secret US military actions abroad and something called Operation Genoa. Not Geneva, Genoa. That's important. The season premiere, called "First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers," taken from a Shakespeare quote I happen to love, opens when new cast member Marcia Gay Harden, who starred opposite Daniels on Broadway in God of Carnage, comes aboard as -- you guessed it -- a lawyer hired to pull ACN's fat out of the fire over the way they handled -- or mishandled -- this incendiary Genoa story. Daniels and Harden are perfect examples of the kind of fabulous actors Sorkin casts, projecting intelligence and tossing around zippy verbiage like nobody's business. Others of note in the cast last season included Sam Waterston, John Gallagher, Jr., Allison Pill and Thomas Sadowski, all of whom have impressive stage resumes, with Jane Fonda as the CEO of the network's parent company and Hope Davis, another God of Carnage veteran, as a tabloid reporter. Aside from Harden, Grace Gummer, who happens to be Meryl Streep's daughter and a fine actress on her own, and another film and stage actor, Hamish Linklater, have been added for Season 2.

So the good news is that ratings are up slightly and reviews are a bit improved, as well, at least according to HuffPo. Other positives: I love Marcia Gay Harden and her character actually has a brain, the Genoa thing is fairly interesting and it doesn't involve McAvoy being too much of a dick, we got to see Jane Fonda and Sam Waterston right off the top, Dev Patel ha a story of his own, and the romantic hijinks weren't too cloying, with Sadowski's Don Keefer and Pill's Maggie Jordan splitting during this episode, while Gallagher's Jim, who is carrying a torch for Maggie, took an assignment out of town following Mitt Romney's presidential campaign so he could get away from the Maggie-and-Don schmoopfest.

On the negative side: The jumps in time were both confusing and dull as presented, interrupting the flow of the story and meaning I zoned out a few times and had to watch the show twice to figure out what was happening, Allison Pill's new hairdo is disturbing and we don't know if Jim even knows Maggie and Don broke up or about the YouTube video that broke them up, and Olivia Munn's supposedly bright Sloan Sabbith is still incredibly annoying, but not as annoying as poor Emily Mortimer's McKenzie McHale, who has been seriously wimpy, clumsy and unappealing since the get-go. It's the whole woman thing. Their characters are paper-thin, with quirks that come off messy and sad instead of adorable, which is what I think Sorkin intended.

Oh well. I like the pace of the dialogue and the skill of the performers enough to keep tuning in, at least for now. Let's hope Marcia Gay Harden's character elevates the whole thing, okay?

Sunday Night TV: Keeping an Eye on "Newsroom" and "Leverage"

Sunday night continues to be the best TV watching around, even without "Once Upon a Time" and "Mad Men," which finished up their last seasons in May and June, respectively.

Tonight, you have a choice of the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, "The Bachelorette" final episode, new chapters of "Breaking Bad," "Falling Skies," "Political Animals" and "True Blood," or any number of options involving housewives, sharks, food, sex and comedy.

What else? How about "The Newsroom," at 9 pm Central on HBO? Its new episode is called "Amen," and it involves cranky anchor Will McAvoy and his dysfunctional gang of TV people hitting February, 20111, when Governor Walker created a firestorm in Wisconsin (with legislators fleeing the capitol and teachers and supporters occupying it) over the issue of public employees and their right to unionize, contrasted with the uprising in Egypt that toppled President Mubarak. Which story is more important in terms of how the newsroom apportions its resources and focus? Or are they really part of the same big picture of "political thuggery" and power grabbing?  I'm thinking Will & Co. will think Wisconsin is more important, so that everyone can learn a lesson about Ameri-centric thinking. Just a guess.

My other top pick for the night is the second episode of the new season of "Leverage" on TNT. Last week's season premiere brought the gang of con artists led by Timothy Hutton's Nathan Ford into contact with Howard Hughes's famous Spruce Goose, with guest star Cary Elwes as their mark.It wasn't my favorite episode ever, and the central conceit -- that they could fool Elwes's character into believing he was actually flying the plane when it was all smoke and mirrors -- was a little too far out there for credibility, but it still showcased the talents of this crack team of hustlers in an amusing and entertaining way, and it set up an intriguing mystery in the closing seconds. Is there a conspiracy happening within the team? If so, who's in and who's out?

As you can tell from the cards in the image above, the team includes five members with different skills. There's Hutton as Nate the Mastermind, Gina Bellman as Sophie the Grifter, Aldis Hodge as Hardison the hacker, Christian Kane as Eliot the Hitter, and Beth Riesgraf as Parker the Thief. One of the show's strengths is how it utilizes all five of them, playing them off each other, and I have high hopes they'll each get some focus in "The Blue Line Job," tonight's episode, which involves a hockey player the team is trying to help stay out of fights.

There's a picture floating around of Eliot, the team's muscle, in a hockey uniform, too, which gives you a hint of how he plays into the plot. Pun intended. Treat Williams is the guest star, but there's no clue yet whether he has something to do with the hockey storyline or the other one, about a mysterious person keeping a watchful eye on the group and their less-than-legal activities. You can watch a promo video here.

"The Blue Line Job" airs tonight at 7 central on TNT.

TV Round-Up: The Good, the Bad, and the Bunheads

It may be that I just wasn't paying attention in previous summers, too caught up in "Mad Men" to notice what else was on telly. But this year, there seems to be a lot more fresh programming in July than I recall.

I've tried to sample things here and there, with mixed results. But, hey, it's fun to have so many new options.

The new generation "Dallas" on TNT has continued to be snappy, soapy and fun. I haven't got a clue where all the scams and counterscams are taking J.R., Bobby, their oil or their families, but that isn't really important. "Dallas" has already been picked up for a new season, and it's easy to see why. There is a lot of swagger and splash there to keep viewers entertained, and if the youngsters are played by pretty-but-unskilled actors, well, that's a soap for you. I do wish they'd found some young females who were more compelling, but maybe in time...
Grade: B for Bravado

Speaking of young females... "Bunheads," airing on ABC Family, started with promise, but quickly wore out its welcome with me. Part of that is the incessant chatter that passes for house style with Amy Sherman-Palladino, as well as the heavy layer of quirk. When everybody is so very quirky, when everybody speaks in the same relentless rhythm, nothing stands out.

I still love Sutton Foster as a TV presence, however, and the plot has not gone where I expected it to. Defying expectations might be a good thing, but here, it's only because the plot hasn't really gone anywhere. We should be well past set-up and into actual PLOT by now, but it sure doesn't feel that way. All we're getting are minor squabbles, as Fanny (Kelly Bishop) remains intractable, unsympathetic and unbelievable, Michelle (Sutton Foster) flaps around not fitting in, and Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins), the girl from ballet class who is too nice and not thin enough for ballet, continues to suffer humiliation like a passive aggressive mother pushing cake on her and an uppity co-worker who makes her dumpster jump so she smells bad. I can't believe I even wrote that. "Bunheads" jumped right off my schedule with that dumpster.
Grade: A Dumpster D

I also enjoyed Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" when it started on HBO. Jeff Daniels is terrific as Will McAvoy, a cable news network anchor who has made more than a few missteps in his personal life, and he is backed up by a strong cast pulled from the New York stage, including John Gallagher, Jr. ("Spring Awakening"), Alison Pill ("Mauritius") and Thomas Sadoski ("Other Desert Cities"). Sam Waterston is wry and amusing and quite different from his usual senior statesman roles as Will's bow-tied boss, Dev Patel is charming as a staff smarty-pants, and Jane Fonda's cameo as the Big Boss was certainly tart and on target.

What's not to like? Sorkin's dialogue is every bit as idiosyncratic (and rapid-fire) as Sherman-Palladino's, which gets wearisome after awhile, with the same everybody-sounds-alike problem. And the main female characters, including Pill's naive newcomer, Emily Mortimer's hotshot producer who used to be romantically attached to Will, and Olivia Munn's supposedly brilliant economist, veer from lame and indecisive to headstrong and irrational, from emotionally over-the-top and psycho to juvenile and pouty, from one unattractive, stereotypically female trait to the next. We know Sorkin can do better -- he wrote Allison Janney's C.J. Cregg, after all -- but these women are weak sisters so far.

Back in the newsroom itself, all these fast-talking crazies do actually come together when Sorkin launches the big story of the week, when they stop with the interpersonal hijinks and show why they do what they do. There are flashes of brilliance, of "West Wing" Sorkin, there. I'm hoping for more of that and a lot less Insane Female Posse as "The Newsroom" winds on.
Grade: Boys A-, Girls B- for an overall B

Newer than those are TNT's "Perception," with Eric McCormack as a Monk-meets-Sherlock-meets-House-meets-"A Beautiful Mind" sleuth who happens to have great crime-solving skills along with mental instability, and USA's "Political Animals,' where Sigourney Weaver subs in for Hillary Clinton as a former First Lady who has become Secretary of State.

McCormack is likable enough as neuroscience professor Daniel Pierce in "Perception," and he does a nice job balancing the character's braininess with his hallucinations and mental illness, but the rest of the show feels formulaic and tired, and Rachel Leigh Cook isn't believable for one minute as his FBI agent pal and former student. Given that this is familiar turf from so many previous TV sleuths, there really isn't anything that sets "Perception" apart or makes it all that intriguing.
Grade: So So C-

"Political Animals," meanwhile, is a potboiler of ambition and double-dealing inside one very visible fishbowl. On the frontline, we've got Sigourney Weaver's Elaine Barrish, her ex-husband/the ex-president Bud Hammond, played by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds, their twin sons, handsome good guy Douglas (James Wolk) and handsome screw-up T.J. (Sebastian Stan), as well as Elaine's wisecracking mom (Ellen Burstyn). On the other side are some rivals and opponents, including Adrian Pasdar and Dylan Baker as the current president and VP, and a feisty reporter (Carla Gugino) who has been focused on the Barrish/Hammond family for years.

I was fine with both boys, with Burstyn, Pasdar and Baker and even Gugino, but both Weaver and Hinds left something to be desired. Her line readings felt arch and artificial to me, and Hinds, a formidable actor on film and on stage, seemed sleazy and clumsy where Bud needed to be charming and smooth to have captivated voters (and women, including Elaine) the way he did.
Grade: Loses in the Primary for a D+

That means I will not be tuning in for more "Perception" or "Political Animals." Like "Bunheads," they don't make the grade for my summer schedule

The Summer Season on TV

You may've already noticed the beginning of the summer television season, with new seasons of "Game of Thrones" and "So You Think You Can Dance" and the new "Duets" show beginning even before May was over.

But there's more coming as we head into June, with some very intriguing prospects out there for TV watchers. There's no way I can talk about everything even if I wanted to, so I will be picking and choosing what appeals to me to discuss. If you want the whole list of premieres and returns, click here to see what Futon Critic has compiled.

"The Glee Project" comes back for a second season on Oxygen starting with a two-hour casting show tonight at 6 Central Time. If you missed this little reality show the first time, it gathers together wannabe performers for the TV series "Glee," putting them through challenges involving acting, dancing and singing (as well as "vulnerability" and "sexuality") with the winner taking a role on the next season of "Glee." Last year, two winners were named, with Samuel Larsen and Damian McGinty earning 7-episode arcs, and two runners-up (Lindsay Pearce and Alex Newell) getting 2 episodes each. "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy promises there will only be one winner this time, but who knows whether he will stick to that? After the casting special tonight, the first real episode ('Individuality") airs on Oxygen on Tuesday, June 5, at 9 Central.

Tomorrow,  "Drop Dead Diva" (Lifetime, 8 pm Central) launches its new seasons, and something called "Longmire" starts on A&E at 9 Central. The name doesn't tell me anything by itself, but it appears to be set in the contemporary West, with a cowboy-flavored sleuth who happens to be the sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming. The sheriff will be played by an actor named Robert Taylor, with Katee Sackhoff ('Battlestar Galatica"), Cassidy Freeman ("Smallville") and Lou Diamond Phillips ("La Bamba") in support. "Longmire" is based on a series of mystery novels written by Craig Johnson.

"Pretty Little Liars" and "Rizzoli and Isles" both begin their third seasons on Tuesday, June 5, with "Liars" at 7 Central on ABC Family and "R & I" on TNT at 8 Central. "Royal Pains" has them beat by a season, since "Pains" opens its 4th season on Wednesday the 6th at 8 Central on the USA Network.

You've probably noticed that these summer shows are all popping up on cable channels rather than the Big 4. But NBC does have "Saving Hope" in its bag of summer tricks. They're describing this hospital drama as "an out-of-body experience" since it involves a surgeon (played by Michael Shanks) who is in a coma, stuck in limbo between life and death, wandering the halls of Toronto's Hope-Zion Hospital in spirit form. Maybe. He isn't sure whether he's really floating around or just imagining it as some sort of coma dream. And while he's comatose, his fiancee (Erica Durance) and the other doctors at Hope-Zion are trying desperately to save him and the lives of their other patients. "Saving Hope" premieres Thursday, June 7, at 8 Central on NBC.

HBO's very popular vampire series "True Blood" awakens from is off-season slumber at 8 pm Central on June 10, with an episode called "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Christopher Meloni, who spent years on "Law & Order SVU," will be joining "True Blood" in this, its fifth season, as a vampire named Roman, and Scott Foley, probably best known from "Felicity," will also come on board, although he will be an actual human.

The Broadway fans who tuned in for stars like Megan Hilty and Christian Borle on "Smash" are eagerly anticipating "Bunheads," which stars two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster as a Vegas dancer who takes a chance for something better in a small town called Paradise in California. She marries a persistent suitor, played by Alan Ruck, Ferris Bueller's best friend, on an impulse, and drives off to Paradise, only to find out that her new mother-in-law, who doesn't like her at all, lives in his house and has a dance studio out back. Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of "Gilmore Girls," is behind "Bunheads," bringing along some of her "Gilmore"  trademarks, like rapid-fire dialogue, a smart and snappy lead female, a charming, odd-ball small town, and conflict in the form of actress Kelly Bishop, who was Lorelai Gilmore's mother and is now Foster's character's mother-in-law. The "Bunheads" pilot is floating around the internet if you want a sneak peek; it will officially launch on June 11, and then show up Mondays at 8 Central on the ABC Family Channel. (And in case you're wondering, "Bunheads" refers to ballerinas, who are usually seen with their hair pulled back into buns.)

June 13 is the day the second generation of "Dallas," the 80s blockbuster soap, comes back, this time on TNT. J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) and his brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) are still in sight, along with J.R.'s long-suffering wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray). Bobby's 80s wife Pam is gone, however, replaced by Brenda Strong as Bobby's new spouse Ann. And the real focus seems to be on the kids, like cousins John Ross (Josh Henderson) and Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) Ewing, cook's daughter Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster) who has romantic ties to both brothers, and Christopher's new fiancee Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo). The soap suds will be flowing with a two-hour premiere on the 13th at 8 Central, followed by regular episodes on Wednesdays at 8 through the summer.

BBC America is starting a new (to the US) series called "Inside Men," beginning June 20, following three security company guys who use their inside info to try to pull off a huge heist. Steven Mackintosh ("Luther"), Ashley Walters ("Hustle") and Warren Brown ("Luther") are the three conspirators trying to change their dull lives into something a lot more exciting and a lot less legal. Their mission begins Wednesday, June 20, at 9 Central on BBC America.

The show with the biggest buzz going is probably HBO's "The Newsroom," an Aaron Sorkin creation starring Jeff Daniels as an anchorman who has a meltdown and tries to put on a different kind of newscast. His co-workers include Sam Waterston and Jane Fonda (!) plus Broadway stars Alison Pill ("Mauritius") and John Gallagher, Jr. ("Spring Awakening") and film vets Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") and Emily Mortimer ("Hugo," "Lars and the Real Girl"). "Newsroom" premieres Sunday, June 24, at 9 pm Central, safely after "Mad Men" has finished up its Sunday run.

We can all watch these shows and report in on what we think as June wears on. Cause I am definitely thinking this schedule is going to be wearing...