Its raining slowly, the sky is white with clouds and there is nothing better to do on a bank holiday monday at the end of August than to catch up with all those TV series I missed. However, after finishing the disappointingly short, depressing – yet entertaining – third and final season of Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’ I am struggling to bite into any more episodes. I was more entertained by the first season, less by the second and virutally stopped listening by the third. Its repetition of the idea of “good news” became boring and was emphatically highlighted with the contrast to reality: the righteousness of these characters does not exist in a real work environment.
And we are shown this reality, taught this reality, have it shoved down our throats with monologue after monologue after monlogue. I grew increasingly tired of the same agrument because each and everytime the effort is fruitless. The reality will not change. People of the news industry, of any industry, are driven by profit alone. No one does anything for nothing because the establishment would simply use that one for their own gain until their heart stopped beating.
Perhaps this is a cynical message to take from a fictional and idealistic story, and I know I am writing my own monlogue right now. But the depressingly accurate message is in your own lap before you can register. The news, today and yesterday and from years ago, has been ignored by the vast majority and misconstrued by many. The result? We are charging towards chaos. We are socially, psychologically and physically toxic to ourselves and this world.
‘The Newsroom’ grips you with an exciting and fast paced plot (the script sometimes a little too fast to keep up) but then drags you back down to the real world before its finale. A handful of righteous characters may not be able rewrite history, but the purpose of the series is very clear.
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