Служба новостей The Greater Fool (2012–2014) Online

The season finale certainly went out with a bang.

I hope that this intelligently, informative show is allowed to return and will not go the way of the recently defunct "Harry's Law." It appears to me that we have an anti-intellectual mood in this country revolving around television shows. Folks, it can't be all fun and games.

This final episode really got down to basics in pointing out that America is NOT a Christian nation.

Republican news anchor Will McAvoy continues to strike out at his fellow Republicans for their endorsement of Tea Party ideals.

It was interesting to see how Will is able to get away with the charges that he is accused of. Always wonderful, to see the tables being turned on your enemies.

Jane Fonda appears briefly and assumes that she is the female Donald Trump when she fires will What a rude awakening she and her cohort soon discover they have.

Again, hope to see this show back 2013, if not sooner.

Aaron Sorkin's new show started by being attacked mercilessly before it even aired. I took a stand when it finally *was* aired, and I got to see the first episode. I've just watched the tenth, and final, episode of the year. I stand by my original stand.

It's good writing, it's good entertainment, it's good acting and direction, and it's got a pair of balls the size of Mars.

And I'm still betting on it sweeping the Emmy awards, and sending an enormous F**K YOU to all of the people who ranked on it because...well...because they have balls the size of peas, and brains to match.

It's difficult to make entertainment while conveying a useful and needed message. It's even more difficult when the very people who should be cheering that message on are so petty and green with envy that they play shoot the messenger, too.

This was the rap rattled off by Jeff Daniels' Will McAvoy during the wrap-up of his last news broadcast of the season, over a bottom-of-the-screen banner that said Republican In Name Only:

* Ideological purity * Compromise as weakness * A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism * Denying science * Unmoved by facts * Undeterred by new information * A hostile fear of progress * A demonization of education * A need to control women's bodies * Severe xenophobia * Tribal mentality * Intolerance of dissent * Pathological hatred of the US government

"They can call themselves the Tea Party, they can call themselves conservatives, and they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans probably shouldn't. But we should call them what they are, the American Taliban."

This is the message that real news stations in America should have been airing as real news last night as the Republican Convention opened. Instead, it had to be aired on HBO, on a show that even Democrats and liberals tried to kill. This is one of those days that forces me to think about America and remember the lines to a great Bob Dylan song:

"And you ask why I don't live there Honey, how come you even have to ask me that?"

I hope this first installment of Newsroom is just a preview of more to come; and not just one Perfect episode. TV doesn't get better than this. It's paced, intelligent and well acted by all involved; especially Daniels. It deals with the real world in an extremely entertaining fashion; and when it's over , you know you just watched something Great. This show will be the long awaited jump to the A-List for Jeff Daniels. He nails the role of a cantankerous self absorbed complacent Newscaster, not liked by his peers; like he was born to play it. I've always been a fan of Emily Mortimer's, and she is outstanding as usual. The rest of the supporting actors were cast perfectly for their roles, and it all comes together to make a Top Shelf Pilot for this new series.

The Newsroom

Sorkin's admirable attempt to dramatize the news section with a gut wrenching anatomy on behind the scenes of this show business, is one of the biggest upset ever to come across the screen. And not because of its failure on various aspects, it still falls under mediocrity but the expectations that it brought with such caliber of cast and makers, it is surely a swing and a miss. Sorkin's signature writing patterns is clearly visible as it is brimmed with competitive arguments and too many verbal sparring that moves with ferocious pace, he always keeps his audience on the edge of their seat trying to keep up with the narration.

But as much political galore this vision is, the actual content, the core of the drama that it has to and does rely upon is the real culprit in here. The conversations are chalky and the connections of the plots to pass the storyline forward is poorly weaved out. It seems like the venue has changed but the usual love affairs and breaking and mending of equations, is still their, the seen-this-seen-that details are outdated and audience is much smarter than this. The execution too isn't appropriately handled along with the camera work that is more pretentious than it is productive.

The only responsible man that makes your time worth is Daniels, in his morally complex and socially challenged coat that he is in, which too may seem like your usual anti-hero, but has much to offer as the character ages on screen. Supporting parallel-y is Mortimer whose quirkiness is easily absorbing, than her drama is, to be fair she isn't given the range to factor on a larger scale. Other supporting cast like Pill, Patel, Munn, Sadoski and Gallagher Jr. are the weak links to the series. The Newsroom could have been much more than just news, and this time even Sorkin couldn't convince us to watch the news.

Season 01

The euphoric energy that ignites its pilot, never wears off throughout the season, but with none whatsoever new concrete material to offer in terms of characters or the equations between them, this is probably the most disappointing writing to come from Sorkin's magic bag.

The Greater Fool

The tendency to connect the dots may be people please but the procedure it adapts to do so, is still your usual banal psychology of applying the medicine on wounds after scratching it, a disappointing finale considering the passion it has.

I admire Jane Fonda's work so much that I am willing to endure watching Aaron Sorkin's double-speak drivelfest to see her. I've tried to watch all the episodes she's in however this one pushed me to the limit of my patience. As a result I had to mute the sound in order to keep my sanity. Almost every character on this show is repulsive but that's entirely Sorkin's fault. Somehow Jane is able to rise above it.