AJ’s Side Panel “The Newsroom”.

Pretty much everyone that knows me knows my views on politics. But for those that don’t, I hate politics, I hate politicians, and I hate any sort of discussion about it. I view politics like I view religion, it’s just another way/reason for people to hate each other. No one is ever right and no one is ever wrong yet somehow they believe that they are right and that any that doesn’t agree with them is wrong. It’s a battle of popularity vs. morality. “Oh you believe in that why? Oh because your party/religion does, great. Do you ever have an idea that your party/religion doesn’t agree with? No, of course not cuz that would spur independent thought!” It’s a moral gray area that endorses a belief system to inspire comfortability and an ability to sleep at night without a dread feeling of guilt when at the end of the day everyone should realize that we are all believing in the same policy/religion but are just to dare stubborn to see the similarities.

Anyway, I have a point I swear lol. What, you may ask yourself does this have to do with comics and entertainment? The show Newsroom on HBO has caused this sudden desire to sit here at 3:30am and write this editorial.  I avoided watching this show the first week it came out based on the pure fact that I didn’t want to watch some fictionalized dramatization of a nightly news show that would deliver nothing but fluff.  I thought a show like this would do nothing but add to a tempest of bullshit television about news shows that often poked fun at itself as well and insulted the audience that watches them.  I personally never watch the news because I don’t want to watch the world collapse or implode upon itself on a nightly basis on live television.  Not to mention you don’t know who to trust on the news.  Is the news you are watching fact, fiction, or edited to the point of pure and utter bullshit.  The only thing plausibly accurate on the news is the weather and even then you have to wonder if something during those 2 mins of a white pretty boy/girl clicking a slideshow remote cleverly hidden up their sleeve is completely true.  It is also hard for me to believe that a weather man/women spent 8 years going to school in meteorology just so they can stand on tv and say “it’s hot”.  “It’s hot over here, it’s hot over there, and at night it’s going to cool off and oh yeah according to the lack of clouds I see on the same graphic you are now watching, it’s going to be hot tomorrow too!!”

My point to all of my rambling is this, I am not a fan of news or politics.  I am very adamant about this fact.  The show The Newsroom is full of both, and I love it.  3 episodes in and I am hooked.  It is one of the most intelligent tv shows I have ever seen.  Smart, sharp, witty, and I give a shit.  What Aaron Sorkin has done is gone back 2 to 3 years and written a show based on the events of the past and made it so you feel like not only were you there but that you still are.  The acting is top notch, set design is perfect, and the writing…wow.

If you haven’t seen this show yet, you should.  Give it a chance.  If you don’t believe me then, please, watch this clip below.  It’s from the first 5 mins of the first episode.