By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

The first season of “The Newsroom” was in the can before the first episode aired, and the extremely divisive critical reception began. There was much speculation about whether Aaron Sorkin was oblivious to the reactions the show would provoke, or just didn’t care. The finale makes it clear that the former is false, and the latter is largely true. He is happy to play the television world equivalent of the “The Greater Fool,” and those of us enjoying the ride are just as glad to tag along.

By John Keegan

It's never a good sign when you need to write an enormously powerful character as a complete space cadet to justify why she would be easily defeated.  It's even worse when the actress can't pull off the wackiness without it looking like someone from dinner theatre trying to act like someone flighty, rather than actually being someone flighty.  And that's only the beginning of the illogical character choices on display in this episode.

By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

This episode of “The Newsroom” was its biggest gamble so far. While the date, 5/1/2011, isn’t as imprinted into the world’s consciousness as 9/11/2001, the surprise announcement of a Presidential address late one Sunday night certainly is, at least for those residing in the US. Presenting Osama bin Laden’s death, a story virtually everyone in the audience knows is coming, imposes an extra burden to get the tone right. For the most part, they do. While the interweaving of the personal stories is, at times, clunky, it is helped immensely by a show of strength from an unexpected source.