The Newsroom.

True, there was a lot of set-up for what is shaping up to be an epic and dramatic story. But it was a pretty good set-up episode which had plenty of great moments. I laughed at the awesome end of the episode.
Before that, I especially liked the exchange between Neal and Sloan (wow, she is crazy, but I like it), it had me in stitches. Then there was Sloan's passionate bidding for space for her important story. I loved the debate prep, especially Maggie's angle on Bachmann's hearing God's voice. And I also thought the scene at Will's psychiatrist was both funny and kind of thought-provoking. It stuck with me, in any case. Will is really messed up and I wonder if he'll ever manage to overcome this emotional baggae he keeps carrying around.
I'm not too optimistic about Newsnight's future the way things are going. The most they can hope for is blackmailing Fiona Lansing with what little they know about the wiretapping. But of course, keeping this story under wraps in exchange for staying on air is also unethical.

 

Like Captain Kirk?

I forgot to mention this episode's best line: "A modest proposal, we could ourselves commit murder on our air. In your face, Nancy Grace!"
Mac was on fire in this one. I really liked that. Too bad she was fighting a losing battle. By the way, so far, I also sort of like Brian, her ex-boyfriend. His introduction could have been awkward and played out predictably but I appreciated how he took everything in stride and his little duels of dialogue with Will and Mac.

 

He was also in a movie called "Lars and the Real Girl" with the actress who plays Mac. Sounds like a movie that might be right up your alley, Guy.

 

By the way, is this blackout based on a real event?

 

My God, that was awesome. Totally sentimental, pathos-laden and unrealistic but it felt just fantastic. I loved how a lot of the things we've seen throughout this season came together at the end.
Poor Sorority Girl, though - she realised too late that everyone working on this show is crazy, well, Will and Mac are batshit insane, anyway.

 

I think the finale did a good job showing why there isn't such a program in reality.

A couple of days ago, I read a fan fic in which Sorority Girl turned out to be Will's daughter he doesn't know about (this was one of the better stories, the fan fic for this show is really bad ), so for a moment I feared they'd go with that. Don/Sloan became real, too, after all, and that's a ship that made the rounds in fandom a couple of episodes ago.

I wonder what Leona's real motivation is for letting them do their thing. Sure, they have that recording (on which Will also admits being high on the air, though ) of Reese admitting he had phones hacked but all things considered their blackmail attempt was rather amateurish. I love the end of it when Mac tried to be all action-hero-like cool and then didn't know how to finish the sentence and Will told her she couldn't just start sentences like that. Really professional. It had the odd couple feel like a lot of their scenes in that episode. So, maybe Leona was more impressed with them having the guts to try this angle even though it's apparent they aren't even in the same league as her rather than the actual threat.

I also liked that Brian's article turned out to be so negative. It surprised me because from his reactions to some of the stuff he was seeing I surmised he was somewhat impressed and amused. I wonder whether that really was his opinion or whether he tried to be extra negative because he dislikes Will and to have a revenge on Mac. Then again, he kind of had a point which is why Will reacted the way he did. It's interesting that the thing he did to hurt/punish Mac ended up almost killing him.

 

Waiting for the Klingon version?

 

Yeah, it's crazy - and we were so close to resolving at least one of them in the finale. Weirdly enough, though, I kinda like it, and I'm normally not a romantic comedy person.