Ah well, better to go out on a high I suppose. At least 3 seasons is better than Studio 60 managed. But I could never get into that one.
And I never felt the gimmick of having the show report news from the recent past worked, for an ostensibly positive show about a few idealists trying to inform the public and help improve the state of public discourse, anchoring it to real world events made the whole endeavour oddly futile.
Perhaps it is intentional, but if so then I fee it undermines the show a little. If the central concept of the show is that America is in decline, in part, because of the poor job the news media are doing, then by having a popular news show report the news properly (as according to Sorkin) then there should be a knock-on effect on wider society. But there can't be because the show has to adhere to real-world events. Will railed against the Tea Party for months, but they were still hugely successful in the 2010 election because that's what really happened. News Night spent a week at one point discussing gun control policy, but that could never lead to a change in perception on gun policy unless it also happened in real life.That's kind of the point, though, isn't it? It's a show about people who set forth idealistically to improve public discourse and the state of commercial news who ultimately fail. The whole Don Quijote theme suggests they're quite aware of the futility of their endeavour.
I can see why people would like that, it just doesn't quite work for me on this particular show. But it obviously appeals to a lot of people, so that's fair enough.It helps that I think of it as a tragic, albeit somewhat heroic tale. My enjoyment of Greek tragedies or neorealismo films isn't undercut by the fact that I already know they'll end badly, either.
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