"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Farewell Newsroom

Well, The Newsroom gave itself just the kind of send-off we've come to expect: brilliant, touching, touching all kinds of bases including some we didn't know existed, including a great performance of Bobby Bare's "That's How I Got to Memphis," with Will and Jim definitely singing and likely definitely playing guitar (you never know one-hundred percent on television).   But it sure sounded nice, and being in a garage right by Charlie's funeral, it was bound to bring not just a smile but a tear to the eye.

A lot of the show was about Charlie, back in the flesh in the prequel before the very episode of the series, which took up about half of this farewell episode.  The other half is what happens to our team in the aftermath of Charlie's death.

Everyone lands on their feet, some even promoted.  Is that realistic?   I don't know - I've never been part of a news team - but it felt right for this series.   As far as personal relationships go, everyone also landed on their feet, and, given the frustrated love that animated so much of the series until now, these happy endings seemed realistic, too, part of the universe righting the balance in favor of some happiness.

Jim and Maggie will stay together with a long-distance relationship - but not that long-distance, given the proximity of New York and Washington - while Jim's promoted to MacKenzie's job and Maggie may be on her way to the job of her dreams.   Don and Sloan are finally happily together also, with neither getting a promotion.   And Will and MacKenzie are having a baby, as MacKenzie is getting  promoted to Charlie's position.

Too much happiness?  Hey, these characters are entitled to it, not only after all the unrequited love they've endured, but the often gruesome nature of the news they were daily obliged to cover.   And we the audience deserve it, too, as a remembrance of a show the likes of which have never been seen on television before, and not likely to be any time soon, again.


analysis of the first two seasons

See also The Newsroom 3.1: Media on Media ... The Newsroom 3.2: Ethics in High Relief ... The Newsroom 3.3: Journalism at the Barricades ... The Newsroom 3.4: McLuhanesque "Books Are Like the New Art"... The Newsroom 3.5: Penultimate Prescient

And see also The Newsroom Season 2 Debuts on Occupy Wall Street and More ... and (about Trayvon Martin) If Only There Was a Video Recording ... The Newsroom 2.2: The Power of Video ... The Newsroom 2.7: Autopsy of a Bad Decision ... The Newsroom 2.8: The Course of True Love ... The Newsroom Season 2 Finale: Love, Triumph, and Wikipedia

And see also The Newsroom and McLuhan ... The Newsroom and The Hour ...The Newsroom Season 1 Finale: The Lost Voice Mail

 
a little news in this story too

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