Really? No thread about Newsroom starting tonight at 10? There is now.

[OliviaLMumsnet]

[Fiderer]

Jane Fonda/Leona flies over for the funerals but as she forgot those nasty glasses she wears and she didn't go to Specsavers she stumbles and falls into one of the many potholes which scar our magnificent capital.

17 Japanese tourists and 8 WI day visitors up from Little Knitting fall on top of her. She is crushed under the weight of 17 A-Zs and some soggy homemade shortbread. They bury her along with the cagoules and a flyer offering advice on aphids on roses. All weep.

[Tee2072]

::looks up Sorkin's phone number::

[tribpot]

I'm only half-way through episode 2 ... so I'm going to assume none of these eminently good ideas is covered in it.

Dev Patel having to explain how to send emails .. really?

Econo-lady who is clearly Ainsley part 2 - you can be super-smart and challenging but only if you look stunning ... zzz ....

I find it disturbing to watch on the same day as Veep, which still has me sniggering for "The president is a good man, god bless him, but he's really fucking busting my lady-balls on this".

[limitedperiodonly]

trib the stuff here is miles better than Sorkin's. And don't get me started on Ianucci's rather disappointing Veep.

The things, not the only things, the two shows have in common are lazy writing and weak leads. Julia Louis Dreyfus's appeal escapes me. But then so does Jerry Seinfeld's, so I'm not being sexist.

[tribpot]

Still half-way through it, despite having sat through what seems like an endless segment on whether or not Will is an arse. I see Jeff Daniel didn't bother to show up for most of this episode, very wise.

Can Emily Mortimer be sent to Mandyville? There are character similarities as well.

[tribpot]

I've finished it. Perhaps unfair to comment on it after watching it in such a patchy way but Christ on a bike that was pointless.

Taxi for Mandyville - stat!

[Nancy66]

Only watched first episode so far and enjoyed it apart from Emily Mortimer who is hopelessly miscast

[MissAnnersley]

I'm a huge WW fan so was really looking forward to this. I was really disappointed and got quite fed up being preached at.

However, I absolutely love the character played by Sam Waterston.

I was reading the other day that Sorkin is replacing quite a few of the writers so possibly it will improve.

[Tee2072]

MissA according to my husband, he fired his entire staff for next season.

Ep 5 is even better. I'm beginning to really enjoy it.

[tribpot]

Sorkin fired the whole writing staff? Was he trying to force life to imitate art? (When the writing staff quits en masse in protest at the appointment of Will Bailey .. when Danny & Matt fire the writing staff except for the really rather dreadful Lucy and dear old Darius ... has he done it in Sports Night too?)

[Tee2072]

No, didn't do it in Sports Night.

News and sports shows don't really have writing staffs, per se. Not in the way Presidents and Variety shows do!

[tribpot]

That's true, Will Gardner and the guy out of Six Feet Under did their own writing on Sports Night, didn't they? Sorkin could have fired the actual writing staff, though, as he apparently has on The Newsroom.

Annoying English characters seem to be a bit of a theme as well - Lord John 'I don't know how to address the Queen' Marbury, Lucy, MandyMackenzie ... Sorkin should be given a rule: no Limeys.

[Tee2072]

Except Mac isn't British! Her dad was a diplomat.

[tribpot]

Given Leo was variously a Man of Chicago and Boston within two series, we may discover that MandyMac is French before the year is out.

[MissAnnersley]

Yes Mac is Mandy and Maggie is Donna perhaps?

[tribpot]

Oh surely Maggie is too wet to be Donna. But there are definite similarities, Maggie could be a somewhat younger Donna still in love with the loathsome Dr Freeride?

[MissAnnersley]

Has anyone seen the HBO film Game Change? It's fantastic.

It's from a book about the 2008 campaigns but the film focuses on the McCain/Palin campaign, specifically how she came to chosen.

Julianne Moore is Sarah Palin and is amazing.

It reminded me of season 7 of the West Wing.

[MissAnnersley]

Sorry x post. I think Donna was definitely wet. She left Josh to go back to the crap boyfriend. How could anyone leave Josh?

Am going to watch episode 5 tomorrow.

[OliviaLMumsnet]

ooh that sounds good MissAnnersley
LOL at the no Limey rool

[MissAnnersley]

I've watched it 3 times Olivia . The book is meant to be amazing too.

I am ridiculously obsessed with American politics. I dragged a perfectly nice boyfriend around Washington DS in the height of summer a few years ago!

[MissAnnersley]

Washington DS? Time for bed!

[Echocave]

Hmm. Well I really liked the first few series of the West Wing because of the fact that some of the characters talked fast and furiously in a clever way. Here, they pretty much all do. The result? All the characters seem like tv characters created by the same pen and it is completely impossible to believe in it as a workplace - so much energy expended in wise-cracking, who could really get any work done?!

Oh and it is too preachy. But I can live with that (a bit)....

[tribpot]

I liked Game Change too - I thought it was relatively sympathetic to Palin, certainly didn't try and present her as a madwoman idiot. Julianne Moore rocks everything she does.

I'd forgotten Donna went back to the boyfriend. But here's the important distinction: we never had to watch it. Clearly with this Maggie we are going to have to sit through her being all drippy about stuff, not people talking about how she used to be drippy. Big difference dramatically.

Echo - I think you're right. It seems like a TV show about a TV show. No-one's actually really done any work yet, there's been no telly nitty-gritty.

[MissAnnersley]

Well I decide to watch episode 5 in bed.

It was pretty predictable but at least they dialled down the sanctimony a tiny bit.

Totally agree with you tribpot and Echo - there's just no depth and certainly no believability that they're actually working.

With Game Change I agree it was fairly sympathetic to Palin. Steve Schmidt did this amazing interview after the film came out and slated her. The interviewers were clearly taken aback and one of them kept saying 'Wow!'. It was pretty funny.

[Fiderer]

I watched ep5 too. Agree it was better. Massive plot signposts throughout and I don't see a single interesting thing in Maggie and the Lisa story is rubbish. Enough already! Will and Dev Patel still good though.

Re Limeys - at least Lord Marbury was supposed to be an eccentric Brit. Mac saying "I am an American journalist" was ludicrous.

I think they should give more to Tess. Just looked her up as wasn't sure of her name. Turns out apparently she was working in cable news when Sorkin went to research a newsroom and helped him with the script then she asked to audition for the part of Maggie. Even if she's not an actor, she couldn't be worse than Alison Pain Pill.

She was Keith Olbermann's assistant, am sure Will must be based a little on him.