My worries last week about this program's adherence to the news stories of the recent past discussed a concern that it might lead to a lack of freshness; we, as the audience, would be a step ahead of the characters. Well, we are, ladies and gentlemen, but it's also because the romantic entanglements of the cast have a little bit of telegraphing going on.
THE SHORT VERSION: The focus shifts from the BP oil spill to SB1070, the infamous Arizona immigration bill (which had a ruling on June 25, in a nice bit of fiction and reality synchronicity). Will's instinct is to lead with images of the sinking oil rig, because it's great tv. Mac responds that this is about the news, not good television. This leads into Mac's first pitch meeting, where things go less than well, involving a terrible mnemonic device and a collapsing easel. Her pitch is that the new version of "News Night" is a courtroom that only gets the best expert witnesses, and this has roped in the governor of Arizona for nine minutes. Maggie's tapped to work out the interview prep, which Jim supervises, in a curmudgeonly bit of meet-cute flirting. Maggie is also still thinking about following Don to the 10pm slot, and she back-door accuses Jim of doubting her professionalism due to romance. More on that in a minute.
Anyway, the governor dumps ACN for CNN, due to Maggie dating the gov's press guy in college and something about her insulting him. There's some ridiculous squabbling and finally, Jim takes the hit and tells MacKenzie he screwed up the interview. MacKenzie, in another of her "Sorkin Mouthpiece" moments, throws out some vitriol against the talking-head SB1070 defenders, which include a beauty pagaent winner and an online college professor. Oh, and there's a militia member who's named his gun Jenny and will only appear on air with Jenny. Okay. The beauty queen, militia guy, and professor in a box don't go well. It's pretty funny, and hard to watch, and it's the best part of the episode.
We also learn a little more about what happened between Mac and Will; everyone thinks Will cheated on her, including new finance specialist/reporter Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) in an attempted bonding moment in which we learn Mac's got no friends. She's also terrible with technology, apparently, and accidentally sends a mass e-mail to the staff in an attempted bit of humor that doesn't quite work. She does it again later and tells everyone all the details of the breakup, instead of just Sloan. Oops.
So this leads to a big rom-com fight between Will and Mac in which we sort of learn that she cheated, there were differing definitions of love, etc etc. It's Sorkin's version of trying to set up a big Sam and Diane thing here, and it's not quite working. It just seems immature and weird and it's a giant piece of this episode that sort of clunks.
There's also this whole subplot about Reese, the ratings guy, who is buddy-buddy with Will but Charlie hates. Reese lets slip that the conservative right thinks Will is soft, but likes that he leaves Sarah Palin alone. Will, in response to this and the whole mess with Mac, goes behind her back and works footage of Palin talking about the spill and attempts to hold up her reputation, despite Palin's confusion of the Dutch and Norway. Mac blows up at Will (it's a theme, back and forth...) and asks him if he's all in or not. Will comes back with Sloan's hiring, and calls her a Victoria's Secret model brought in to talk about the economy.
So, then we get to the end, which is a dialogue/music montage in which a drunken Maggie (one drink!) dumps Don because he can't be tender or supportive. Yeah, we'll see if that holds up. Jim is totally into her and gives puppydog eyes. And Will finally tells Mac, "I'm in. See you on Monday."
WHAT I LOVED: The writing still sparkles with class and fun, and there's some neat moments of comedy that weren't completely expected. So far, this is a lot more Sports Night than S60. That's a good thing.
WHAT IS A PROBLEM: Sorkin has written, again and again, about hyper-competent people doing amazing things. It's what we're supposed to buy here, and there's some lofty stuff happening. But right now, this feels like Grey's Anatomy in headsets, and I'm not comfortable with that. The fictional show is front and center; the DRAMA and STAKES of the show ALSO have to be front and center for this to work. This killed S60, because it was about a comedy show that wasn't funny nor really present, and this requires more presence in the news than who's-screwing-who.
So, gang, I'm back next week, with reservations. This hour of tv needs to rev up to keep me reeled in. What do you think?
