Episode Report Card Sara M: C+ | 28 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Even God Hates This Show
By Sara M | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 08.12.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Casey Anthony is on trial, and Nancy Grace just stole all of NewsNight's viewers because Will and MacKenzie refuse to pay any attention to the trial the rest of America wants to see. Charlie orders them to do it in order to get the ratings back (since Leona will be able to fire Will easily if they don't), and Will agrees. MacKenzie throws like eight hissy fits. Also complicating matters is the presence of a reporter for New York magazine trying to do a profile of NewsNight. He also happens to be the guy with whom MacKenzie cheated on Will. Will chose him to write the profile for that exact reason. He realizes that might mean he's not making much progress in getting over MacKenzie. The psychiatrist whose session he interrupted agrees.
Meanwhile, Charlie goes to the library to meet Late for Dinner. They recap basically the entire last episode and Late for Dinner informs Charlie that the NSA is illegally listening to citizens' phone calls and somehow so is AWM. Leona doesn't know about it. Reese does. Jim is assigned to vet Late for Dinner as a source so Will doesn't get "Dan Rathered." That is not how you want your name to be used as a verb.
And in the annals of the lesser characters, Neal pitches a story about internet trolls that requires him to go deep undercover. A regular Nellie Bly, he is. Dr. Dr. Sloan is furious that her boring economy news about the debt ceiling isn't given enough airtime because Americans would rather watch the Casey Anthony trial. And Maggie goes on an anti-Bachmann Christianity rant before being assigned to produce a segment about the lowest of the very low: a woman who had a Twitter-fling with Anthony Weiner. Fortunately, God – no doubt pleased with Maggie's earlier speech – turns the lights out before the horrible Weiner weiner segment can be taped. To be continued!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Remember that guy on Parks and Recreation who got fired after the second season because his character was so boring and kind of useless? Well, he just found a new home on The Newsroom! He's a print journalist personally selected by Will to interview him. Will says he's not big on print journalists because they "play fast and loose with exclamation points." He thinks it's the exclamation points that make him seem deranged. Brian (the reporter) asks Will why -- after a year of refusing interviews -- he's agreeing to one with Brian. Will lights up a cigarette and says he wants a "document" of what his horrible show is trying to do. That's not what Brian meant: he wants to know why Will chose him to write it. Will says Brian covers the media better than anyone else, his "recent complications notwithstanding." Like his inability to find a razorblade or a hairbrush? Print journalists are so gross, you guys.
Will generously "offers" to let Brian spend a few days in the newsroom and talk to whoever he wants as long as everything is off the record. If Will "likes how it feels," he'll let Brian do some actual reporting. But Will retains the right to pull things off the record if he so chooses. Brian says he's not about to audition to write this profile. Will points out that he used to be a hotshot Newsweek reporter and now he just has "a blogggggg." Will made sure to draw out the G there for maximum disgust. Brian and Will fight over who has more "fucking disdain" for the Internet (answer: they both lose to Sorkin) and Brian exposits that his attempt to use his Newsweek buyout money to start his own Huffington Post-like site failed and left him broke and unemployed. This is a sad statement about the dire state of the journalism business we will not be learning more about on this show. Will says everyone wants to cover his horrible show, but he's giving the story to New York magazine and Brian. Brian asks about their personal history. Will thinks he means how Brian used to call him out for being the Jay Leno of the news, but Brian says that's not what he meant and Will knows it. "So please stop fucking around with me," he requests. Will allows him to put one sentence in the second paragraph that says he is a "friend" of MacKenzie and only report what the world already knows about Will's relationship with her thanks to her inability to send emails. Brian says he's "fine" with all that, but he will not allow Will to tell him what he will or won't do anymore. Which is fine, since I don't think there's anything else Will possibly could tell him. Brian asks Will why he wants his show to be documented now. Is it in danger? Will says it might be, but he needs to meet with Reese first.