By Sara M
MacKenzie tries to assert her control over her super brand new version of News Night that she likes to call "News Night 2.0" because MacKenzie's knowledge of technology and cool buzzwords is stuck somewhere in pre-9/11 America. To that end, she manages to screw up at sending email, accidentally sending everyone who works for ACN not one, but two emails meant for Will. The first was a test email that says he hates immigrants. The second is the truth about what happened between them three years ago: while everyone thinks he was the one who cheated on her, she was actually the one who cheated on him and broke his cold, dark heart. Except she somehow doesn't think it counts as cheating because even though they were two years into their relationship, she didn't realize how much she loved Will until after she slept with someone else. So yeah, MacKenzie is basically terrible.
Will, on the other hand, is suddenly a great guy who makes an effort to know his staff's names and interests and doesn't fire anyone even though, between MacKenzie's insistence on reporting news stories that she thinks the voting public needs to know about rather than cool shots of oilrigs falling into the Gulf of Mexico and Maggie's inability to do a pre-interview without causing everyone involved in recently-passed Arizona immigration bill to bail on the show 90 minutes before air, "News Night 2.0" is a great big (albeit fun) mess. When Will sneaks a clip of Sarah Palin into the show and then defends her stupid statements in order to appeal to his conservative viewers and save his ratings, MacKenzie says he's not fully committed to what she's trying to do and demands to know if he's "in." I'm not sure if it was the Radiohead song from 1995 convinced him or the fruit basket his new asshole neighbors gave him, but he decides that he is.
Olivia Munn is also in, as New Night's new business and economics correspondent. Her character has a Ph.D. in economics, looks like a model, and turns down more lucrative jobs because she just loves the news so damn much. I really thought I wasn't going to like her, but it turns out that Olivia Munn is the only lead actress on this show capable of saying her lines without over-acting and coming off like someone in the throes of a manic episode, so she just might work.
Two Blackberries were harmed in the making of this episode.