The Newsroom 1.7: 5/1

[marymary]

An anonymous source contacts Charlie and provides advance details on an imminent story of national importance. When news breaks that the President will be making a televised speech that night, the 2.0 staff cuts short its one-year (and one-week) anniversary party, and rushes back to the newsroom amidst a flurry of speculation as to what exactly

Comments

[marymary]

i feel like no one should cheer at someone's death.I agree, that's why (above) I said I'd expected Neal's girlfriend to be that person who was disturbed by it. At the time of Bin Laden's death, there were a significant number of people in the public space expressing just that discomfort

[anatolealice]

didn't hear that many people saying, "I thought I'd feel better, but I don't." Though I like that he used her to make that point. You see that a lot in interviews with family members of murder victims, after the murderer is executed. It's a valid addition to the episode, IMO.

Yes, I liked the point you made and I'm sorry I couldn't copy and paste your reply above - I can never manage that on the iPad. Likening it to the family of a murder victim I think is exactly right, at least for that character.

I can't imagine how a New Yorker feels. I guess because I can, though on a smaller scale (does less people dying make it better?) Aside from Bali (I didn't know anyone personally, but I watched a friend sob over someone she lost), London was intensely personal to me. So many of my friends were caught up in it, the bus was blocks away from my office. It wasn't so much a shock as the living of specfic nightmare I'd been having since Madrid. I just wanted the horror to stop, to constantly half expect it to happen again any moment. That

[tomfoolery815]

i feel like no one should cheer at someone's death. So I thought Neal's girlfriends reaction was interesting and well played because her real reason was even more poignant.
Ana and Mary, I liked that Sorkin included that reaction.

I got the sense that as a native of the Tri-State Area of NYC, Sorkin put a bit more personal feeling into this one. 9/11 itself prompted him to interrupt the TWW storyline to do "Isaac and Ishmael," so I would think that bin Laden's death was a particular kind of closure for those who grew up in that metropolitan area. Kaylee, IMO, represents the real-life New Yorkers who lost somebody on that day, and who have that same hollow feeling that Mary describes of a murder-victim survivor after the murderer is executed.

I am also anti-war, anti-killing and anti-death penalty 99 percent of the time. But bin Laden needed to be killed. That was the only way he was going to stop sending people to kill the innocent. I'm reminded of Fitz in the great scene with Leo in "We Killed Yamamoto:" goes to procure quote "We

[anatolealice]

I liked that Sorkin was able to come full circle with that storyline. My fear though with scenes of cheering is just perpetates the anger and separation between us and them. My biggest fear the morning I found out about the twin towers etc was of retaliation and what that could bring. And for Americans possibly it doesn't feel like there was much retaliation but the subsequent Bali bombings were extremely personal to us, Madrid and then London...it feels like it's never going to end. He can't send anyone to kill anymore, but make a martyr of him and plenty of other people will.

[tuesday_suit]

I am also anti-war, anti-killing and anti-death penalty 99 percent of the time. But bin Laden needed to be killed. That was the only way he was going to stop sending people to kill the innocent.

Amen to that, sir. And also to this:

-- Gatzy, I agree that it was cool that they played President Obama's speech over the end credits.

Knee-jerk episode reactions:
1. Toby doesn't think the Learjet can be flummoxed by something he got at RadioShack.

2. I was kind of disappointed that Will's therapist wasn't Adam Arkin. I totally expected it, and was startled to see that they picked the guy who played the crazy schizophrenic who stabbed Dr. Carter and Lucy on ER.

3. I think Lonny is awesome.

4. "The Secretary of the Treasury turned to me and said, 'When's he going to shut up about Maggie?' And that was after I'd accidentally set him on fire." BWAH!!!!!

[tomfoolery815]

I think Lonny is awesome.
Lonny is awesome, isn't he? There's a versatility to Terry Crews' performance that I did not expect. I thought he'd just be a big hulk of a guy with an occasional one-liner.

May only be of interest to Tuesy and I: He was All-MAC at Western Michigan and played in 32 games in the NFL.

[elinorigbe]

He can't send anyone to kill anymore, but make a martyr of him and plenty of other people will.

And killing him doesn't kill the hatred and hopelessness and rage that fuels the suicide plots. If anything, it enlarges it.

I, too, fear never ending recriminations.