The Newsroom: The Complete Series

2012 feels so damn long ago. We’re closing in on the 15th Anniversary of The Newsroom’s first episode was broadcast, and I can’t believe it’s been that long, and how much has changed. In this modern era of exploitive politics and news cycles, Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom feels positively quaint. The idea that a cable news network could actually have a conscience instead of feeding the audience fear-cycle garbage between ad breaks for luxury cars and erectile dysfunction pills or spew soundbites for social media algorithms feels perposterous by today’s standards. 

The series opens with veteran newsman Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) sitting on a three-person panel discussing news and politics with an audience of college students. When it’s finally his turn to answer a real question about why “America is the greatest country on Earth” (we’ve all seen the clip now), he gives the only honest, genuine answer of the panel. But with honesty comes consequence, and as Will was once the highest-rated (and highest paid) newsman, his show is now in serious trouble. His old flame, MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), is coming on as his new Executive Producer; she brings a new crack crew of news hounds like senior producer Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.), while elevating blogger Neil Sampat (Dev Patel) and Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill) to larger roles within the newsteam. Instead of proffering tabloid trash and sensationalism, ACN and Will McAvoy will push real, hard-hitting journalism - even if the ratings slide. 

To be upfront, I didn’t finish The Newsroom when it first aired. I caught the first episode and a few more after, but it’s been so long now I can’t exactly remember why I stopped watching. Between moving, canceling cable, or just waiting to check it out from my local library, I let the series slide away. While I had every intention of finishing it, one year slipped into five, five slipped into ten, and all of a sudden, we’re almost to the 15th Anniversary, and I still hadn’t finished the show! This Blu-ray release felt like the right time to start from square one and give it a run.

And I have to say that The Newsroom is only pretty good. Compared to something like Sorkin’s The West Wing, which felt a bit more timeless but still relevant, The Newsroom feels quaint and dated. I really liked the series's approach of tangentially tackling real-life events, but unlike South Park, which could churn out an episode within a few days and still be relevant, The Newsroom approached its topics long removed and through an obvious lens of 20/20 hindsight. As I picked through the episodes, I was often struck with the “remember when this was what we wasted our energy on?” vibes. This show didn’t even make it to 2016 - there was so much meaty material to come! 

But with that quaintness, I can’t ignore that the series’ slide from Season One to Season Two was pretty severe. Where the first season wasn’t perfect, it at least felt authentic to Sorkin and what he saw the show could be. Season Two felt like a committee read all of the negative reviews of the first season and decided to adjust the series to answer to them rather than staying the course while also elevating John Gallagher Jr.’s Jim and Alison Pill’s Maggie to “Ross and Rachel” levels of interminable irritation. Season Three certainly felt like a return to form, but at a truncated six episodes, it felt like it was trying to pack two or three seasons' worth of material into a single sausage casing. Lots to chew on, lots of pieces, a bit meatier, but not altogether satisfying when finished.

After 25 fast-paced episodes, I have to come to see The Newsroom as a good show. Not amazing, but good. I’m glad I finally finished it. It was at least better than Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. While most of the cast is great and Sorkin still had a knack for crackling, whipsmart dialog exchanges, there’s a falseness to the series, particularly the later episodes, that I just couldn’t get past. If The West Wing had a valid criticism for being an idealized presentation of American politics, The Newsroom is an idealized version of cable news that has never existed in an industry that has only gotten worse with time. I loved the first episode. Shot in 16mm, there was a gritty sense of urgency as it approached the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. After that pilot episode, I just didn’t feel that same magic with anything that followed. Maybe a film or a periodical limited event series would have been a better format instead of multi-episode seasons.

For a far more detailed, analytical, and even more passionate look at all three seasons, here are links to Shannon T. Nutt’s individual Blu-ray reviews:

• The Newsroom Season One Blu-ray Review
• The Newsroom Season Two Blu-ray Review
• The Newsroom Season Three Blu-ray Review 

Vital Disc Stats: The HD Blu-ray 
The Newsroom: The Complete Series returns to Blu-ray with a new 9-disc set from Warner Bros. Based on the copyright dates on the discs, these appear to be the same nine discs that made up the three individual seasons. Each disc is a Region Free BD50, and all of the discs come packed in a standard-sized elite case with individual trays, so no stacking, no cumbersome packaging you can’t open, and the case will neatly fit on your shelf alongside your other discs. The downside of this set is that there isn’t any kind of episode or bonus features index, so you just have to go through the process of throwing a disc on and hoping your favorite episode is in there.

Each episode of the series comes home with a generally strong 1.78:1 1080p transfer. I say “generally” because I really liked the look of the first episode, and sadly, that wasn’t maintained the rest of the series. At least not exactly. The pilot episode was shot on 16mm, and that photochemical format has a particular look and feel that I really love seeing on a big screen. When the show went to series, production moved to digital, and while that has its own look, it’s a little more spit-polished artificial feeling than 16mm film stock. The rest of the series is solid visual material. As digital photography and finishing improved over the years, the series might not sparkle like a modern production, but it holds up nicely with crisp details, fine lines, and bold colors. 

On the audio side of the series, each episode is packed with a robust DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. While the series might not be wall-to-wall sonic immersion, it delivers when it counts. As expected, things are most exciting for the breaking news events when you’ve got phones ringing in every channel, chittering voices along the sides and rears, with the key dialog hitting the fronts. But news doesn’t break all the time, and the series does find ample opportunity in each episode for more quiet and contemplative material. Levels are spot on for each episode. Dialogue is clean and clear for each episode.

And near as I can tell, all of these extra features are the same from the previous discs. “Packed With Bonus Features” is the only note we get on the back of the packaging.

Season One Disc One

• Episode 1 Audio Commentary Featuring Aaron Sorkin, Alan Poul, Greg Mottola, 
• Inside the Episodes:
• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Deleted Scene

Season One Disc Two

• Episode 3 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, and Sam Waterston
• Episode 4 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin, Emily Mortimer, and Alan Poul
• Inside the Episodes:
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Deleted Scene

Season One Disc Three

• Episode 6 Audio Commentary featuring Jeff Daniels, Olivia Munn, and Alan Poul
• Inside the Episodes:
• Episode 6
• Episode 7
• Episode 8

Season One Disc Four

• Episode 10 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortinerm Sam Waterston, Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, and Alan Poul
• Mission Control
• Roundtable
• Inside the Episodes:
• Episode 9
• Episode 10
• Deleted Scenes

Season Two Disc One

• Episode 1 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Alan Poil
• Inside the Episodes:
• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Deleted Scene

Season Two Disc Two

• Episode 5 Audio Commentary featuring Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Alan Poul
• Inside the Episodes
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6

Season Two Disc Three

• Episode 7 Audio Commentary featuring Emily Mortimer, Thomas Sadoski, Hamish Linklater, Alan Poul, and Anthony Hemingway
• Episode 9 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels, Olivia Munn, Constance Zimmer, and Alan Poul
• Inside the Episodes
• Episode 7
• Episode 8
• Episode 9
• Deleted Scene

Season Three Disc One

• Inside the Episodes
• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3

Season Three Disc Two

• Episode 6 Audio Commentary featuring Aaron Sorkin and Alan Poul
• Inside the Episodes
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6

At the end of the day, is The Newsroom: The Complete Series newsworthy? I guess it is in the sense that it’s taken this long to get a complete series Blu-ray set. Aaron Sorkin may have hit on something unique with that pilot episode, but whether or not that was enough to sustain an entire series is up to debate. The slip and slide from one season to the next doesn’t help make the case for the series’ lasting appeal. As this is my first time all the way through the show, more than a decade after it first aired, I’m glad I finally gave it a thorough run through, but it wasn’t as satisfying as I hoped. In strictly Sorkin terms, I know I’ll see A Few Good Men and watch through The West Wing several more times before my time is done. I can’t say the same for The Newsroom, at least not anytime soon. As it is on Blu-ray, the series looks and sounds pretty good, and while the episodes depreciate from one season to the next, the set of extra features is a packed assortment of goodies. Ultimately, The Newsroom: The Complete Series is for those who didn’t buy the show on disc over a decade ago. For Fans Only 

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