Aaron Sorkin has written television shows about television before, and both met fairly similar fates. Although “Sports Night” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” were met with a good deal of critical acclaim, the former lasted only two seasons before it was cancelled due to low ratings, while the latter only made it through one season for the same reason. Sorkin and HBO will be hoping that critical acclaim is coupled with returning audiences for his new show, “The Newsroom,” when it premieres on June 24th.
The second trailer for the show has hit and if we’re being perfectly honest, it looks outstanding. It’s very talky, very Sorkin, and seems to do a brilliant job of conveying the tone, humor, and a sense of the characters in a quick two-minute burst. The focus is on Jeff Daniels’ Will McAvoy, anchor of the News Night program on fictional network ACN, whose show takes a drastic change in direction after his co-anchor leaves and takes most of their staff with him. With a new team in place, the show decides to focus on reporting news rather than chasing ratings.
In the trailer we get a closer look at various other members of the cast – particularly impressive are Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill and Dev Patel – and it certainly looks like every character is going to have more than enough to do. Greg Mottola (“Adventureland,” “Paul”) directed the pilot, and if this extremely slick trailer is anything to go by then it looks like “The Newsroom” will fit right in with the new wave of impressive programming we’ve been seeing from HBO.
