Guest Contributors:
Zachary Stringer, Dean Taylor

Once again, HBO has struck potential ratings gold with a new hit drama series during its Sunday night programming. The award-winning cable network that has had hit series such as The Sopranos and True Blood has brought on Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Aaron Sorkin to write and produce his newest show, “The Newsroom”. Sorkin’s passions of playwriting and producing have led to successes in his other works that you might be familiar with, such as NBC’s former drama series “The West Wing” or 2010’s Academy Award winning movie “The Social Network”. His new series, just two episodes into its first season, has already been renewed for a second season by HBO. Sorkin’s show about the behind-the-scenes events of a fictional news channel has become a buzzworthy topic around the workplace and social networking websites. Here are five reasons you, as a student, should watch Newsroom:

5. Feel like TV shows are too dumbed down for your Berkeley brain? Meet Will. Jeff Daniels (best known for his role of Harry in 1994’s movie Dumb and Dumber ) plays moderately Republican, short-tempered, news anchor Will McAvoy of News Night—a fictional news program invented by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing, lots of other fun stuff you can IMDB on your own time). McAvoy is a highly intellectual, easily relatable character who’s not afraid to tell it like it is—even when the odds are stacked against him in the competitive world of news media. McAvoy’s abrasively questioning nature is sure to be familiar to any student who’s paced (rapidly) down Sproul on the wrong day.

4. Aaron Sorkin’s fast paced, dialogue driven, story development is sure to gear you up for political debates, and for the pushy overachievers at your late night group study sesh. Sorkin’s utilization of the “walk and talk” technique—one which amplifies dialogue and focuses on fast-paced corridor shuffling to drive stories—helps him stand out from any other creator or producer. Sorkin infuses his characters with fast paced witticism that are never lacking in reply. Who knows, maybe you’ll pick up a thing or two; next time Jenny from Mariposa interrupts your NorCal-SoCal debate to make a case for her hometown, ask her this.

3. The show forces you to reflect. Newsroom starts off in 2010, and already has covered the hot topic issues that year such as the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana and Arizona’s immigration bill. The show gives you another chance to think in hindsight about major past political events. Imagine what you’d do with a second chance to vote Birgeneau for chancellor…

2. Miss those dramatic, often debaucherous, frat-filled Berkeley weekends (See: Asher Roth)? The Newsroom gives you a piece of that drama back, without the keg-stands! You think seeing your ex in Moffit is cause for concern, McAvoy is forced to work with his ex-girlfriend MacKenize McHale (McDrama) played by Emily Mortimer. Put the Trig books away, it’s time to trade sine and cosine for unpredictable anchors and office gossip.

1. It’s summer and you need to take a break from your internship, job, class, or whatever! Though we are all busy with other commitments, it is important that we take time for ourselves for personal growth. As author Chuck Palaniuk once said, the film watching process boils down to:

real people pretending to be fake people with made-up problems being watched by real people to forget their real problems.

Touché. So forget your real problems this summer, pop some more corn, and plop down in front of HBO for the next episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom”.

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