Blogocentric Formulations

The Newsroom

"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 4): Let's get nostalgic today. Let's talk about that one show that you were really sad to see canceled or just couldn't understand why in the world was canceled. Tell us why you loved it and if you know what brought its demise, share that too.


I've always found this question difficult because there are a ton of shows that I think ended too soon, but then there's the whole issue of whether the show would be as iconic or memorable if it had dragged on for half a dozen seasons rather than going out on a high. Would Firefly or Freaks and Geeks or My So-Called Life be as beloved if it wasn't a one-season wonder? Would Veronica Mars have been able to maintain its quality for an extended period of time once the setting changed from high school to college? That's why I'm glad this question is centered more on an emotional response than a qualitative one.

While there are a lot of options (see above references for some of them), my pick is:

I feel like this show hit that perfect bittersweet note in its cancelation; it had 25 total episodes across three short seasons, so it wasn't brief enough to become this iconic one-season wonder, and it wasn't on for so long that I feel like it had a good run. For example, Heroes had 79 episodes, Veronica Mars had 64, Leverage had 77, Burn Notice had 111, Psych had 121, and White Collar had 81... it's pretty hard to feel a show like that got the short end of the stick, even if I was disappointed when they stopped making new episodes.

I think a series like The Newsroom is incredibly important, especially in today's climate where the very institution of journalism is under attack and sensationalist outlets that don't have standards in reporting are becoming more and more popular. This show did an amazing job of showing all the effort and investment that goes into accurate reporting, as well as characters weighing the business need for ratings against the mission of factual, informational reporting.

The show made the incredibly smart choice to focus on real news stories by having the show episodes set a couple of years prior to their air dates, which allowed them to use actual newsworthy stories as the thrust of each episode. The first season was released in 2012, but covered stories like the shooting of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (2010), the Citizens United decision (2011), the killing of Osama Bin Laden (2011), etc., which really helped capture the significance of the job these characters do. Even if workplace dramas aren't your thing, I dare you to watch the Gabby Giffords episode (Season 1, Episode 4) or the Bin Laden episode (Season 1, Episode 7) and not get all the feels.

I think what made the cancelation of this show particularly sad is that Aaron Sorkin created some brilliant characters, there are certainly no shortage of news stories, and after the extended run of The West Wing, it's pretty clear that there's a market for Aaron Sorkin's fast-talking workplace dramas. Imagine if a show like this had the same seven-season, 156 episode run as that show. It would still be on the air, and would have had the opportunity to cover stories like the Russian annexation of Crimea and the lifting of the Cuban embargo in 2014, the election of Justin Trudeau as Canada's new prime minister in 2015, the Paris climate agreement and Brexit and the U.S. presidential election in 2016... I'm really sad that we didn't get a chance to see the ACN News folks in The Newsroom get to tackle a much longer and diverse list of stories.