The Newsroom: "Amen" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Hopefully fans of The Newsroom have seen Rudy. If not, this week's episode, "Amen," might have just spoiled the film for you. But it's no matter. Despite borrowing the ending from the 1993 sports classic, "Amen" was a strong episode and a nice recovery from last week's somewhat wobbly entry.

In the episode, the News Night team desperately searches for a lost reporter named Amen, who was seemingly abducted after his first-hand footage of the Egyptian riots aired on the program. Meanwhile, Will McAvoy, angered that TMI continues to dig up dirt on his fellow co-workers, contemplates paying off the journalist responsible. And, as usual, the news team continues to struggle with various relationship issues.

To be honest, I'm only scratching the surface of the different interweaving plot elements of tonight's episode. There were almost too many to count. It's quite surprising how much Aaron Sorkin manages to pack into a 55-minute block. His balance between meaningful character moments and complex plot threads is simply remarkable, and tonight's episode was a fine example of Sorkin at his best.

Despite the occasionally heavy-handed, plot-heavy narrative, "Amen" had quite a few funny spots, some solid character development and even some of the relationship beats worked better than previous episodes, too. Emily Mortimer got quite a few moments to stretch her comic muscles, while Dev Patel anchored the episode's best subplot with intense emotion and raw drama. And the simple fact that tonight's episode was framed around Valentine's Day certainly helped when it came to the relationship babble. It was also nice to see some ramifications for silly behavior from previous episodes -- namely the e-mail that Mackenzie accidentally sent out.

That said, there was almost too much going on in "Amen." There were enough story cues for at least two episodes, maybe more. And sometimes the lightning-fast dialogue comes at you with such blinding fury that it's a tad hard to follow, and feels slightly distracting. People in reality simply aren't that speedy with their thoughts and opinions. Sometimes the show feels like it's playing at double speed, and even triple speed at times. As the series quickly approaches present day, one would think Sorkin would want to slow things down a little. It'll be rather interesting to see what happens when the show catches up with current events.

The ending, as with previous episodes, was a knockout. Audiences were treated to yet another outstanding monologue from Will McAvoy. If Jeff Daniels doesn't earn himself an Emmy nod next year it will be quite tragic. Of all the monologues he's delivered thus far this season, tonight's was a personal favorite. The finale itself was also heartfelt and emotionally potent, especially for fans of Rudy. While the final scene perhaps lacked originality, it was a very real moment for the characters -- a moment where McAvoy's co-workers finally seemed to not only accept him, but acknowledge him as their leader. Conversely, it was wonderful seeing McAvoy take that leadership role with stride.

It'll be interesting to see how the TMI story develops as we head towards the second half of this first season. Hope Davis has incredible chemistry with Jeff Daniels, and I eagerly await seeing them duke it out on screen in the future. Unfortunately, knowing the show, it'll probably somehow brew into a romantic relationship. But let's hope that doesn't happen.

Source : feeds.ign.com