THE
NEWSROOM
Tuesday,
Sky Atlantic, 10pm
ADAM
BUXTON'S BUG
Monday,
Sky Atlantic, 9:30pm
SINBAD
Sunday,
Sky 1, 7pm
Paul
Whitelaw
Another
week, another raft of new offerings from Sky, whose steamrollering
mission to claim every major US import together with every comedian
formerly employed by the BBC continues unabated.
Their
latest trumpet-blaring acquisition is THE NEWSROOM,
written and created by Aaron Sorkin of The
West Wing renown.
Despite being a television critic, and therefore automatically
expected to kneel before the altar of Sorkin, I've never been a fan
of his work. His signature writing style – that frenetic, mannered,
pseudo-screwball dialogue – has always irked me with its
self-consciousness and tacit self-regard, and his penchant for
speechifying schmaltz only serves as a reminder that he isn't the
modern-day Frank Capra of his dreams. I just find it very hard to
enjoy writing that explicitly draws attention to itself.
What
really staggers me about The
Newsroom, however, is
how it manages to confirm every criticism I have of Sorkin's writing
to the extent that it borders on self-parody. Set within the confines
of a fictional cable news channel, it's a typically sanctimonious and
hectoring fable in which Jeff Daniels stars as a long-serving
anchorman with a reputation for being bland and non-confrontational.
But
his uncontroversial image is dramatically blown apart one day when,
exhausted by the bickering partisanship that passes for mainstream
political debate, he snaps during a live Q&A and delivers a
rousing tirade about how – gasp! - America isn't actually the
greatest country in the world. Scored to plangent piano, it's a
laughable set-piece, mired in corn, and typical of Sorkin's worst
excesses.
On
and on he types, piling one unlikely contrivance onto another, as his
ciphers clumsily declare their traits and motivations while failing
to be even half as witty or clever as he thinks he is. There is
absolutely no subtext to his writing, everything is so on-the-nose
and mechanical. It's obvious that The Great Writer has no-one around
him who's prepared to tell him to redraft his scripts, hence the
sloppy, unconvincing, dramatically inert drivel he ends up with.
His
only saving grace, in The
Newsroom at least, is
the vague sense of self-awareness that permits him to have characters
dryly undermine some of the impassioned speeches he's so fond of
writing, but that's hardly enough to excuse his prolix
self-indulgence.
Steeped
in cloying nostalgia for a non-existent epoch of American
“greatness”, The
Newsroom is just another
Sorkin fantasy populated by idealised heroes who can barely get
through a sentence without trumpeting their integrity.
The
only highlight is Daniels, whose flinty charisma transcends the
material, although British actress Emily Mortimer is miscast as his
idealistic producer and – wouldn't you know it? - former lover.
Sorkin's “sassy” dialogue sounds particularly excruciating when
delivered by her. What's more, he completely fails to capture the
surging excitement of a crack newsroom breaking a major corporate
scandal - a rather significant failing given that that's the backbone
of his story. Quite simply, it doesn't work on any level.
Whenever
Sky Atlantic isn't busy importing disappointing HBO dramas, it likes
to concern itself with producing vehicles for talented comedians that
very few viewers will actually watch. Their latest is ADAM
BUXTON'S BUG, a straightforward
adaptation of his popular series of live shows in which he plays
innovative music videos, and parodies the comments left beneath them
online.
On
paper it sounds like the laziest idea in the world – cheap TV writ
small – until you factor in Buxton's natural wit and charm.
Sarcastic but never cruel, his mockery of the pompous, insensitive
and grammatically wayward idiots who congregate on the bottom half of
the internet feels entirely justified, especially when tempered with
a pleasing assault of childish silliness.
Mostly
stationed behind his laptop throughout, Buxton displays a near heroic
willingness to
behave
as stupidly as possible in the pursuit of laughs. A sunny riot of
daft voices, songs, and tortuous puns, he's an underrated clown who
deserves to be better known. Sadly, I doubt that this slight yet
often very funny show will bring him that attention.
Finally,
Sky once again attempts to establish itself as a producer of
homegrown drama, this time with a twelve-part adaptation of SINBAD.
Billed as a family show, although evidently aimed squarely at
children, it's an energetic yet curiously humourless fantasy
adventure in which our sea-faring hero battles mediocre villains and
unconvincingly rendered CGI monsters. And despite its target
audience, it's surprisingly violent and nasty in places. Hardly the
stuff of nightmares, perhaps, but the tone is inconsistent.
What's
more, with his slippers, culottes and eyeliner, the young actor
playing Sinbad looks more like a crestfallen underwear model on a gap
year than a hardy adventurer. He isn't bad exactly, just bland.
Filmed
on location in Malta, it tries its best to position itself as an
epic, but ultimately lacks that all-important sense of wonder. All
the key elements are in place -
from
soothsayers babbling portentous nonsense to dramatic rooftop chases
and acres of skulduggery – but that's the fundamental problem: it
all feels very familiar. But it may well capture the attention of
some of the younger viewers who actually tune in to watch it. Good
luck with that, Sky.
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