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The Newsroom Season 1 Episode 7

5/1

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 8/5/12

While the staff is busy celebrating their one-year anniversary party,Charlie gets an anonymous tip about an upcoming televised speech by the president, prompting the "News Night" staff to switch gears and focus on what it could possibly be.

TV.com Episode Review

The Newsroom: Getting High On Your Own Supply

"5/1" had some great moments, but ultimately it felt like an episode that crutched itself on the real world's news, rather than simply using it for inspiration.

By Alex Navarro, Aug 07, 2012

Fan Episode Reviews (6)

Oh, kagan2009....

6.5

By LauraUlian, 3 days ago

First off, this is a review, but it's also difficult to write as I can't stop shaking my head. I was 'almost ' with you, kagan2009 until you say they couldn't be 'blown up' like that. The towers collapsed under their own weight because two planes flew into them. And yes, planes explode when they crash. An average Boeing 737 burns about 1500-2500 pounds of fuel in one hour alone. Lots of fuel + lots of sure even you can manage to figure that out. Then you went on and made your hypocritical idiocy worse by saying 'atomic bomb' inside the core of the towers'. There is no such thing as a small nuclear explosion. Even the smallest atomic explosion would have leveled the buildings, along with a good chunk of New York. If you'd just said 'bomb', you might have maintained some smudge of credibility.

You topped it all off by saying 'do some research and don't be a sheep'. Well, I'm sure there's a lot of sheep in your country--and a lot of non-sheep. Sheep are everywhere. Been to Sweden? But I can't quite figure out if you're a very inexperienced internet troll or just really, really stupid. And it's 'Osama Bin Laden'. Really. I'm leaning towards troll, but for the sake of those who don't know what those are or are immune to their 'wiles' (sorry, I meant boredom and no direction in always get those two mixed up), I'm just stating it.

I'm not even American. I hate propaganda in all of its forms. I'm confident I'm intelligent enough to spot (and ignore) it in favour of the things I do love about the show, which is Aaron Sorkin's style, the dimensional characters and amazing acting.

As bad as the cheese and forced melodrama was in this particular episode, it still tackled the themes it has been portraying all along: altruism and honesty inside an obvious corporate-owned media. Yes, it was blatantly intended to inspire patriotism in the most mind-sucking ways, but I don't buy into it. Not because I'm not American, but because I know what they're doing and I don't care.

This show is as much about the characters as it is about its forced premise. I'm giving it a fair score because it had elements of greatness and elements of 'ugh' in equal parts. Review the episode based on its highs as much as its lows, dang it. If you're going to ignore the performances and the excellent editing, the sense of presence and drama, then you're as bad as the worst tabloid 'writers' who cut out 1/2 of the facts or more just to get attention.

Or hey, don't be realistic. I'm a person writing a comment on a website, not the CIA.moreless
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shame on you writers and producers

1.0

By kagan2009, Sep 26, 2012

watching this episode and seeing that all the viewers were taken for a fool about 9/11, i completely lost my respect for the show. maybe some of you still blind for the obvious truth about 9/11 attacks; it wasn't organised by usama bin laden but it was organised by the people that want usa to declare war on middle east. and twin towers couldn't be blown up with two planes crashing like that, there was an atomic bomb inside the core of the towers. do some research don't be a sheepmoreless
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Awful just awful

2.5

By I_M100, Aug 10, 2012

Aaron Soarkin needs to lay off the cheese. I don't know what was worst Charlie's schmultzy speech, Don's ridiculous announcement to the pilots or the endless absurd saga of Jim, Maggie and Maggie's best friend (and isn't Maggie just a seriously sucky friend?!). I also think this episode highlighted just how at fault the show's premise is - building a plotline around old news. No tension, no drama, don't care. One can only hope Soarkin firing his entire writing staff was a good thing...moreless
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Biggest news in a generation ruined by girl drama

3.5

By AkumaHu, Aug 08, 2012

One of the greatest news moment in our generation (potentially) and this episode was almost perfect in its balance of emotion, drama and patriotism. This episode was kind of a great representation of what my night was like on that day. From one friend calling me to turn on the news because we killed Bin Laden to myself calling/telling many other people to turn on the news. It is without a doubt that most people knew what the news was before the president walked down the hallway.

Now onto the part of the episode that successfully ruined what could have been one of the greatest episode of the show... Maggie. I am progressively disliking Maggie more and more. What is Aaron Sorkin (or whoever is contributing idea for her character) thinking? Now I can proudly say that I am friends with many smart women, who albeit can be socially awkward. However even at their worst moment, they would not have done what Maggie did. She riles me up so much, that I am actually having a hard time enjoying the rest of the show. Please! Someone do something about her!moreless
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I was afraid of this...

3.0

By Filly, Aug 06, 2012

I was very much in love with this show, but after last night I wanna start seeing other shows. Maybe some realtime news events should be skipped. Its actually funny to make a show about carefully timing and basicly molding the news to its audience, just to go and put a story together around falsefied facts. This show could've actually touched upon the many unanswered questions surrounding 9/11/01, but they decided to just run some propaganda as if war/conflict is some kind of American sport.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Jeff Daniels	Will McAvoy
Emily Mortimer	Mackenzie MacHale
John Gallagher Jr.	Jim Harper
Alison Pill	Maggie Jordan
Olivia Munn	Sloan Sabbith
Dev Patel	Neal Sampat

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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David Harbour	Elliot Hirsch	Guest Star
Terry Crews	Lonny Church	Guest Star
Kelen Coleman	Lisa Lambert	Guest Star
Adina Porter	Kendra James	Recurring Role
Chris Chalk	Gary Cooper	Recurring Role
Margaret Judson	Tess Westin	Recurring Role

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- Original International Air Dates:
  Czech Republic: September 10, 2012 on HBO
  Turkey: October 28, 2012 on CNBC-e
  Germany: December 13, 2012 on Sky Atlantic HD
  Finland: May 7, 2013 on YLE TV1
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