Even the star of HBO's drama The Newsroom admits that season one had its growing pains.
Creator Aaron Sorkin's show-about-a-news-show was last year's TV series most likely to be hated, or loved - or one that viewers actually loved to hate. On the hate side were some of those of the conservative-political variety and many, if not more, television critics of every variety; on the other side were the series' devoted fans - albeit a group that shrank considerably between the time the show debuted and the series' season one finale.
"Season one, we're guessing," noted actor Jeff Daniels, who portrays the show's central character, cable-news anchorman Will McAvoy. "It's like a first draft. So, for Aaron, he's trying to figure out how to write for me. We're trying to figure out who Will is, who [Will's executive producer] MacKenzie is. Where does the show work, where would it go, what's the direction? So, you almost need a season to figure that out. I think we guessed right quite a lot. But coming into season two, it's like we own it."
Daniels, Sorkin and nearly all of The Newsroom staff gathered on Wednesday night on the Paramount lot for a premiere party celebrating the series' first second season episode, which screens in New Zealand on Sunday. Oddly enough, at once, the opener reveals plenty, and plenty of nothing, about what to expect from the second season.
"We kind of play a lot of the cards right at the beginning," explained executive producer Alan Poul. "But we're actually holding back a lot. The idea was not to make the season about what will happen with the big story ... but, rather, how did this happen? How did this become such a mess?"