So, do you remember a few weeks back when I said that this episode of The Newsroom was my favorite? Well, we’ve got a bit of a problem. That problem comes in the form of “Red Team III.” To put it simply, I was blown away by this episode. So much so that I’m still reeling from watching it. This week’s episode kind of broke the mold of going here or there for stories, as we had seen in many of the previous episodes. “Red Team III” focuses on one thing, and one thing only:
Operation Genoa.
Yes, finally. Operation Genoa. The story that has been slowly building traction over the course of the first 6 episodes of this season finally boiled over this week. All of the buildup and hype lead to the moment where the team finally decides to run the Genoa story. However, it doesn’t do the episode justice to just focus on this moment. There is so much more that happened before and after that helped to make this episode nearly flawless.
“Red Team III” starts off on the right foot with Don speaking to Rebecca and the other lawyers. As mentioned in previous reviews, my man-crush on Don is growing. He delivers more of his typical snappy dialogue that can’t help but make you laugh. Its no secret at this point that one of The Newsroom‘s strongest assets lies in its writing. The dialogue is so smart between all of the characters, but lately Don seems to really be turning it on. I’m loving basically everything he touches at this point. This also carries on with the conversation between him and Sloan during Elliot’s show. This was, by far, the funniest moment of the show tonight. I mean, Sloan had me at “You wouldn’t survive in jail, Don.”
The format of the episode was really, really well done as well. We’ve seen many of the main characters have conversations with the lawyers throughout the course of the season, but it was unique spin to have the story told through their individual conversations with the lawyers. I really liked that. This essentially culminates with Will sitting down with them. After seeing everyone else speak to them, it was good to finally see Will take on the task. Not that we really need the reminder, but it helped to show how deep in it the ACN team really is.
It was also really nice to have a scene with just Will and Mackenzie this week. I feel like we haven’t gotten that real quality time between these two in quite a long while. Will schooling Mac with some sports knowledge was a really nice and light hearted touch on an otherwise heavy episode. And ultimately, the shot clock knowledge that Will drops on Mac proves to be the way that Jerry’s negligence is uncovered.
Finally, what sealed an already fantastic episode was the last minute speech/rant from Leona (Jane Fonda). We haven’t seen much of Fonda’s character in the two seasons of the show thus far, but we all know that she is there. As head of the company, it doesn’t come as a surprise that she ends up getting involved because of Genoa, but I could have never expected the way that she closed out the episode. She was hilarious, yet deadly serious. Her emission that she loves the News Night team was a shock, but helps to lay the groundwork for where they go from here. Clearly, I’m dying to know where that is.