Jeff Daniels

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TIFF 15′ – ‘The Martian’ is sci-fi at its finest

The Martian is a fantastic movie — it cannot be stated quickly enough. Ridley Scott’s film about a man stranded on Mars after his crew evacuates without him is the director’s best work in years. The Martian features a stellar supporting cast, a well written script that’s clever and funny, and an Oscar caliber performance from a Hollywood A-lister at the top of his game.

‘Dumb and Dumber To’ isn’t too bad

Once upon a time, the Farrelly Brothers constructed sight gags capable of reaching new heights (or depths, as the case may be). Right about the time Brett Favre was murdering comedy in There’s Something About Mary, however, they abandoned their bread and butter in favor of a “comic spaghetti” approach. Meaning, they throw as many gags at the wall as possible and see what sticks. Thanks to the comic chemistry of Carrey and Daniels, Dumb and Dumber To is just sticky enough to justify its existence.

The Newsroom, Ep 2.07: “Red Team III” examines the fallout from the Genoa incident and how it affects the news team

The possible story of illegal chemical weapons being used by the US against enemy combatants has been a looming issue over the ACN team over the second season of The Newsroom, particularly as the discussions with Rebecca Halliday and her team indicate a massive failure. The first signs of the breakdown became visible in the closing moments of last week’s episode, and this week explores the full scope of the fallout from the discovery of the story’s falsehood, delivering an episode that, while not necessarily divulging any new information, nonetheless is a fascinating one that leaves several characters in interesting places by the end.

The Newsroom, Ep 2.04: “Unintended Consequences” shows the repercussions of Will’s antagonistic behaviour, while delving into Maggie’s story

One of the more intriguing aspects of The Newsroom’s second season premiere was the physical transformation of Maggie Jordan. The change, along with hints of a traumatic event, promised to pull the character out of the romantic triangle subplot she was mired in for most of the first season, and add some more dimensions in the process. This week’s episode dives into what led to the change, in a promising episode that also saw the team face their own inability to communicate well, correcting many of the downsides of last week’s episode.

The Newsroom, Ep 2.03: “Willie Pete” is the season’s first major misstep, as the show’s poor attributes are laid out for display

One of the big weaknesses of the first season of The Newsroom, alongside the poor characterisation of many of the show’s women, was the often preachy tone that would accompany storylines, as the writers often struggled to balance the show’s depiction of a fearless news team with an ability to humanise the opponents to the debate, or a portrayal of the core cast as three-dimensional characters rather than simply mouthpieces. The exploration of real-world consequences and conscience attacks suffered by the team at ACN did a lot to mitigate this issue, and while the second season premiere showed promise in further exploring this storyline, this week’s episode manages to fall down the rabbit hole once again, taking a few steps backward from a lot of character progression the show has made, and delivering an unpleasant episode this week, where the bad qualities outweighed the good.

The Newsroom, Ep 2.02: “The Genoa Tip” adds some much needed dimension to some characters, despite not living up to season premiere

The second season premiere of The Newsroom last week hinted at a major catastrophe that engulfs the station, but buried amidst the discussions of the events that led to lawyerly intervention was the question of why Will McAvoy and the news crew would take on such a volatile story in the first place. This week’s episode dives deeper into the psyche of the individuals who comprise the news team, and their emotional and psychological state leading up to the Genoa revelation, in an episode that unfortunately brings back large chunks of previously problematic storylines, but nonetheless gives a better idea of what makes certain characters tick.

The Newsroom, Ep 2.01: “First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers” emphasizes the show’s strengths and shows promise for the new season

With shows such as Sports Night and The West Wing under his belt, many people were excited to see Aaron Sorkin return to television, particularly after finding big screen success with The Social Network and Moneyball. Tackling journalism, Sorkin’s The Newsroom premiered in 2012 on HBO, with a cast that included Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, and Dev Patel, and ended up receiving uneven reviews throughout the season, with most of the audience qualms coming down on his portrayal of Mackenzie and Maggie, the two key female characters on the show, who often acted out of character when engaged in romantic entanglements, which dominated much of their storylines in the first ten episodes.

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