Eastbound & Down returns for a fourth season

I hear that HBO is ordering a fourth season of the Danny McBride comedy, Eastbound & Down. The late renewal of the politically-incorrect comedy comes a day after the official announcement from the cable network about the renewal of vampire drama True Blood and the new Aaron Sorkin show, The Newsroom.

Although Eastbound & Down‘s third season was said to be the last one (as was also discussed in the show’s panel during last year’s Paley Fest), HBO has decided it wanted more of the Will Ferrel-Danny McBride show, which attracted a little more than 1 million viewers each week during its third season.

Eastbound & Down‘s theme changed from season to season, with the last season focusing on Kenny Powers dealing with raising his baby boy.

The show will return for an eight episode fourth season, maybe already in Autumn 2013 – but perhaps also later. Will Ferrell is currently working on several other projects, among them the untitled Rob Riggle pilot for HBO.

News Night 2.0, the second episode of The Newsroom, still felt like a mix of genres and tone, and left me confused trying to figure out what did I just see. Was show creator Aaron Sorkin watching too many episodes of The Office, or 30 Rock, that he forgot his original idea for the show? Everything was very much predictable on last night’s episode, but still, in between all the bad moments, there were a few, too few, relatively good bits. My episode review follows…

What just happened (episode summary): The tech-guy presents a new email system; Mackenzie reveals accidentaly to the entire company the reason for the breakup between her and Will – against his request; Will is revenging by destroying the show; Maggie decides to stay on News Night; Her relationship with Don is not the greatest, and things are heating up between her and Jim.

How it happened (the chatty TV critic): After watching two episodes of The Newsroom my opinion is that this should not have been developed as a one hour drama. First, it becomes very quickly tedious with all the talking, and the predictable dramas that leaves no air for the audience to do any processing. Every tiny detail is revealed, like it was in itself a news report. Well, if I wanted real news I’d watch something else other than HBO. Second reason this might have worked better in a different format, is the tone. Too many times Sorkin is trying, awkwardly, to make us laugh. Should we believe these characters or are they out of proportions? I’d accept them better in a comedy, but here they look most of the time pathetic, neurotic, almost crazy.

In the beginning of the episode Will is asking his EP to never reveal the real reason for their breakup. I already have guessed then that she had cheated on him – and when the new tech-guy (he has a name now, but not as easy as ‘Gary Cooper’) presents the new email technology, that sends the email to the entire company (who would agree to such a thing? In a news company?) – the way the story rolls from here is pretty much predictable.

The news this week were about illegal immigrants, but it was almost not important. No,this week the personal drama was the focus. Besides the Will/Mackenzie plot there was the Meggie-Don-Jim thing, with Meggie failing a job, Jim covering for her, Don offering her a position on the 10 O’clock show, she’s refusing, breaking up with Don, half-crying to Jim, who makes a remark about her relationship with Don, and then sends her to Don’s place to do what she has to do (say sorry for something).

So Jim is such a great guy, Will is not an ass, and only the girls are a bunch of confused bitches. And this is a prime-time drama on HBO. Oh, damn.

What are we left with: Where can it go from here? Will the news come to the front, or will we still have to watch the predictable drama ahead of us? Wait, it’s old news, so I guess there’s not much option anyway. It’s all very predictable, so I guess we will watch the Will/Mackenzie relationship goes all directions (other potential partners, jealousy, some painful truth, a comeback, and again), as well as Jim-Meggie-Don (but their story is almost more interesting, with Don’s new show a potential real battle element between the three).

Honestly, this show is not good enough in anyway (should I mention again the horrible soundtrack?), but thanks to the performances it is watchable. So I keep watching, for now.

Episode Info: The episode premiered July 1 on HBO. It was directed by Alex Graves.

Aaron Sorkin’s new series on HBO, The Newsroom, has premiered lastnight. I was pretty curious to see how this turns out, especially after reading some mixed early reviews about the show.  Although there were moments in which I thought that the tone is not clear, and other moments where I thought the whole thing was too chatty, or too naive, with horrible soundtrack, I must say I liked it most of the time – even if I’m not sure I liked the way Sorkin meant for me to like it.

The first episodeof the series, We Just Decided To, still felt too much like the preview for theshow most of the time. But I’ll keep watching it for the time being – and my review follows…

What just happened (episode summary): Will McAvoy is assigned a new team for his news show, and he’s not happy with it. Especially since his new EP, Mackenzie MacHale, is his ex-girlfriend. When the oil in the gulf explodes, the new team beats the challenge.

How it happened (the chatty TV critic): Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels), is the host of a news show, and is known as ‘a man with no opinion’, Jay-Leno-style. But when he thinks he sees his ex-girlfriend Mackenzie MacHale (Emily Mortimer) in the audience in a talk show he’s on, he loses it. Giving a bursting monologue on how America “is not the greatest country” (what is the American obsession with being “the most” of anything anyway? I thought of it while watching Girls‘ season finale last week – how Hannah said she was “the most afraid person” or something – and could this obsession be related to the “every man to himself” point of view which was discussed on this premiere episode of The Newsroom, as well as served the theme on Mad Men‘s fifth season?) – leaving everyone shocked and/or amused, McAvoy takes a two week vacation – and returns to a new reality.

His boss, Charlie Skinner (the wonderful Sam Waterston, that serves here as the “comic relief” in most of his scenes), has appointed him a new team – including a new EP which is his ex-girlfriend. She brings her team with her, and the first half of the episode Will fights his boss and her on the new plans they’ve made for him.

It started to feel slightly tedious, even before it got predictable. The performances helped to keep me engaged, that’s true, but besides that, up until the moment where the news alert blinked on the screen – I thought that The Newsroom needs more material to work with.

The supporting characters where good – but not as good as theyneeded to be, based on the mask the leadwas wearing. Jim Harper (played by John Gallagher, Jr) and Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski) were OK, although I didn’t like the easy way in which they became the good vs. bad characters, let alone the fact that now they are both in a way interested inthe same girl – Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill) – which made me even more upset, since every female chrarcter on the show (to this moment) is someone’s love interest.

Does McAnzey buys the mask Will puts on? Because it seems so, based on the scene at the end of the episode, when she reminds him about the first time he met her parents, telling him ‘you probably don’t remember’, just to find out he remembers every detail of that evening. Or was this just her tactic to make him take off that mask for a second? Either way this last scene felt like a fake, and perhaps something like that can pass as half-reliable on the show’s first episode, but if The Newsroom has more such scenes – it’s going to be a major problem.

What are we left with: Will has a new TV show now, and so far it’s doing well.
But does he know the direction in which he’s going. Or in other words: Aaron Sorkin has a slot on HBO. But does he know what kind of ashow he’s tryingto give us? Am I supposed to be flattered by the way he’s dealing with old news (although sometimes still relevant), such as the oil story, seeing the show as more ‘real’? Is he trying to say something real? And why did I keep thinking about The Office while watching the scenes between Mackenzie, Maggie, Don nad Jim? Should Maggie be called Pam?
Episode Info: The episode aired June 24 on HBO. It was written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Greg Mottola.

HBO The Newsroom - series trailer

Can you think of a better time for The Newsroom to premiere? The world is going through so much lately, and the news are telling us so little. The Newsroom focuses on Will McAvoy – anchor of the News Night program on ACN, a fictional news network. Can The Newsroom reflect on real events from our present, or will it hide behind the curtains of the past?

The Newsroom premieres June 24 at 10PM.

In the pilot episode, Will is forced to contend with a new team after his co-anchor lands a new program and takes most of his staff with him.

HBO has released four different trailers for the new series. Watch them below: