The Newsroom - Recap: B.S. Meters On High Alert

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So the episode basically opens with the Red Team meeting, in which various ACN journalists attempt to find flaws in a given story, in this case the Operation Genoa piece. It's not a huge, explosive setpiece, but I found myself strangely riveted by the process, as it's an aspect of the news business that we aren't really privy to, in addition to the scene simply being well-done. Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer), Jerry (Hamish Linklater) Maggie (Alison Pill) and Neal (Dev Patel) present the story to Don (Thomas Sadoski), Jim (John Gallagher, Jr.) and Sloan (Olivia Munn), with while Charlie (Sam Waterston) observing the proceedings. Of the three members of the Red Team, Jim appears to be the most skeptical of the story, outright stating that he doesn't believe it. Mackenzie doesn't particularly have much faith in the story either, but admits that the evidence seems to line up in its favor. But she still needs more to go on, and so Mac and Charlie set up a meeting with retired Gen. Stanislaus Stomtonovich (Stephen Root), a man who may hold the key to confirming that Operation Genoa actually happened, and isn't some ridiculous fabrication forwarded by Jerry Dantana to advance his career.

Credit: HBO

In Silver Springs, Maryland, Charlie and Mac meet with Stomtonovich, a peculiar man who's not only obsessed with March Madness, but who seems to be forgetful, having completely blanked out on ACN having called him the day before to set up the meeting in the first place. However, he agrees to the interview for Jerry, so long as they keep his identity a secret. The next day, the General gets particular about the filming of the interview, refusing to allow Maggie in the room since his people never ran a background check on her, only on Jerry. With Maggie gone, the interview finally begins, yet it's not at all what Jerry expected, as Stomtonovich doesn't specifically confirm Operation Genoa. He simply speaks hypothetically about the incident. Of course, with Jerry being as ambitious as he is, he creatively edits the interview to make it seem as though the General confirmed the use of sarin gas, when that hadn't been the case at all.

The interview includes a TV showing a basketball game in the background, and I'd bet money that the game is used as evidence to show that the video was edited, thus damning Jerry and the entire ACN crew. But that hasn't happened yet, as Jerry remains the only person who was in the room with the General for the interview, thus no one can call B.S. on the tape he presents. But Charlie still isn't sold and demands another source, at which point Jerry laces into him for what he perceives as Charlie's blind love for Obama. And even though Jerry is able to get another source, in the form of a Marine once thought dead, we inevitably learn that Charlie was right to be skeptical. In the flashforwards, Charlie recounts the initial airing of the Operation Genoa segment, saying that it aired at 9:00 PM on a Sunday and brought in 6 million viewers...before quickly blowing up in their faces. “By 10:05, I knew we had a problem,” Charlie tells Rebecca (Marcia Gay Harden). “None of it was true.” In a season of solid improvements, the Operation Genoa storyline is the best addition, as it puts the ACN crew into a corner from which they can only fight their way out together. It's a dilemma that truly unites the entire ensemble in a much more substantive fashion than the romance subplots that only exist because two people can't seem to find a way to tell each other how they feel, despite the obvious feelings between them.

For instance, Don is crushing quite hard on Sloan, but refuses to tell her how he feels because she's currently dating an NFL star, and he fears he wouldn't stack up. This, despite Don already having been made aware of Sloan's feelings last season, unless he's so dense that he really did think she was just kidding around with him. Either way, the storyline just kind of stumbles along, and it's only real point of substance is in the conversation between Don and Mac, in which we learn that Don feels guilty about Maggie's situation, and Mac is aware that Will (Jeff Daniels) is dating Nina Howard (Hope Davis). But even without those tidbits, I found the scenes with Don and Mac to be enjoyable simply for how they paint two colleagues in dire, if not simply confusing, romantic straits. It also illustrates how the ACN team often draws strength from each other, and that's pretty endearing. At the very least, the storyline is brief, unlike the business with Jim and Hallie (Grace Gummer). Jim is reuniting with Hallie for dinner in the city and asks him to invite Neal so she can set him up with her friend Aubrey, a reporter for mtvU.

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Jim reluctantly agrees to the arrangement, unaware that Hallie has invited Taylor (Constance Zimmer), leading to a cringe-inducingly awkward dinner in which Jim and Taylor spend the entire night sniping at one another. Jim argues that Romney should go on networks that aren't immediately predisposed to voting for him, among other complaints, prompting Taylor to eventually admit that she's been fired from the Romney campaign. The entire night is painfully awkward, with Aubrey playing the video from the Sex and the City tour bus, with Neal eventually flipping out on her for her endorsement of Ron Paul. To make matters worse, Hallie inevitably has to leave early -- but not before being introduced to Maggie in a cordially awkward meeting at the hotal bar -- once she's informed that Romney has added another event to his calendar. Though this provides Jim the opportunity to speak with Maggie about treading lightly when discussing Operation Genoa while drinking, it's a pretty crummy night for everyone involved, as Jim goes home alone and Maggie shrugs and leaves with the bartender.

Credit: HBO

Yet even while this story did very little for me, it's far better than the business with Will and Nina Howard, which centers entirely on audience approval ratings and the strains of a relationship that's very hard to care about, in the grand scheme of things. On Nina's advice, he ends up going on ACN's silly morning show, with the intention of upping his audience approval ratings by showing off a different side, particularly his former background in football. But this only leads to a disaster in which Will knocks over a lighting rig and looks ridiculous in the process. In a furor in his dressing room, Will breaks up with Nina, and while I've enjoyed the chemistry between Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis, they became far less interesting as a couple once business entered into the relationship. Sloan ultimately is the one who brings Will back down to Earth, telling him that he should do his version of News Night, whether he gets audience approval or not. That's all well-and-good, but a ratings-driven business requires that the audience actually like Will to some degree. Or, at the very least, trust him as a source for news. But with the Operation Genoa story on the horizon, that aspect of Will's marketability might be compromised sooner rather than later.

Credit: HBO

"One Step Too Many" is mostly successful by focusing more on the implications of the Operation Genoa story, and the ways in which it unites the ACN team, than on the superfluous romantic subplots. There's a lot to explore in how these characters react to this story, and how they come together as a family, of sorts. This is The Newsroom that holds the most interest, and with the halfway point of the season already having come and gone, we're closer to seeing whether the ACN team sinks or swims in the wake of their public relations nightmare. It could be a make or break storyline for the show, but if it's handled with the aplomb of this week's episode, then it has a real chance at making this series into more of a critical success, to say nothing of its continued mainstream viability.