Watching: A great scripted newsroom drama
A thoughtful Australian newsroom drama
Dear Watchers,"The Morning Show" is set to return to Apple TV+ in just about a month, but if you're looking for an immediate hit of scripted TV news drama, try the Australian import "The Newsreader," on AMC+. The series, now in its second season, stars Anna Torv of "Mindhunter" and Sam Reid of "Interview With the Vampire." Their performances are the anchors of the show, which is most successful as a heartbreaking character study of two deeply repressed, wildly ambitious TV news journalists in the 1980s. In Season 1, Helen Norville (Torv) is the glamorous newscaster for Melbourne's News at Six, who is desperately trying to conceal her mental health problems and barely succeeding. She connects with Dale Jennings (Reid), at the time an eager reporter, when he saves her life after an overdose. They begin a friendship that blossoms into a romance of convenience. Their dating allows them to cover up their personal secrets — for Helen, it's her instability; for Dale, it's his desire for other men. (Homosexuality had only recently been decriminalized in Melbourne's state of Victoria.) By the time the second season starts in 1987, they are the golden couple of the news, sitting side by side at the anchor desk as the country prepares for its bicentennial the next year. Like "The Morning Show" and Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom," "The Newsreader" is a show in which fictional characters often cover real historical events. The series is at its best when its journalists are reporting on real-life topics that are regionally specific — like the mass shooting known as the Hoddle Street massacre — because they affect the characters on a deeper level, letting their anxieties seep into their work. Still, it's the personal drama that drives "The Newsreader." Helen and Dale do truly love each other, but that love is largely platonic and at least partly a means of self-preservation. As Dale blossoms as a television personality, he swallows his true nature, his sweet awkwardness turning into something more mechanized and ruthless. Torv, on the other hand, leads with Helen's passion, making them a fascinatingly mismatched pair. Season 1 is already streaming. The first two episodes of Season 2 are available now, with new episodes arriving on Thursdays. Also this week
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