The paragon of modern television HBO may be a little late releasing its fall season premiers in November, but its content is so superior that it’s well worth the wait. Sunday night saw the return of three different series, all at different periods in their longevity; one is on the way out, one has just been renewed for a second season and the last has thankfully been resurrected from syndication for a long-overdue second season. Before embarking on these new seasons, here are some refreshers of where the characters have been and what to expect from them in their upcoming episodes:
“The Newsroom” (Season 3 — “Boston”)
Aaron Sorkin has never been shy about sharing his liberal ideologies with audiences, but his newsy drama about the ethics of modern journalism may have been too preachy for viewers to digest. Now ending the series with a short, six-episode finale, Sorkin begins by having the ACN cable-network team reporting on the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings. Still licking their wounds from season 2 after airing a scandalous story without verifying its validity, Jeff Daniel’s Will McAvoy and his team quarrel over how they will proceed with covering late-breaking news. Though at times blatantly biased, Sorkin’s exploration of an industry’s relevancy is still packed with enough intellect and wit that’s worth a final viewing.
“Getting On” (Season 2 — “No Such Thing as Idealized Genitalia”)
When this delightful dark comedy debuted last November, it mostly flew under the radar with its quick six-episode run of hilarious satire. Returning for another six episodes, the show continues to follow the messy unmentionables of a hospital’s geriatric ward. Identifying the absurd, bureaucratic trials that come with dying of old age, the characters of this workplace comedy teeter between showing compassion and following corporate protocol. Caught in awkward situations such as telling an elderly couple they can’t have sex in the hospital waiting room, the cast of versatile characters is expected to keep up this cumbersome humor in the coming season.
“The Comeback” (Season 2 — “Valerie Makes a Pilot”)
The unaware narcissism of washed-up sitcom star Valerie Cherish finally returns to HBO after being prematurely cancelled back in 2005. Lisa Kudrow’s brilliant character study of Hollywood’s fame-mongers was a satire of reality television during its first season, and was perhaps too ahead of its time for an industry that had not yet seen the dehumanizing debacles of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” The show picks up with Cherish still attempting a comeback by trying to get cast on a prestigious HBO series with Seth Rogen, who guest stars as himself. Filled with the same post-modernistic, self-referential humor of its first season, the cult followers of the show should be delighted to see how Cherish will continue making a fool of herself almost a decade later.
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