'The Newsroom' Season 2 Premier Gets Mixed Reviews

Aaron Sorkin’s political-journalism drama, "The Newsroom," had its second-season debut on HBO last night, and reaction was mixed.

Salon.com says that the new season is "much-improved and shockingly relevant," while Flavorwire saw something different, noting that the premier "brought us a little bit of new and a whole lot of old."

As evidence of the show’s continuing tendency to ramble on a bit, actor Rainn Wilson observed via Twitter that "I can knit an entire pot holder over the course of The Newsroom's title sequence."

In other mixed-review news, The Huffington Post says, "Most of the show's biggest problems are still big problems. It is, however, a mild improvement on the depths the first season could sink to," and Mother Jones says that seaon 2 is "not an unpardonable train wreck like season 1."

Season 2 of "The Newsroom" picks up, via flashbacks, where the first season left off, just after anchorman Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) broadcast a rant in which he referred to the Tea Party as "the American Taliban." From there, the plot delves into the rant's aftermath; events are set in 2011, during the early stages of the presidential election campaign.

Sorkin’s past shows, including "The West Wing" and the short-lived "Sports Night," have been, in general, praised by critics, but the first season of "The Newsroom" was much less enthusiastically received. Criticisms of the show included its wordy-to-the-point-of-tiresome dialogue, its political preachiness and its lack of admirable female characters.

Loyal fans of Sorkin’s work, however, have affection for "The Newsroom,"and last season’s finale drew a respectable 2.8 million viewers (which was less than half the number of viewers, however, who watched the finale of "True Blood" later the same night).

If you missed the season 2 premiere of 'The Newsroom', click here to watch it now!