January 2015 Television Reviews

The Newsroom: The Complete Second Season
HBO Home Entertainment
Street: 11.04.14
If you’ve already seen the first season of The Newsroom, you’ll be happy to hear that, as a whole, the second season of the show is a definite improvement—just understand that nothing will ever be better than the first eight minutes of the original pilot episode and you’ll be fine. As the “news” within the show deals with real events from the recent past, this season starts in August 2011 and peruses through the Occupy Wall Street movement, a military operation called “Operation Genoa” and the Benghazi attack before finishing on the 2012 Presidential Election. With plenty of character development amongst the lead and supporting roles, the Newsroom crew really starts to come together here—spiraling into a proper Good-Night-and-Good-Luck-style news team. I’ve often described this show as “Liberal Porn,” and I stand by that depiction. The Newsroom is everything we truly need from journalism: honesty, integrity, ethics, truth, morals and Jeff Daniels’ smashing good looks. It embraces the frustration with American stupidity while acknowledging the difficulty of paying some fucking attention. If only we could just get people to stop watching “Faux News” and start being informed citizens. Maybe we should bring Edward R. Murrow back from the dead and have him rain down firm principles onto the world via the Twitter account @UndeadRMurrow. –John Ford

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 7
Paramount
Street: 12.02.14
It’s hard to imagine that the TNG series has been off the air for over 20 years, being the major piece of media that rekindled the Star Trek fanbase outside of the film series. The final season of the show brought home a number of storylines, experimented with storytelling and gave us one of the biggest season-ending episodes in television history. One of the biggest additions to this the Blu-Ray edition is the color, as syndication has always made the show appear to be washed out or murky. Now you can see color down to the finest details and appreciate the set and costumes for what they’re worth. The added bonuses of deleted scenes, retrospectives, audio commentaries, promos and other materials give you a greater perspective of what it was like working on the set and the hard work and dedication that went into every episode. Very rarely would I recommend going back and replacing all your DVDs with a Blu-Ray edition, but in this case, the changeover is vital! –Gavin Sheehan

Star Trek: The Next Generation – All Good Things
Paramount
Street: 12.09.14
For those of you looking for a single release in the Star Trek canon rather than buying complete seasons, this may be one of the few must-own episodes up there with “The Best Of Both Worlds” and “Unification.” “All Good Things” is the series-ending episode to The Next Generation, showcasing the primary antagonist from the show’s debut, Q. The story still holds up, even as a standalone piece, given new life in the graphics and sound to really bring the episode to life. The downside of this particular episode is that you’re gaining nothing new that you didn’t already have if you bought the Season 7 blu-ray. In fact, the menu sections and options are a direct rip from that disc, which strips away any special identity to the release itself. If you’re a fan and you’re only seeking out the one episode, this is your purchase; if you want more, spend the extra cash on Season 7. –Gavin Sheehan