Everything You Need To Know To Watch Season 2 of "The Newsroom"

We'll get you workin' with Sorkin if you're rarin' for Aaron.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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That's right, the Internet's least favorite show and your NPR-loving parents' guilty pleasure is back for another season of angering Jezebel and Rush Limbaugh at the same time.

How did Aaron Sorkin achieve this impressive feat of grating the left and raising the ire of the far right simultaneously with The Newsroom? This is a complicated question. Sorkin's high-minded earnestness that was so charming in The West Wing often veers hard into sentimentality in his HBO series. The fun, flawed women clearly molded in the image of Allison Janney's immortal C.J. Craig fall victim to some misogyny that seems to have crept into Sorkin's writing with age. Sorkin's normally sharp, well-researched work is a bit dulled on The Newsroom: When he writes about the Internet, his words feel like the audio version of your dad trying to work his new iPhone. A writer known for his meticulous chronicles of baseball, social media, and the White House falls short here in a space that should feel pretty close to home.

That isn't to say you shouldn't give The Newsroom a shot. The skilled monologuing and sweeping cinematic gestures are enough to lure you in, and in sequences like Alison Pill's Sex and the City tour bus rant and Sam Waterston's tender dialogue with a flawed NSA whistle blower, you remember why Sorkin became an industry giant. Ultimately, even if you find the mixture of earnestness and cockiness that Sorkin brings to The Newsroom off-putting, you can't help but respect his clear, singular vision.

We digress. We're not here to analyze—we're here to catch you up the only way people like to be told anything on the Internet: in GIFs (We can already hear Jeff Daniels' Will McAvoy asking next season in another luddite rant this season, "What's the deal with those GIFs?"). That's right. We've condensed all of the show's monologues, walk-and-talks, and distant stares into a series of GIFs, so you can be ready for all of those season 2 Newsroom premiere parties we're sure aren't happening anywhere except for at the Sorkin residence. This is everything you need To know To watch season 2 of The Newsroom.

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This is Will McAvoy.

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He is one of the most successful news anchors in America.

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But, he is not without his flaws.

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He is difficult to work with.

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He's fairly arrogant.

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He's generally kind of a dick.

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Also, he doesn't understand the Internet.

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Like...at all.

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Seriously...at all.

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AT ALL!

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As the series begins, Will is known as the "Jay Leno of news anchors."

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This is because he cares more about getting ratings than getting news.

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He has a change of heart...

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...while belittling a college sophomore.

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McAvoy has a Network-style freak out...

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...and decides he's going to speak the truth from now on.

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Basically, he's going to take his show, News Night, from a weaker version of CNN to a more in-your-face version of MSNBC.

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He doesn't do it alone though.

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His former producer and ex-girlfriend MacKenzie McHale comes back to help lead the charge.

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Will and MacKenzie have a complicated history.

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But, they respect and love each other...

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...even if they'd never admit it.

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MacKenzie brings cute boy-next-door nerd Jim Harper in to help produce the show.

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Then she promotes girl-next-door klutz Maggie Jordan.

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And the countdown begins to when Maggie dumps her dick hotshot producer boyfriend Don for Jim.

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They even have Jim play guitar.

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Neal Sampat is an up-and-coming blogger who provides comic relief or a perspective on the immigrant experience depending on what Sorkin is feeling like that episode.

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Sloan Sabbith is brought on to do an economic round-up and provide an excuse to meet the mandatory HBO hotness quota.

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Drunken old-school executive Charlie Skinner set things in motion to put the team together.

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The team quickly starts doing hard-hitting stories and pissing off Republicans.

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You can tell they are successful because of the swelling classical music...

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...and thoughtful reaction shots.

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This is an Aaron Sorkin show after all.

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It turns out that high-minded reporting isn't always easy.

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The powers that be want to keep the news tame for advertisers and ratings.

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They even scheme to get Will fired.

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The team struggles to balance journalistic integrity with the demands of new media.

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They deal with dubious sources.

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The men have a lot of trouble not being misogynistic.

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The female characters have trouble not saying and/or doing inexplicably stupid things.

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Yeah, sometimes, the way this show deals with gender puts this expression on our face.

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Sometimes things get tense.

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Basically, the newsroom is a stressful place to work.

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Office squabbles distract the team from time to time.

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All the young staffers just can't decide who to sleep with.

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It's enough to make you want to disappear.

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Despite the challenges, the team digs deep...

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...and finds a way to do good work.

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And damn it, they report the news better than the competition.

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Why? Because they're real journalists. And they care.

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And all that's left for them to do is to try not to be too pleased with themselves.

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And now you're ready to watch season 2 of the The Newsroom.

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