Home » The Newsroom Season 2 Premiere: “Second Thing We Do, Let’s Kill Maggie”

The Newsroom Season 2 Premiere: “Second Thing We Do, Let’s Kill Maggie”

by Donna Anderson
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David Pergolini already has a great review of “The Newsroom” Season 2 premier and it’s a good thing, too, because when I watched this episode I only had eyes for Maggie. She’s been a thorn in my side from the very beginning.

It was with steely resolve that I sat myself down to watch this episode. I promised myself I wasn’t going to let Maggie get to me this time, I was just gonna sit back, ignore the little blonde idiot and enjoy the show. Much to my surprise, Aaron Sorkin must have read my mind because Maggie not only had very little airtime, she also got bitch slapped – big time – in the end.

Look, it’s no secret that Aaron Sorkin either loves scrawny empty-headed women with long stringy hair or he just plain thinks women are only born to bake and breed, but most of the time his female characters at least appear to belong in the story. Maggie, on the other hand… Maggie’s just batshit whacko and sticks out like a sore thumb.

From the very beginning Maggie has been a distraction and sheer torture for me to watch. In the pilot episode she decides to assert herself and tells boyfriend, Don, that she’s not going to follow him to the 10 o’clock news, she’s going to stick with Will because she thinks he’s trying to do something good. Go, Maggie! Except…

In the very next scene she’s whining because Don can’t meet her folks for dinner and Don doesn’t make time for her and Don’s only interested because she’s handy at 2 a.m. when he needs a little something to help him relax.

Then Jim enters the scene. There’s a new guy in the newsroom and rather than focus on her work like any real, intelligent career-minded woman who’s low-man on the seniority pole would do, Maggie is torn between two lovers and she turns into a bumbling idiot whenever one of them is around. She spends the rest of the season teetering back and forth: Should I stay with Don because I’ve already invested so much in this relationship or should I go with Jim because he respects me for who I am?

I get it. Maggie’s young, and young people, women and men, make stupid relationship choices. And sometimes they even let it affect their work. But Maggie is so over-the-top screechingly ridiculous and immature it’s embarrassing to watch. No professional woman in her position should be having personal, relationship conversations with her boyfriend in the middle of an office full of people, and no professional woman in her position would.

But what really put the whack in batshit crazy whack-job was the final episode of season one. Here’s Maggie, standing in the middle of the street, rain-soaked and muddy, screeching at the top of her lungs to a busload of “Sex And The City” tourists, that reality is nothing like what you see on TV. This, I suppose, is supposed to convince us that Maggie really is intelligent and wise beyond her years, but all it really does is highlight the fact that she’s nothing but an immature, idiotic, screeching idiot.

maggie-prettyBut, wait! In the season 2 premiere we see Maggie enter the room. Her blonde hair’s gone. Now she has a grungy pixie cut, a vacant stare, she’s wearing blue jeans, boots and a sweater, and she barely utters a word. There are hints that she witnessed some unspeakable atrocities while covering a story in Uganda but that’s not the best part of this episode.

Next, Maggie confronts Jim – again, in the middle of the newsroom – and asks him if he feels awkward seeing her at work now. To which Jim replies, “It’s only awkward because you want it to be.” Which she does. Maggie is so hoping that Jim is pining away for her just as much as she’s pining away for him, but it’s her fault they’re in this predicament. Thankfully, Jim doesn’t let her off the hook.

But here’s the best part: Don and Maggie are now living together and Maggie’s cousin has a crush on Don. Not only that, she knows Maggie really doesn’t love Don, Maggie loves Jim. So she sends Don a link to a YouTube video recorded by one of the tourists on that Sex And The City tour bus. A video of Maggie shouting, “And mostly, when you fall for a guy and he’s going out with your best friend, it doesn’t work out!”

Don, the good guy who thinks he’s a bad guy so he works extra hard to be a good guy but sometimes screws it up because he’s trying too hard, tells Maggie it’s over, he’s going to a hotel, she can have the apartment, and she should call Jim. And then he walks out the door.

And Maggie. Sobs. Silently. Finally! Thank you, Mr. Sorkin.

Donna Anderson has many interests, so she writes about lots of things for lots of different websites.  The best way to keep up with her?  Follow her on Twitter @SheWritesaLot or send her an email at danderson1959@gmail.com .  You’ll be glad you did!

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5 comments

Sparty May 4, 2014 - 8:50 pm

Maggie often annoys me too (though I ultimately find myself rooting for her), but i have to disagree about your comment on Aaron Sorkin’s portrayal of women. I think Mac and Sloan are great female characters. CJ Cregg and Abigail Bartlet from West Wing, Dana from Sports Night, Jordan and Harriet from Studio 60, none of them could be considered “scrawny empty headed women” or “born to bake and breed”. I will say that his casts tend to be a little male-heavy, but I think the lead roles he does write for women have been mostly fantastic.

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Donald Santiago July 29, 2013 - 7:48 pm

I watch this show in spite of Maggie. Her character does nothing but inflict pain on the audience and if the show does not last, she will be the reason it failed.

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Opinion8ted July 29, 2013 - 3:34 am

Thank you! Sorry all Maggie-fans but any woman with a presumable IQ who works in a male-dominated corporate space (‘male dominated’ being somewhat redundant since all corporate spaces are male dominated) has learned how to steer the mind numbing ass hats who will inevitably hit on you off her romantic radar. Her teenage angst and inability to manage men just perpetuates this bullsh*t male POV that women bumble around obsessing over any man at arms length. I love Sorkin as a writer and am actually a huge Newsroom but he only portrays women in the extremes: either cold power-loving sexless figures or ditsy muttering idiots who can’t get a grip on reality at the scent of a potential boyfriend.

Reality check, if a gal has gone far enough to get the job from the idiots making the rules, she’s an probably a fearless social shark. In fact, a female reporting assistant would probably be too busy being 10x better than a man in that position for her to have gotten the job in the first place, that she doesn’t have the time to pine over relationship scenarios and ideate dilemmas for her to have anxiety attacks over. In fact most of us would rather get punched in the throat than get socially involved w/ a coworker after dealing with endless insecure cock waving 7 hours a day ;) wee!

But hey-maybe if the network was MTV and she was an intern??

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Leafmantoo July 18, 2013 - 6:40 pm

Wow…no Maggie love here! She is the bomb and is far from a “scrawny empty-headed (woman) with long stringy hair”. She is young…and foolish…but that goes with the territory. She is undervalued by those she works with and has so much more to offer but doesn’t get any voice.

Long live Maggie…and I look forward to finding out why she has changed so much in season two…Live on Maggie…Live on.

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Donna Anderson July 19, 2013 - 6:18 pm

Hey, Leafmantoo! She might get more respect in the newsroom if she’s stop screeching, whining, and discussing her personal affairs in front of everyone.

Maybe it’s a woman thing. I get tired of seeing women portrayed as man-hungry idiots.

But I agree to disagree :) Just nice to meet another fan of the show. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

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