THE NEWSROOM!!!!!

I am so excited! Today I recieved my DVDs for The Newsroom: Season 1 and 2. I've been meaning to get these for a while and now I can share their genius with my wife.

A Canadian sitcom, The Newsroom was one of best shows to appear on television anywhere. A bold statement I know but there you have it. Closest comparisons would be BBC's The Office and Garry Shandling's The Larry Sanders Show and as good as both were (especially The Office) neither can match The Newsroom's lethal blend of brilliant writing, impeccable acting and blacker than black deadpan humor.

Set at a CBC-like (Canadian Broadcasting Channel) news station, it follows news producer George Findlay (series creator Ken Finkleman), a man who is utterly immoral and cravenly narcisstic. He heads up a department of likeable but equally corrupt writers, news anchors and production staff who engage in a Machiavellian game of office politics. Scathingly funny and unabashedly irreverant, the show ends up revealing far more about the news industry than you might think.

The show's dialogue is a writer's dream, filled with the kind of fast-paced straight-faced wit you rarely (if ever) see on American television. Shot in a quasi-documentary style (later adopted by The Office) it is also blissfully free of a laughtrack.

A third season has recently been released on DVD and I can't wait to get that as well.

Trust me, if you like your humor smart, brutal and black, The Newsroom will chew its way into your heart and never let go. I can't recommend it enough. To order a copy, go here.