There is so much to love about The Newsreader. To me it is the best and most truthful drama series in recent years. While it has great entertainment qualities - humour, 1980's retro cuteness, understated yet resonating scripts, fast moving action, clever interweaving of real news to propel the plot - it also has wonderful recognisable characters that invite us to care deeply for them even as they make mistakes or sabotage themselves. The lead characters Helen and Dale are brilliantly played by Anna Torv and Sam Reid. I notice a few of the reviews try to reduce these characters to the 'difficult career woman' or the 'repressed gay' and appear to diminish their value accordingly. I suspect these responses reveal more about the reviewers' biases however than a more balanced interest in these characters as human beings. To me Helen and Dale are convincing and nuanced and very human. Of course The Newsreader has other characters who deserve our sympathies and cheering! Congratulations to the scriptwriters, the director, the sublime actors, the costume and set designers, the editors and researchers. I so hope there is a second and third series.
Review of The Newsreader
