Review: The Newsroom Episode 1 - "We Just Decided To"

Review by Randy May

First off, if you haven't seen the pilot for The Newsroom that aired last Sunday, here's the trailer.

If you're thinking, "Man that looks great! It's too bad I don't have HBO." Good news, HBO has made the first episode available for free right here!

I'm gonna start off by saying two things. The first is that I love this show! It's been a while since I've been this excited about anything on TV. The second is that I don't review movies, at least not like most people do. So bear with me as I freight train through why I think Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom will be the greatest show on television right now.

Why is America the greatest country in the world?

It's not...but it can be.

This idea hits us like a punch in the mouth in the opening scene of the pilot episode. Through Jeff Daniels' superb performance and Aaron Sorkin's engaging spitfire dialogue, the notion that we are a people who were once great but lost sight of our potential somewhere along the way will no doubt carry on throughout the rest of this season as the over arching theme that ties together not only the struggles of the characters but also the hopes, fears, and projections of those watching.

It's not hard to see the similarities between this grand theme and the personal struggles of Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). It's clear through his intensely entertaining back and forth with former love Mackenzie MacHale (Emily Mortimer) that this man was great, greater, in fact, when the two of them were together. And just as McAvoy finds the United States to be lacking as of late, he just might be realizing that he and the country are in solidarity.

Performances are fantastic all around but a few stand out above the rest. Maggie Jordon (Alison Pill) and Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.), the seeming Jim and Pam of the show, are wonderful to watch, along with the man in between them, Don (Thomas Sadoski).  However, the most enjoyable character by far is Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston). The guy's hilarious. His character- brilliant!  Extremely funny and yet very wise.

Sorkin is at the top of his game. The writing is smart and funny with dialogue so fast and loose it's a blast to keep up with.  He has created an amazing ensemble of characters that stick with us long after the show is over.  As far as pilots go, this might be the best I've seen. It's an incredibly powerful beginning to what will no doubt be another strong addition to HBO's lineup. 

I'm very excited for what the future holds for Will McAvoy but even more so, I'm excited to see how we as an audience react.

What did you think of The Newsroom? Write your quick thoughts and profound discoveries in the comments below!

Review: Zombies, Run!

Review by Daniel Nenadovic

In Episode 1 - Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut Part 1, I briefly mentioned Zombies, Run! It is an iOS fitness app that ties zombies together with exercise. Most of that works well. But the game - I think it's fair to call it a game - is just short of being perfect for what it is.

Zombies, Run! functions by treating you as Runner 5. While you're walking or running, the game puts you in the role of one of Abel Township's 'runners' whose jobs involve carrying out various vital tasks that involve old-fashioned foot travel, of which there are many considering the zombie apocalypse situation. You'll run to notify nearby towns of incoming zombie hordes, walk to find a lost child, and move to escape swarms of zombies that have caught your scent. 

During exercise, the game plays out entirely through your headphones with fantastic voice-overs and sound effects, so you won't be distracted fumbling with your iOS device (at least not on the game's account). These audio sequences are interspersed around music tracks from your playlist every five or ten minutes, so you'll get an audio sequence, a song or two, another audio sequence, more songs, etc. until you've finished the mission. It's important to note that the game takes place in Britain or something, so everybody has awesome British accents. As Runner 5, you will collect various items and supplies during travel missions, but even here the game requires no distracting input from you. Instead, a computerized voice simply announces the collection of a new item.

That computerized voice is the game's biggest - and possibly only - problem. It's not very clear and speaks far too quickly, so sometimes you'll have no idea what it is your character picked up until you arrive home and look at your inventory on the screen. The voice is jarring and annoyingly unclear; that's also forgivable, but it's the one notch that keeps this game from perfection in my eyes.

In this way, Zombies, Run! is not so much a traditional game as it is a type of ARG, and even then its interactivity during exercise is not that high. The voice-overs are more like stories that play out around you. If you have Zombie Chases enabled, the game will occasionally tell you that you need to speed up for a while, which does increase interactivity and serves as a fun form of interval training.

Most missions will run you 30 minutes or so. After that, the game kicks into radio mode, which is entertaining on its own. While the music it plays is still your own playlist, those tracks are interrupted by two radio personalities with humorous and insightful banter that keeps you in the mindset of a zombie apocalypse survivor for the remainder of your walk or run.

It's after you're back home cooling off that Zombies, Run! becomes more of a traditional game. You'll get to manage the items and supplies you've collected through a simple interface and use those supplies to upgrade Abel Township's facilities, which can unlock new missions. Codex entries unlock during missions and can also make for some fun at-home reading to keep yourself absorbed in the world of the game. Some of them also encourage ARG-type interactions. So far, I've been linked to Twitter accounts and even prompted to e-mail a shady (fictional) terrorist organization who might know something about the zombie incident that started it all.

There are some glaring omissions. I've yet to find a map of my real-life route anywhere in the app and it doesn't provide much information on the actual walk or run itself beyond pace and total distance covered, so if you're looking for a fitness app with detailed information on your actual exercise you may want to look elsewhere.

However, if you're looking to make your runs or walks more fun and exciting, you can scarcely do better than Zombies, Run! It's a bit pricey for the App Store, coming in at $7.99, and tragically there is no 'lite' trial version to try before you buy, but eight bucks seems like a small price to pay for augmenting exercise with a zombie game. I highly recommend that you check out Zombies, Run!

Welcome to The Bard Next Door's Blog!

Hello fellow geeks, and welcome to The Bard Next Door's blog site. This will serve as a central collection resource for information and posts related to The Bard Next Door, including our weekly or biweekly podcast and numerous blog posts that go into greater depth on podcast content or cover entirely separate pieces.

In this week's inaugural episode of The Bard Next Door, Randy & Daniel discuss the upcoming Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut, due for release on June 26th. Listen to Episode 1 right here or at the feed link on the right side of this page.

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4.  Click OK.

5. iTunes will begin downloading Episode 1 of The Bard Next Door, and you can update the podcast at any time to receive new content that has been released!

UPDATE: iTunes store has approved The Bard Next Door podcast! While the above struck-out instructions will still work, you can now find and subscribe to The Bard Next Door on iTunes directly through this link or just by searching on the iTunes store!

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