The first season of "The Newsroom" almost quite literally lives up to its title: it hardly ventures from the confines of the ACN building to tell its stories. In this second effort, however, show runner Aaron Sorkin broadens the horizons a bit, and to generally better results.
Whereas in the first season each episode was based around a single news event, here there is a basic thoroughfare for all nine installments: ACN's uncovering of a story about the potential use of Sarin gas by the U.S. military on civilians. Not only does this give the season an arc that the freshman effort lacked, but the plot line itself is a great examination of how stories should (or shouldn't) be vetted.
But whereas in the first season that might have been the whole ball of wax, this time other satellite stories take our favorite cast members to new locales. For example...
-Maggie (Alison Pill) takes a trip to Africa (which produces the best single episode of the show thus far).
-Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) covers the Romney 2012 presidential campaign, where he meets Hallie (Grace Gummer), a kindred spirit (and perhaps even a bit more).
-The boundaries are pushed in the news center itself, what with Don (Thomas Sadoski) and Sloan (Olivia Munn) exhibiting some chemistry together.
One of my biggest complaints from season one was what I felt to be an over-reliance on goofy or slapstick humor, often abruptly changing the tone from a serious or important moment almost instantly. That instinct is tempered a bit this go-round, and thus a star improvement in my ranking.
That being said, "The Newsroom" is still too reliant on cutesy dialogue/wordplay and the S2 finale really let me down (up until that final episode, I was probably more on 8 stars). I also have never really "bought" the supposed romantic tension between Will (Jeff Daniels) and Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer). But for the most part, I found season two to be a more enjoyable watch than season one. I'm hoping for a similar improvement in the third campaign.