The second season of The Newsroom ended last Sunday night with Atlantic Cable News reporting on the reelection of President Barack Obama and Reese Lansing prohibiting the resignations of the News Night senior staff, but one important question was left unanswered: When the hell did Don Keefer become the best character on this show?
It was difficult to see how truly WONDERFUL Don is back in season one, when his main duty was to be the third side of the Jim-Maggie-Don love triangle – and the least sympathetic side at that. I’m all for an unrequited love story, but you gotta give me some character. The audience never bought Don and Maggie; they were a device, not a relationship. And Don was unfairly painted as a jerk, his very existence somehow “trapping” Maggie, oblivious to the longing looks shooting back and forth over his head. The fog lifted in season two when Jim and Maggie became impossibly self-pitying and frustrating, and Don emerged as a knight (A news knight? I hate myself.) in shining armor. Lucky us. Lucky Sloan.
I’ve been aware of Thomas Sadoski as a stalwart New York City theater actor, but haven’t been lucky enough to catch any of his productions. That’s probably because they’ve been (Other Desert Cities, reasons to be pretty) far too popular, and thus expensive, especially for someone who survives on discount theater. His long and impressive stage career poised him perfectly for Newsroom success though – he’s built for that A-Few-Good-Men-cadenced Sorkin dialogue. Take this scene with Neal, one of my favorite Don moments from this past season:
Don: “I too believe Will and Sloan can be a little smug and I think you guys are showing a lot of wisdom by having me be the one to fix it.”
Neal: “You were really the only one left.”
Don: “The only guy for the job.”
Neal: “The only one left.”
Don: “The only one who could get it done.”
Neal: “There was nobody else.”
Don: “Nobody but me.”
Neal: “Left in the office.”
Don: “One man-”
Neal: “There she is.”
Sadoski’s obviously handsome, but in an almost chameleon-like way. When Don was the obstacle to Jim/Maggie, he was slick and smarmy. Then he’s crusading for truth and championing Sloan and, look out, we got a dreamboat in the house.
Whether you ship Sloan/Don (Doan? Slon? The ship name possibilities are far too unsexy for these two.), you must admit that it was largely their budding friendship that humanized Don. (More on that later, don’t you worry.) Though, he was already making strides into likability by the end of season one. Don’t forget that, in the pilot, Don jumped the News Night ship for Right Now with Elliot Hirsch after Will’s rant went viral and tried to take Maggie with him. He balked at Will and Mac’s movement to revolutionize TV news, a plan that he found foolish and resented because their loss of viewership would chip away his numbers in the 10 o’clock hour. Don was the ratings guy, towing the company line. He was also an amalgamation of two character sketches, which Sorkin combined and beefed up once he saw Sadoski in action. It took a while for it all to gel.
But Don lives and breathes the news, and this kind of take-no-prisoners, have-no-personal-life singlemindedness is almost always worshiped in the Aaron Sorkin universe. It’s romantic. It’s tilting at windwills, in the best possible way. (He even made that Zuckerberg guy a hero.) And in that idealistic universe, it’s possible for Will’s values and work ethic to transform everyone in that building. On The Newsroom, the bad guys aren’t even bad guys any more. At least not internally – Don manned up and joined the right team, Leona and Reese are already won over. ACN is a unit now. You come at one of them, you come at them all. Jerry Dantana, the outsider, was a common villain for the office to unite against and for the audience to loathe. Like on The West Wing, it’s much more fun to keep the conflicts between the coworkers either light, personal, or both and keep the real threats coming from outside the bubble. It just wasn’t in the cards for us to stay mad at Don forever, especially after he stood up to Reese and refused to rush a story without the facts just to stay ahead of the competition. We knew we were meant to start rooting for him because our patron saint and leader Will McAvoy went from describing him – not inaccurately – as “dickless” to giving him the highest compliment available to the ACN team of greater fools: “You’re a fucking newsman, Don. I ever tell you otherwise, you punch me in the face.” Don’s response? “Okay, but you’re back in 30.” Like a boss.
And then, there’s Don and Sloan.
In each other, Don and Sloan each found a friend, confidante, and colleague who believed in them more than they believed in themselves. If the self-esteem boosting seemed skewed in Sloan’s direction this year, it’s because Don was repaying the attitude-adjusting reality check that she gave him in the season one finale.
Sloan: “Somebody or something convinced you of it, because you think you’re a bad guy… and you’re just not. I’m socially inept, but even I know that. So because you’re a bad guy you try to do things you think a good guy would do. Like committing to somebody you like, but maybe don’t love. A sweet, smart, wholesome midwestern girl. I could be wrong. I almost always am.”
Spoiler alert: she wasn’t.
I have issues with the character quirks and tribulations Sorkin selected with the intent of making a brilliant economist who looks exactly like Olivia Munn relatable, but I have no issue with the way he wrote Don’s relationship with her. By the time Sloan gives Don her assessment of him, he’s already alienated almost everyone in the office. She gets him, he realizes, and it’s a shame that he wasn’t free to ask her out when she basically invited him to. Instead, they became allies. Don knows Sloan’s a hell of a lot smarter than him (“She’s got 50 IQ points on both of us, there’s nothing I could ‘put in her head.'”) and Sloan knows that Don sees her as a full human being and doesn’t cherry pick from her smarts, looks, or insecurities. After an old boyfriend leaks naked pictures of Sloan on the internet, Don knows instinctively how to be the exact kind of friend she needs in that moment. I love how, even in that incredibly intimate scene where he sits next to her on his office floor while she cries, Don doesn’t make any move to hug her or wipe her tears. He knows that the last thing she’d want right then is a guy – any guy – to touch her. He just sits with her, calls her “impressive” (swoon), and helps her move from the humiliation stage to the rage stage. I admit that I groaned at the first mention of the naked picture subplot, but it revealed so much about the character of the guys Sloan usually runs into and how hard Don puts them to shame. The ex – I can’t recall his name, so let’s just call him AIG Asshole – is so threatened by Sloan’s existence – so offended that someone who looks like that can be also be so much more impressive than him – that he doesn’t even treat her like a human being. When it comes time to give AIG asshole the literal kick in the balls that he needs, Don lets Sloan do the honors and serves as a reliable second. Did you scream? I screamed. A little bit.
The book bit that finally got them together in the finale was very sweet, but it was in “News Night with Will McAvoy” that Don earned Sloan. I can’t wait to see what season three (ANNOUNCE IT, HBO) has in store for them. Keep your life jacket and water wings; I will go down with this ship.
I miss the ACN newsroom already, but Don? Don I miss the most. What did you think of this past season, readers? Are you as enamored with Keefer as I am? Leave it in the comments.
Kelly says
I stumbled onto your site looking for a Don/Sloan picture…and boy, am I glad I did. Let’s just say that my workload for today got pushed to tomorrow as I spent company time reading your past posts (TV trumps everything…especially work). I’m delighted to find a kindred television spirit – your championing of glorious pairings like Don/Sloan, Ben/Leslie, and Josh/Donna make me happy…and how bummed am I that I missed SmashBash in real time?! Oh, how we could have hated Karen together and laughed at the theatrical inaccuracies…my loss. So, from now on I’ll be here, enjoying being a new blog reader as I continue loving Don Keefer with every fiber of my being. Thanks for the television camaraderie.
HeadOverFeels says
LET’S BE BEST FRIENDS!! -K
HeadOverFeels says
It’s so perfectly complementary that you read our blogs during work as we often WRITE them the same way. (To any bosses possibly reading this – totally kidding! You know how you and I kid? *awkward laugh*) One of the reasons that Kim and I started this blog together was to celebrate the fandoms that we have in common and the connections so many of our friends found with each other through pure love of things. “Television camaraderie,” as you aptly put it. Thank you for reading, DOUBLE thank you for this life-affirming comment; and stay tuned – we hope that we’ll keep giving you content that tempts you into shirking your responsibilities. –S
Chantel says
I think Don is my favourite character on The Newsroom as well. Ugh, I love him and Sloan. Will and Mac I love, but Don and Sloan even more! That episode of the leaked naked photos made me love and respect Don so much. You’re right in most shows, the writer would have Don put his arm around Sloan to comfort her–push the ship along a little further–but here Sorkin/Sadoski makes the right choice, to have Don respect Sloan and her personal space which has just been violated. And then when he accompanies her to AIG–his little “No no” to Sloan’s ex. I love how he respects Sloan and is okay with how smart she is. Although it doesn’t really go anywhere, I really enjoyed the scene in the S2 finale when Don and Sloan are in his office and she’s telling him the breakdown of how women voted in the election (before they are interrupted by needing to go back to the studio). You’re so right–Don is the best character now. I could just gush: his “Eat me”; all the scenes on the plane during the Osama episode; his expression after Sloan tells him he’s not a bad guy; his guilt over Elliot getting hurt (btw I so want to see more of Elliot, not a /ton/, but I enjoy his character; he lends a little normalcy, being married with kids). I can’t wait to see more of Don next season!
HeadOverFeels says
I love this comment. YAY TEAM DON! -K
HeadOverFeels says
I agree with every word of this. I love that we get scenes like the one you mentioned in the finale that make it clear that Don and Sloan gravitate to each other in downtime, just to bounce ideas off each other. And I second your request for more Elliot! His “Be less desperate for female friends!” was a highlight. Now we just need the official renewal announcement! –S
Chantel says
Is there not an official renewal yet? Oh dear! Please, please, HBO. Don’t let us down now! They wouldn’t cancel now that Jeff Daniels won an Emmy, right?
HeadOverFeels says
Daniels confirmed at the Emmys that HBO gave him the go to say they were coming back. The problem is WHEN. Sorkin has a lot on his plate right now, and obviously no one other than him can write the show. So those scheduling details are being hammered out, which is why there has been no official statement on season 3. But it’s 99.99% happening. -K
ritz says
Can you please explain to me what Don means by “What I have can’t be taught”?Lovely article btw
HeadOverFeels says
Thank you! Don’s a pleasure to write about.
It’s in his nature to use sarcasm to defuse intimate moments. I think he says, “What I have can’t be taught.” to cut whatever tension was created by Sloan kissing him in front of their coworkers. He’s also acting like he ISN’T completely thrown by her making a move. And it was just cute, so there’s that. 🙂 –S
hoopersx says
So glad I found this post. From day one of Newsroom, Don was written as the bad guy but lord! He’s my absolute favorite character on the show but in a very low key, quiet manner that makes him extraordinary. He’s a character that is written as a man that men can look up to. That scene where Sloan beats up the AIG douche and he’s there to just step in afterwards and put his hand up to the guy and just says ‘No, no.’, pure bliss. I could and have watched that scene dozens of times over. Her talk about him thinking he’s a bad guy was just perfection. You wrote everything I’ve been thinking since season 2 ended. Can’t wait for the final season!
Thanks for taking the time to write about this!
HeadOverFeels says
First of all, congratulations on a fantastic avatar. Don really turned out to be the hero of that season, even though he was just about the only one not running his mouth about his crusade. I can’t wait to see what they do with him this year. Thank YOU for taking the time to read and comment! –S
Nanette Tabuac says
I, too, love Don Keefer. I just started watching the series only this month. I am done watching seasons 1 and 2 and am halfway watching season 3. I am from the Philippines. I gathered from the internet that Newsroom series ended last December/ 🙁 I hope that there will be another season of Newsroom or even a spin-off with Don Keefer and Sloan Sabbith in it. I agree with your observation that Don’s character has metamorphosed from being the least liked character at the beginning of Season 1 to one of the most liked if not the best. His character even ‘overshadowed” Jim Harper’s character.
the don/maggie did not sail so far because they lack chemistry. But Don/ sloan ship is quite the OPPOSITE. They sizzle on screen. 🙂
Ben says
Been binge-watching the Newsroom after struggling to get into it for a couple years, and while I like Sloan Sabbith—smart women are very sexy, and she’s got extra sexy beyond that—I really struggle to like Don. His handling of Sloan’s nude pics situation was admirable (loved the “no no” to the jerkass ex) but I can’t understand why people find him so lovable. He’s sarcastic, and his tone of voice constantly suggests that he feels like everyone else is a moron. Maybe it’s his sarcasm, maybe it’s the structure of his face, or maybe it’s how he was set up as an unattractive foil to Jim—I don’t know, I can’t really put my finger on it. What I’d like to put my finger on, though, is what makes him likeable and attractive for other people. Why is he so popular? What do y’all like about him?
HeadOverFeels says
I think we express what we love about him pretty well in the post? -K
Ben says
I suppose. Perhaps it’s just Sadowski and his delivery of the character that rubs me the wrong way. I struggle to understand why his wide-eyed, sarcastic snark (see “I’m gonna lose my shit on you” at the top for an example) is at all attractive. I’ll have to come back when I can explain it better.
Ben says
I’ve got it! Don feels joyless to me. He’s all business and all serious. Seems like a really unhappy guy. Does that bother anyone else?
HeadOverFeels says
I think Don was poised as a bad guy all during the first season, due to the fact that he was set up to be the obstacle between Maggie and Jim, not to mention the initial betrayal Will feels when Don is potentially moving to another show. I completely disagree that Don is joyless. I think he is driven and he finds purpose in his work. (“You’re a fucking newsman, Don!”)
To me, he’s presented as the opposite to Jim. Jim is the dreamer, Don is the realist. He’s pragmatic and he just wants to get the job done. He softens CONSIDERABLY over the course of the series, both in his relationship with Sloan and his dedication to Will (as opposed to going where the ratings are instead).
Ben says
I guess I can get why that would feel attractive. Thanks for this dialogue.