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could use some fixing
Rinse off the sudsy personal storylines, please
By Ethan Alter
As fictional settings go, a 24-hour television news station would seem to be an ideal locale for a weekly series.
It certainly furnishes all the elements today's one-hour dramas thrive on: Ripped-from-the-headlines plots, behind-the-scenes intrigue, the clashing of outsized egos, and, of course, plenty of opportunities for Aaron Sorkin's patented Fast-Paced Walking & Talking Sequences.
In short, it's the kind of environment that immediately lends a show an air of excitement and unpredictability.
So why does Bravo's "Breaking News" (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.) often feel forced and manufactured?
Perhaps because the writers have been stricken with a case of what's best described as the ER Syndrome.
Instead of focusing almost exclusively on the workplace, as the smash hits "CSI" and "Law & Order" make a point of doing, "Breaking News" spends too much time dwelling on the private lives of its large cast. Who really cares about who is sleeping with whom when there's a whole world out there that the characters should be covering?
Bravo has the blueprints for a great show here, but the execution is lacking.
Of course, that isn't really the network's fault, as they had nothing to do with the making of the series. "Breaking News" began its life as a TNT production and was originally slated to debut on that channel last year. But after spending a reported $20 million to produce 13 episodes, the network decided not to air the program. The series remained in limbo until Bravo stepped forward and acquired the rights.
On paper this must have seemed like a great deal for the channel, which has long been trying to increase its visibility on the crowded cable landscape. Picking up "Breaking News" has indeed brought Bravo a lot of good press, although whether this translates into higher ratings remains to be seen.
It's just a shame the actual product they acquired isn't better. It's one thing to play the valiant knight and ride to the rescue of a program in need; it's quite another to try and drum up viewer enthusiasm for a show that is so-so at best.
As long as "Breaking News" stays in the newsroom of I24, the fictional station where the show is set, it's entertaining and occasionally involving. The best scenes frequently revolve around the channel's news president, Peter Kozyck (Clancy Brown), as he struggles to satisfy his bottom-line-minded bosses without betraying his journalistic ethics.
There are some other interesting characters: the workaholic executive producer, Rachel Glass (Lisa Ann Walter), the arrogant news anchor, Bill Dunne ("The West Wing's" Tim Matheson), the ambitious if flighty reporter, Janet LeClaire (Myndy Crist). Yet Peter is really the glue that holds the show together, and Brown does an excellent job anchoring the rest of the ensemble.
The show's problems arise whenever the characters venture outside I24's walls. It's in these sequences that the writers bombard viewers with personal storylines that range from the clichéd to the just plain dull.
One reporter has problems balancing his work and family. Another is enjoying a serious relationship with her producer until he makes the mistake of popping the question. This kind of melodrama feels out of place in a program that supposedly wants to offer a realistic depiction of its setting.
Now that Bravo owns the series, the network has the power to order more episodes beyond the 13 that were originally produced. If it does decide to continue the show, presumably with Matheson in a reduced role, as his duties on "The West Wing" are growing all the time, here's hoping they alter the format to downplay the soap opera and emphasize the "news" in "Breaking News."
July 25, 2002© 2002 Media Life
-Ethan Alter is a New York writer and a regular contributor to Media Life.
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