Before became an Emmy contender (with 16 nominations for its current third season, including outstanding drama series), garnered the TV Academy’s attention by examining the fast-paced world of primetime cable news. The show, which ran on HBO for three seasons starting in 2012, took a -type approach to TV journalism, presenting the challenge of covering real-life stories from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the Boston Marathon bombing. Jeff Daniels led the cast as Will McAvoy, anchor of the fictional evening news program , whose crew — played by the likes of Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston and Olivia Munn — are on a mission to cover the news smartly and objectively, ratings be damned.
McAvoy sets the tone for the series in its opening scene, with a monologue expounding on why “America is not the greatest country in the world.” Despite Sorkin’s trademark witty dialogue, the show wasn’t universally embraced. A review noted “it was both really good and really bad, which was maddening on a level much more visceral than just despising something for being awful, ridiculous or inept.
” One scene — in which several staffers who are stuck on a plane, and thus unable to help break the news of Osama bin Laden’s killing on air, announce it to the pilot and fellow passengers, eliciting a round of congratulatory handshakes and hugs — highlights the series’ sometimes cringey self-importance (and has become a meme posted ironically when major news breaks). In a 2014 .