House of Cards
Season 5 Episode 1: “Chapter 53
Directed by Daniel Minahan
Written by Frank Pugliese
Created by Beau Willimon
Starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Paul Sparks, Joel Kinnaman, Neve Campbell, Boris McGiver, Jayne Atkinson, Damian Young
Netflix
Air Date: Tuesday, May 30th, 2017

Somewhere over the past year the line between television drama and reality blurred. There is a President who talks down to people, commit heinous acts of violence and depravity, we have issues with the Russians, and we live in a perpetual state of fear from terrorist cells worldwide… quick, am I talking about America 2017 or Season 4 of House of Cards? A show that cuts this close to reality is not going to be shy with the current scope of American politics, and I expect this will be a unique and interesting season for Netflix’s award winning political thriller. I wait with baited breath to see how far the writers will push the boundaries.

Spoilers below.

The Newsroom
The Complete First Season
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital l DVD
CREATED BY: Aaron Sorkin
DIRECTORS: Greg Mottola, Alan Poul, Alex Graves, Daniel Minahan, Jeremy Podeswa, Joshua Marston, Lesli Linka Glatter
WRITERS: Aaron Sorkin, Gideon Yago
CAST: Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Jane Fonda, Chris Messina, David Krumholtz, Patton Oswalt, Marcia Gay Harden
HBO
RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2013

With shows like Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, and True Blood leading the charge, it’s clear that HBO’s hit shows can often have a hefty budget and rely heavily on visual effects and costumes and so on. One of their newer series, The Newsroom, is not one of those shows.

Created by Aaron Sorkin, the show is simple enough on the surface—being about the inner workings of a news team—but a collection of lives intertwined within this newsroom setting leads to plenty of interesting storylines as the show progresses. Instead of the aforementioned effects and costumes, it instead relies on two key things: writing and acting, and nails both of them consistently.