Fans of Aaron Sorkin were delighted when it transpired the unique writing talents that created 'The West Wing' were going to be expended on the back room workings of a newsroom.
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Then, when 'The Newsroom' appeared, there was an equal outcry of bouquets and brickbats, the former the usual adulation for his customarily swift dialogue, the latter mostly concerned with Sorkin's new trope of analysing real-life events in his fictional Newsroom, just with the smug benefit of hindsight. ("That slick in the Gulf, looks like it could be really interesting… "everyone else is saying Gabrielle Giffords is dead, but let's just hold back", etc etc)
Olivia Munn and Jeff Daniels co-star in 'The Newsroom'
And, now, following Aaron's semi-apology to his fans for that, and when it looks like 'The Newsroom' is finding its feet with a mixture of fictional and factual-inspired story lines and complicated personal lives of emotionally dysfunctional, too-bright professionals working too long hours and drinking too much whiskey, it's going to be over. HBO have called the forthcoming third series the last, a decision they came to in agreement with Sorkin himself.
Olivia Munn, who plays economist Sloan Sabbith (with co-star Dev Patel), is happy that the show's finishing
If this will cause fresh dismay to the fans, it seems the cast aren't so unhappy, according to Olivia Munn, as smart and sassy as her on screen alter ego economist Sloan Sabbith.
"We were just delighted, as actors, that HBO actually honoured the creative process," is how she puts it, and she sounds genuinely happy, not an actor putting a good spin on having to polish up the show reel once again.
"Everyone knew it was up Aaron Sorkin. All the actors were told not to take any other jobs, because there was hope by HBO that he would change his mind.
"But if he's finished telling his story, then that's that. And that's soo much better than a series outliving its sell-by date. That's what's so great about this network, that it knows to respect the creative process, that it puts its writers first and foremost."
So if it's the last we'll get of Olivia's Sloan, Jeff Daniels' integrity-troubled anchorman Will McAvoy and Emily Mortimer's hair-pulling producer McKenzie McHale, what will we see of them all in Series 3? Olivia's not giving much away.
"All of us find ourselves at the outset in no-win situations," she eventually confides. "So it's about how we unfold from that. It gets very complicated, but the viewer will end up understanding everybody better.
"I was reading the script for Episode 5 in bed, and at 10pm, I literally threw my script up in the air and screamed. I couldn't believe that Aaron Sorkin went there."
Wow! And will the ultimate ending be satisfactory for the show's unsettled viewers? "Well, I'm happy with the ending," she laughs. "But then I'm not a happy ending sort of person."
The Newsroom: The Complete Second Season is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. Watch the recap below...