Earlier this season we brought you an interview with Mather Zickel about the new Adult Swim short series Newsreaders, evolved from an episode of Childrens Hospital into its own faux news program. In it Zickel teased the "hard-hitting" journalism his Louis La Fonda would be tackling this season, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that the season finale of the series has La Fonda sitting down with an accused serial killer (Bob Clendenin). La Fonda thinks so highly of himself and his journalism skills, he is a bit self-righteous in declaring the legal system "unfair" to the man who has to represent himself because no lawyer wants to take the case of a serial killer (who just happens to be accused of killing over a dozen lawyers).
Sidebar: why is it that Clendenin has only been playing creepy men lately!? We're sure he's happy for the work, but this is a kind of typecasting that seems a bit unfair. Anyway...
But just like the previous episodes before it, this season finale entitled "Jr. Newsreaders" diverges, and it is not actually this serial killer who becomes the primary focus-- or target, if you will-- of La Fonda's particular sense of journalistic justice. Instead, he decides to break down an underage girl-- a girl who has her own version of Newsreaders in her school and who La Fonda deems a "copy cat." When she manages to scoop him, he decides he officially has it in for her and sets out to get her "Star Student" and "Junior Achiever" awards revoked.
Listen, as someone who is in La Fonda's line of work for real, we're just going to say we completely understand the sense of competition and the desire to prove one's better work ethic. However, we cannot condone the way he goes about it: that's for comedic purposes only!
La Fonda has explored his fair share of odd stories and actually managed to uncover (even if unintentionally) some big secrets all season long, but this season finale is the first time we really see just how serious he is about his work and how petty he can be when he feels its threatened. The episode title is much more indicative of his mentality in this episode than his numerically younger counterpart's age.
Newsreaders's "Jr. Newsreaders" airs tonight at midnight on Adult Swim.
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