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[bluflamingo]

I'm watching season 4 of The West Wing, which I've never seen before (I stopped watching partway through season 2 when it was airing, I can't remember why, then cried through the end of the last episode, because I'm a sap), and would like to say

Comments

[skieswideopen]

It's been ages since I watched The West Wing, but CJ is totally awesome. And so is Nancy. That show had a fair number of formidable women.

I'm very interested in seeing what you write about Gina.

[bluflamingo]

That show had a fair number of formidable women

It did. And actually occassionally attempted to engage with women's issues in a half-decent way. And had female characters whose entire story line wasn't about the man in their life.

I'm very interested in seeing what you write about Gina.

And me :) I'd forgotten that she seemed to live in Zoey's dorm in season 1, which is what got me on that. And then her wanting to be Zoey's protection, and then she disappears, so where does she go? My biggest problem with TWW - people just disappear with no explanation, they were even worse than SGA.

[skieswideopen]

Yes, I enjoyed the fact that it addressed women's issues *and* that the women got to be interesting in their own right, at least some of the time.

And then her wanting to be Zoey's protection, and then she disappears, so where does she go?

To Las Vegas, of course!

On one level it makes sense that she'd be reassigned. I believe Secret Service agents get rotated regularly. But given that they went to all the trouble of giving her a name and lines and a hint of a storyline, you'd think she'd at least get one line mentioning that she'd been transferred. Charlie could have asked Zoey, or something.

[bluflamingo]

But given that they went to all the trouble of giving her a name and lines and a hint of a storyline, you'd think she'd at least get one line mentioning that she'd been transferred. Charlie could have asked Zoey, or something.

Yeah, exactly! Though considering Mandy was main credits and just vanished like she'd never existed, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Plus, the timing makes an interesting story, I think, because it was right after the shooting, so did she go somewhere that was kind of a demotion as punishment, or somewhere higher as a kind of promotion, or neither? A question to which I wish I knew the answer, since I'm supposed to be going to write it!

[thrace_]

Dr. Nancy McNally is my fucking homegirl. I like to think of her, CJ, and Abbey having some kind of Women's Power Club and initiating people by having them like, move all the furniture in Toby's office by one inch.

[bluflamingo]

Oh God, the three of them together would be a force to be reckoned with! Or a CJ/Nancy presidency/vice-presidency bid later on. With Amy and Donna and Joey on the campaign team, and Mandy coming back to help, and Margaret, and Abby pledges her support to them, and they start out as this novelty all-woman team that people think is a joke and then prove to be so awesome that they end up winning the primary.

Ah, if only I knew enough about the American electoral system to write it!

[scrollgirl]

You know, I realise Sorkin is the better writer in terms of sparkling dialogue and energy that just leaps off the page, but I really appreciated the Wells years for giving women more agency and giving them more power (logic of how they get that power aside) and generally not indulging in some of Sorkin's more, um, "woman power only not really" moments.

[bluflamingo]

generally not indulging in some of Sorkin's more, um, "woman power only not really" moments.

Oh God yes - when CJ's talking about how they beat the women in one country, and it comes after the president saying that, basically, when he agrees things with dodgy contries, the women get all unreasonably hysterical about it, just for starters.