30 Days of The West Wing: Day 15
Here is the meme in case anyone else would like to join in:
Day 1: Favorite Season
Day 2: Favorite Episode
Day 3: Favorite Song Used In An Episode
Day 4: Favorite Female Character
Day 5: Favorite Male Character
Day 6: Favorite Friendship
Day 7: Favorite Romance
Day 8: Least Favorite Female Character
Day 9: Least Favorite Male Character
Day 10: Least Favorite Season
Day 11: Least Favorite Romance
Day 12: Least Favorite Episode
Day 13: Favorite Bartlet that isn't the President
Day 14: Favorite Secret Service Agent
Day 15: Episode You Like That Others Hate
Day 16: Character You Relate To The Most
Day 17: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time
Day 18: Character You Like That Others Hate
Day 19: Best President Bartlet-centric Episode
Day 20: Best Leo McGarry-centric Episode
Day 21: Best Toby Ziegler-centric Episode
Day 22: Best C.J. Gregg-centric Episode
Day 23: Best Joshua Lyman-centric Episode
Day 24: Most Harrowing Scene
Day 25: Favorite The West Wing Quote
Day 26: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did
Day 27: Cutest/Most Adorable Moment
Day 28: Character You Love To Hate
Day 29: Episode You Hate That Others Love
Day 30: What You Think Made TWW So Great
Day 15: Episode You Like That Others Hate
Okay, this is difficult because I don't know anyone else who actively watches The West Wing. The only person I know who's watched it on their own hasn't seen it all the way through and only likes the earlier seasons. I have no idea if there are episodes that "others" hate as a general group. There are love/hate groups for basically all the characters and 'ships, let alone episodes, so I'm not aware of a broader consensus.
Oh! I did think of one. I really like Isaac and Ishmael, the special post-9/11 episode, and both my Ander and many critics and general people do not. I like it because I feel it was very brave of Aaron Sorkin to discuss issues that no one else talked about immediately after on their scripted shows, and I like that he does things with television that haven't been done before. Making an episode where your actors are playing different people with the same names as their characters, just to put them all into a separate story where they may not be entirely in-character but are also not AU in the way it's usually used, is just bizarre and cool for me as a viewer. I think the episode makes some good points, and I think that Aaron Sorkin put the show out on a limb because no one else scrambled to tell a new story with their shows, but he got attacked on all sides for it. His characters are too liberal or he presented too conservative a picture, depending on the reviewer...and the episode felt rough or rushed--could that have anything to do with the fact that they wrote and filmed it in three weeks (insanely fast for Sorkinland)?
Aaron Sorkin's still the only TV writer I know that discusses 9/11 from all sides (when you combine Studio 60 with TWW) and I feel like that is culturally important. Joss deals in metaphors and alternate realities, and he is amazing at it, but without Sorkin shows we'd only really have TV storylines that address discrimination against people who "look like terrorists." That's all that I can remember on the kinds of shows that I watch, at least. Storylines about actual terrorists, and people being mistreated for even seeming Arabic, are the only ways we reference 9/11 on scripted TV. Nothing about how our actions as a world power contributed to the attacks, or how it affected countries that aren't us, or about where we should go from here. The TV response was essentially "A terrible thing happened to Americans. Please allow us to entertain you so we can go on making shows like nothing's changed." I understand that our President wanted us all to behave like it hadn't happened, but it helped reinforce the idea that we are only a country, not part of a global community, and so all that should be discussed about 9/11 is what a tragedy it was for those involved, and how some Americans faced prejudice afterwards. I'm not opposed to nationalism generally, but the limited nature of that has contributed to how uninformed Americans are, because we watch things that exist to disengage us rather than help us be better global citizens.
That was a long-winded way of saying that Aaron Sorkin's shows generally, and this episode particularly, encourage viewers to think about broader issues in a larger context when most media does the opposite, and that is why I like them/it. :)
And...an icon! :) This is a second Toby icon discarded from my mood_stillness work. The version of it I did put in my set is so different from this one that I'm not willing to use this as an alt, so here seemed a nice place for it.
Thanks for reading. :)
Hey, halfway through! See you tomorrow for Day 16!
Day 1: Favorite Season
Day 2: Favorite Episode
Day 3: Favorite Song Used In An Episode
Day 4: Favorite Female Character
Day 5: Favorite Male Character
Day 6: Favorite Friendship
Day 7: Favorite Romance
Day 8: Least Favorite Female Character
Day 9: Least Favorite Male Character
Day 10: Least Favorite Season
Day 11: Least Favorite Romance
Day 12: Least Favorite Episode
Day 13: Favorite Bartlet that isn't the President
Day 14: Favorite Secret Service Agent
Day 15: Episode You Like That Others Hate
Day 16: Character You Relate To The Most
Day 17: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time
Day 18: Character You Like That Others Hate
Day 19: Best President Bartlet-centric Episode
Day 20: Best Leo McGarry-centric Episode
Day 21: Best Toby Ziegler-centric Episode
Day 22: Best C.J. Gregg-centric Episode
Day 23: Best Joshua Lyman-centric Episode
Day 24: Most Harrowing Scene
Day 25: Favorite The West Wing Quote
Day 26: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did
Day 27: Cutest/Most Adorable Moment
Day 28: Character You Love To Hate
Day 29: Episode You Hate That Others Love
Day 30: What You Think Made TWW So Great
Day 15: Episode You Like That Others Hate
Okay, this is difficult because I don't know anyone else who actively watches The West Wing. The only person I know who's watched it on their own hasn't seen it all the way through and only likes the earlier seasons. I have no idea if there are episodes that "others" hate as a general group. There are love/hate groups for basically all the characters and 'ships, let alone episodes, so I'm not aware of a broader consensus.
Oh! I did think of one. I really like Isaac and Ishmael, the special post-9/11 episode, and both my Ander and many critics and general people do not. I like it because I feel it was very brave of Aaron Sorkin to discuss issues that no one else talked about immediately after on their scripted shows, and I like that he does things with television that haven't been done before. Making an episode where your actors are playing different people with the same names as their characters, just to put them all into a separate story where they may not be entirely in-character but are also not AU in the way it's usually used, is just bizarre and cool for me as a viewer. I think the episode makes some good points, and I think that Aaron Sorkin put the show out on a limb because no one else scrambled to tell a new story with their shows, but he got attacked on all sides for it. His characters are too liberal or he presented too conservative a picture, depending on the reviewer...and the episode felt rough or rushed--could that have anything to do with the fact that they wrote and filmed it in three weeks (insanely fast for Sorkinland)?
Aaron Sorkin's still the only TV writer I know that discusses 9/11 from all sides (when you combine Studio 60 with TWW) and I feel like that is culturally important. Joss deals in metaphors and alternate realities, and he is amazing at it, but without Sorkin shows we'd only really have TV storylines that address discrimination against people who "look like terrorists." That's all that I can remember on the kinds of shows that I watch, at least. Storylines about actual terrorists, and people being mistreated for even seeming Arabic, are the only ways we reference 9/11 on scripted TV. Nothing about how our actions as a world power contributed to the attacks, or how it affected countries that aren't us, or about where we should go from here. The TV response was essentially "A terrible thing happened to Americans. Please allow us to entertain you so we can go on making shows like nothing's changed." I understand that our President wanted us all to behave like it hadn't happened, but it helped reinforce the idea that we are only a country, not part of a global community, and so all that should be discussed about 9/11 is what a tragedy it was for those involved, and how some Americans faced prejudice afterwards. I'm not opposed to nationalism generally, but the limited nature of that has contributed to how uninformed Americans are, because we watch things that exist to disengage us rather than help us be better global citizens.
That was a long-winded way of saying that Aaron Sorkin's shows generally, and this episode particularly, encourage viewers to think about broader issues in a larger context when most media does the opposite, and that is why I like them/it. :)
And...an icon! :) This is a second Toby icon discarded from my mood_stillness work. The version of it I did put in my set is so different from this one that I'm not willing to use this as an alt, so here seemed a nice place for it.
Thanks for reading. :)
Hey, halfway through! See you tomorrow for Day 16!