30 Days of The West Wing: Day 21
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 21: Best Toby Ziegler-centric Episode
Okay, this one is hard, too, cuz I love Toby more every time I watch the show. He grows on you, the "prickly, mumbly communications director." My top five Toby-centric episodes are "In Excelsis Deo" (S1), "The Leadership Breakfast"/"The U.S. Poet Laureate" (S2-3),
"Holy Night" (S4), "Drought Conditions" (S6), and "Here Today" (S7). I combined two episodes because together they'd make one Toby-centric episode and they're similar in their focus.
I love In Excelsis Deo and Holy Night because they are both Christmas episodes with a Toby focus. The first introduces you to who Toby really is, not just some powerful, rude guy, and the second explains why he is who he is, by introducing you to his father and how Toby was affected by it.
The Leadership Breakfast and The U.S. Poet Laureate have very different approaches, but both focus on Toby in a way that is rare for the show: these are the two Toby episodes where you get to watch him flirt with women. Even when he's courting his ex-wife, theirs is not a flirty relationship, and while he flirts with CJ all the time, that's different. He flirts with Ann Stark to disastrous results, and with Tabitha Fortis to adorable ones that sadly don't go anywhere after her one episode. Toby is such an Eeyore character most of the time that I find it adorable, seeing him try with women, cuz there's an optimism in it.
Here Today is the most Toby-focused episode of the whole show, and it has great/strange camera work to bounce off Richard Schiff's acting skills. This episode is kind of a sad love letter to the CJ/Toby ship, because it's just as much about Toby's relationship with CJ for me as it is about his betrayal and disgrace, and exit from the White House. It's beautiful and tragic and I can't look away when I'm watching it, but it is not quite my favorite.
My favorite Toby-centric episode is Drought Conditions (otherwise known as the episode I repeatedly icon using the exact same scene), because it is even sadder, prettier and CJ/Toby-er than Here Today. It begins and ends with Toby and frames everything else that happens in the episode around him. It includes a physical fight between he and Josh, CJ adorably bringing him ice because Margaret tells her about the Josh fight (which he eats instead of putting on his face) and a strangely intimate scene with a Senator that stretches across the episode. Crying Toby, Toby telling off an obnoxiously selfish Josh like an abandoned older brother, and Toby propositioning CJ at a black-tie event make this episode one of my favorites generally, not to mention his best of the series. :)
And...an icon!
Thanks for reading. :)
See you tomorrow for Day 22!
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 21: Best Toby Ziegler-centric Episode
Okay, this one is hard, too, cuz I love Toby more every time I watch the show. He grows on you, the "prickly, mumbly communications director." My top five Toby-centric episodes are "In Excelsis Deo" (S1), "The Leadership Breakfast"/"The U.S. Poet Laureate" (S2-3),
"Holy Night" (S4), "Drought Conditions" (S6), and "Here Today" (S7). I combined two episodes because together they'd make one Toby-centric episode and they're similar in their focus.
I love In Excelsis Deo and Holy Night because they are both Christmas episodes with a Toby focus. The first introduces you to who Toby really is, not just some powerful, rude guy, and the second explains why he is who he is, by introducing you to his father and how Toby was affected by it.
The Leadership Breakfast and The U.S. Poet Laureate have very different approaches, but both focus on Toby in a way that is rare for the show: these are the two Toby episodes where you get to watch him flirt with women. Even when he's courting his ex-wife, theirs is not a flirty relationship, and while he flirts with CJ all the time, that's different. He flirts with Ann Stark to disastrous results, and with Tabitha Fortis to adorable ones that sadly don't go anywhere after her one episode. Toby is such an Eeyore character most of the time that I find it adorable, seeing him try with women, cuz there's an optimism in it.
Here Today is the most Toby-focused episode of the whole show, and it has great/strange camera work to bounce off Richard Schiff's acting skills. This episode is kind of a sad love letter to the CJ/Toby ship, because it's just as much about Toby's relationship with CJ for me as it is about his betrayal and disgrace, and exit from the White House. It's beautiful and tragic and I can't look away when I'm watching it, but it is not quite my favorite.
My favorite Toby-centric episode is Drought Conditions (otherwise known as the episode I repeatedly icon using the exact same scene), because it is even sadder, prettier and CJ/Toby-er than Here Today. It begins and ends with Toby and frames everything else that happens in the episode around him. It includes a physical fight between he and Josh, CJ adorably bringing him ice because Margaret tells her about the Josh fight (which he eats instead of putting on his face) and a strangely intimate scene with a Senator that stretches across the episode. Crying Toby, Toby telling off an obnoxiously selfish Josh like an abandoned older brother, and Toby propositioning CJ at a black-tie event make this episode one of my favorites generally, not to mention his best of the series. :)
And...an icon!
Thanks for reading. :)
See you tomorrow for Day 22!