Out of the office (ish)
The West Wing - 1.15 Celestial Navigation
As the previouslies were mostly characters introducing themselves to other charaters, I was left wondering if this aired after a little break or something. (The podcast suggested that it was more a way of letting non-regular viewers know who the characters were if they felt like dipping in, which speaks to a different age of television, and a different way of watching a show, as you could with a procedural, which TWW is not. Well, I suppose you could make an argument for a political crisis/crises of the week.)
Anyway, I was thinking ‘oh, you’re just showing off now’ in Sorkin’s general direction, but more in an admiring sense than a carping one, because I found the structure of this brilliant. Josh in the middle of ‘a thing’ is giving a talk about working in the White House and using a no good day before as an example while Sam and Toby (comedy road trip gold) were dealing with yet another crisis. I also loved that Mendoza was involved in the previous day’s crises, and the delayed reveal of that.
(But having listened to the podcast, I have to acknowledge that the criticism of Josh choosing to talk about a day he was still dealing with the fallout of so candidly is fair, but that didn’t occur to me at all as it played out.)
Particularly funny were Sam (his banging on about roads and directions didn’t get on my pip in the same way as the 10 Commandments town did). Although not letting things go is a common trait for the characters, “secret inflationary plan”, he seems especially obsessed.) But also, obviously CJ, poor love, was hilarious. Sorkin absolutely knew how his top comedienne would play post-root canal!CJ.
I also loved the vindication of CJ Cregg, Press Secretary, after seeing the others (and it partly grates because they’re overwhelmingly men) criticise her over how she does her job, and, yes, we’ve seen her make mistakes, but enter Josh into the press room and like we, CJ, Danny and everyone who used the word ‘hostile’ knew, he was dire. The press ate him for lunch.
However, Josh was extremely charming, as you’d expect, in the present, introducing this and the other stories. Oh, and Charlie having to wake the President was another comedy gem (and more seriously, was nice build-up for a revelation in the next ep.)
The scene between the education Secretary and Leo had resonance, with her visibly struggling with her sense of who she was representing, although Leo won her over to the broader view. And that tied into the racism of Mendoza’s arrest. (Again, the podcast queried this and Sam and Toby ploughing in in a way I hadn’t. I got as far as noting that the watch commander’s claim that Mendoza was ‘driving erratically’ was never addressed. I rationalised it insofar as thinking he wouldn’t have if his young son was in the car with him, bit I accept that I took the White House’ staff’s word for is probably informed by all the years of examples of American cops behaving racistly.) Sam comprehensively proved it wasn’t alcohol, and the implication was that that’s how that white man thinks Hispanic men drive.
The genius was that it was about personal pride too and how he appeared before his son for Mendoza, and that Toby was wise enough to see that, address it and find a way to redress it. But then we got the sense that Toby has (and Sam) got to know and be exasperated by Mendza offscreen as they've gone through the confirmation process. It was fairly obvious that the press had now realised he was, er, willing to give quotes.
For me, there was a running tension as to whether Josh would forget to unclip his mike before taking his very important phone calls, some of which, of course, were about how lost Sam and Toby were.
1.16 20 Hours in L.A’was the much promised Californian trip (which Mandy had a hand in setting up…and she was not just not on the trip, but not in the episode. Margaret’s displeasure about staying in Washington was PERFECTION.) There was a bit of fun at Hollywood as depicted through the persective of Washington as depicted by Hollywood. David Hasselhoff, even, turns up.
Amid all of this, not much was being achieved, and even though they got the ethanol tax credit passed, Bartlet conceded that it was pointless, Josh couldn’t easily get their fundraiser’s host to grasp the fairly obvious political point that Bartlet had to spell out to him.
Zoey’s plans for an LA experience got trampled. (She is naïve, as was seen here, but she was entitled to be grouchy at that, even if the town hall meeting was annoying.) Young Jorja Fox was introduced as Gina, and probably the most visceral moment of the ep for me was watching her capably but bravely do her job of putting her body between Zoey and the dodgy-looking men who didn’t like Zoey’s relationship with Charlie. Which has totally blossomed offscreen. Aw, kids.
Speaking of relationships, the Donna/Josh/Joey/Q is a bit headsplodey. He’ll always and forever by Q to me. There was the usual intimacy and body language between Josh and Donna, but she nonetheless called Josh out on his crush on Joey. I mean, it was clear she didn’t expect him to listen to her and try to call Joey, or to take Donna’s advice later (after she’d drunk some. Sidenote: and wore the most fetching purple cardigan. I also loved CJ’s flame-coloured dress at the party) to ignore what Joey had said and how he’d understood the message. This possibly was Donna telling him what she thinks is romantic. But on the other hand, Josh is clearly smitten by Joey and it’s somewhat reciprocated, and now we see Joey is involved with a man she’s shown she’s better than professionally. (And a lot older than her.) On the other hand, he can sign a little.
Anyway, Joey impressing Toby, Sam and CJ, and suggested a more nuanced take on ’the numbers’ and a more politically astute approach was also probably important, while Bartlet’s revelations to Marcus about the toll of the job (SHOUD HAVE LISTENED TO LEO ABOUT NOT PUSHING YOURSELF SO HARD) tied into his grumpiness at being woken after three hours of sleep in ‘Celestial Navigation’ and the fact that he snapped then, after a day of provocations, was telling in and of itself.
So, this episode was certainly interesting and engaging, but didn’t have quite the structural flair or subtextual heft of the previous ep, although it moved things along and spoke to the administration’s direction and continuing problems with Hoynes. But the latter is looking less and less credible as the next President - the line about the President having all the power seemed particularly naïve, given the insider’s view we’ve got.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/455603.html.
As the previouslies were mostly characters introducing themselves to other charaters, I was left wondering if this aired after a little break or something. (The podcast suggested that it was more a way of letting non-regular viewers know who the characters were if they felt like dipping in, which speaks to a different age of television, and a different way of watching a show, as you could with a procedural, which TWW is not. Well, I suppose you could make an argument for a political crisis/crises of the week.)
Anyway, I was thinking ‘oh, you’re just showing off now’ in Sorkin’s general direction, but more in an admiring sense than a carping one, because I found the structure of this brilliant. Josh in the middle of ‘a thing’ is giving a talk about working in the White House and using a no good day before as an example while Sam and Toby (comedy road trip gold) were dealing with yet another crisis. I also loved that Mendoza was involved in the previous day’s crises, and the delayed reveal of that.
(But having listened to the podcast, I have to acknowledge that the criticism of Josh choosing to talk about a day he was still dealing with the fallout of so candidly is fair, but that didn’t occur to me at all as it played out.)
Particularly funny were Sam (his banging on about roads and directions didn’t get on my pip in the same way as the 10 Commandments town did). Although not letting things go is a common trait for the characters, “secret inflationary plan”, he seems especially obsessed.) But also, obviously CJ, poor love, was hilarious. Sorkin absolutely knew how his top comedienne would play post-root canal!CJ.
I also loved the vindication of CJ Cregg, Press Secretary, after seeing the others (and it partly grates because they’re overwhelmingly men) criticise her over how she does her job, and, yes, we’ve seen her make mistakes, but enter Josh into the press room and like we, CJ, Danny and everyone who used the word ‘hostile’ knew, he was dire. The press ate him for lunch.
However, Josh was extremely charming, as you’d expect, in the present, introducing this and the other stories. Oh, and Charlie having to wake the President was another comedy gem (and more seriously, was nice build-up for a revelation in the next ep.)
The scene between the education Secretary and Leo had resonance, with her visibly struggling with her sense of who she was representing, although Leo won her over to the broader view. And that tied into the racism of Mendoza’s arrest. (Again, the podcast queried this and Sam and Toby ploughing in in a way I hadn’t. I got as far as noting that the watch commander’s claim that Mendoza was ‘driving erratically’ was never addressed. I rationalised it insofar as thinking he wouldn’t have if his young son was in the car with him, bit I accept that I took the White House’ staff’s word for is probably informed by all the years of examples of American cops behaving racistly.) Sam comprehensively proved it wasn’t alcohol, and the implication was that that’s how that white man thinks Hispanic men drive.
The genius was that it was about personal pride too and how he appeared before his son for Mendoza, and that Toby was wise enough to see that, address it and find a way to redress it. But then we got the sense that Toby has (and Sam) got to know and be exasperated by Mendza offscreen as they've gone through the confirmation process. It was fairly obvious that the press had now realised he was, er, willing to give quotes.
For me, there was a running tension as to whether Josh would forget to unclip his mike before taking his very important phone calls, some of which, of course, were about how lost Sam and Toby were.
1.16 20 Hours in L.A’was the much promised Californian trip (which Mandy had a hand in setting up…and she was not just not on the trip, but not in the episode. Margaret’s displeasure about staying in Washington was PERFECTION.) There was a bit of fun at Hollywood as depicted through the persective of Washington as depicted by Hollywood. David Hasselhoff, even, turns up.
Amid all of this, not much was being achieved, and even though they got the ethanol tax credit passed, Bartlet conceded that it was pointless, Josh couldn’t easily get their fundraiser’s host to grasp the fairly obvious political point that Bartlet had to spell out to him.
Zoey’s plans for an LA experience got trampled. (She is naïve, as was seen here, but she was entitled to be grouchy at that, even if the town hall meeting was annoying.) Young Jorja Fox was introduced as Gina, and probably the most visceral moment of the ep for me was watching her capably but bravely do her job of putting her body between Zoey and the dodgy-looking men who didn’t like Zoey’s relationship with Charlie. Which has totally blossomed offscreen. Aw, kids.
Speaking of relationships, the Donna/Josh/Joey/Q is a bit headsplodey. He’ll always and forever by Q to me. There was the usual intimacy and body language between Josh and Donna, but she nonetheless called Josh out on his crush on Joey. I mean, it was clear she didn’t expect him to listen to her and try to call Joey, or to take Donna’s advice later (after she’d drunk some. Sidenote: and wore the most fetching purple cardigan. I also loved CJ’s flame-coloured dress at the party) to ignore what Joey had said and how he’d understood the message. This possibly was Donna telling him what she thinks is romantic. But on the other hand, Josh is clearly smitten by Joey and it’s somewhat reciprocated, and now we see Joey is involved with a man she’s shown she’s better than professionally. (And a lot older than her.) On the other hand, he can sign a little.
Anyway, Joey impressing Toby, Sam and CJ, and suggested a more nuanced take on ’the numbers’ and a more politically astute approach was also probably important, while Bartlet’s revelations to Marcus about the toll of the job (SHOUD HAVE LISTENED TO LEO ABOUT NOT PUSHING YOURSELF SO HARD) tied into his grumpiness at being woken after three hours of sleep in ‘Celestial Navigation’ and the fact that he snapped then, after a day of provocations, was telling in and of itself.
So, this episode was certainly interesting and engaging, but didn’t have quite the structural flair or subtextual heft of the previous ep, although it moved things along and spoke to the administration’s direction and continuing problems with Hoynes. But the latter is looking less and less credible as the next President - the line about the President having all the power seemed particularly naïve, given the insider’s view we’ve got.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/455603.html.