Mainly The West Wing
First, the BBC has announced that Anton will be replacing Bruno as a judge for the next series of Strictly because of travel issues, which makes sense. I look forward to inflated marks and extra amusement when Anton has to judge Latin dances. And a drip feed of news about the show for the rest of the summer.
And next, the triple bill of The West Wing
2.14 The War at Home
I actually watched this a few days after ‘Bartlet’s Third State of the Union’, so although it would have worked out better here if I’d stuck to my usual pattern of double-bills, I appreciated that this picked up almost immediately after that ep and continued with the pressure of the Colombian hostage situation and the impending discussion/argument with Abbey, all putting Bartlet under considerable stress. More so than I might have had I been waiting a week.
Ainsley rightly called Sam out for ignoring her wishes about meeting the President, and it was again embarrassing (I bet she checked her skirt after what Leo said, even if she did realise quite quickly she’d opened the wrong door), but Bartlet said far nicer words than ’sex kitten’. Toby got threatened over the blue-ribbon commission, and the linking together of all the core base they’d seemed to hack off in the speech was more threatening that it had first appeared.
Josh was seriously more bugged by ‘impervious’ Donna continuing the attack over him dating Joey, both in discussing it with Sam and after Joey explained it to him. Easy enough to breezily discount what he was saying (oh, does that make me Sam? Eww.) I presume he and Sam were cogitating about what the President asked them to do about drugs policy at the back of their minds, as they were busy with other things all ep. (Though, yeah, the podcast made a good point that that was more about expositing to the audience than him credibly telling them stuff they didn’t know about drugs policy.)
The failure of the mission (and you’d hope that they might want to look over the intel mess-up) was horrible. Vietnam doesn’t have the resonance for me as it would for men of the President and Leo’s generation or even Americans more generally, but referencing it was still poweful.
As ever, I loved the insight into the Bartlets’ marriage, and how it was clear that Abbey was really worried about his health, and capable of making him face up to what he was letting happen (I will presume that Josh, CJ and Sam are too in the middle of it to really pick up on this as a definite shift for gearing up to re-elect, especially if they were half assuming they’d be going for two terms. Josh is probably the one looking furthest ahead.)
After several iterations of the discussion about giving into the drug gang’s demands that just showed what a tough call it was, the Colombian President did offer a convenient way out. I hadn’t registered that his name was Santos until Hrishi pointed it out, and they made a good pont on the podcast about how on earth his actions would play out in ‘deus ex Colombia.’
2.15 Ellie
Continuing themes: in both the previous and this ep, we had women explaining other women to men, although in this case, it was the Surgeon General Godmother explaining a daughter to her father. I mean, duh, she adores you, Jed. (As the father of three daughters, no wonder Bartlet referenced her father to Ainsley in the previous ep.)
Drugs continued to be a theme, but from a different angle - I’m presuming with Ellie’s studying medicine, being Abbey’s daughter and the Surgeon General being her godmother (oh, hai, nepotism), she just followed the transcript online and reacted accordingly.
We even had the same ‘X evening’ format on title cards, even if this was obviously a little later. Toby had to deal with Gllette and more fall-out from the blue-ribbon commission (by the time he got to fighting about it with Andi, he had come up with a cogent argument for having a free and frank discussion with all options on the table.) As ever, Andi was delightful, especially when calling out patronising sexism that wasn’t even the most egregious example of such. He had perhaps not quite calculated for the heat he was going to get for his re-election mode from inside his own party?
I felt for Sam having to put up with the ball bouncing, (podcast confirms this is the first instance) and although I was perfectly sure CJ (whose running ‘I quit’ was amusing) could have CRUSHED that producer all on her own, thank you very much, yay! Sam. And Mrs L was dryly funny and spot on about that film - totally not something the President would want to watch. Or me once I heard its descripton.
I liked that the work family was allowed to watch the movies (as Josh had hubristically called leaving at nine on a Wednesday a win at the start of the ep, the team deserve it). But Ellie was new, even if Leo’s admonition about all the crises that had come up while the President was in Tokyo was not. The podcast made an excellent point that Leo’s arguments about the political fight that they would have to have because of the SG’s comments still remained valid and should have undercut the win for ‘President Dad’, but they suggested it wasn’t going to be a recurring point. Hrishi also pointed out that the MS and something else that had been a big deal in the previous episode was parked, and that mainly this episode was about exploring the impact of being President on Bartlet family life from another angle.
2.16 Somebody’s Going to Emergency, Somebody’s Going To Jail
Such a different opening from the norm. Sam really didn’t want to listen to Leo about going home, and it was obvious he’d had a few days like this and everyone was concerned, so there was already a different flavour to this Big Block of Cheese Day. The whole thing about the Mercator map being essentially wrong has stayed with me since I first saw the show.
I was amused by Donna, hating herself a bit, being the one to give Leo’s speech (which he was interrupted from completin), although her claim that they all didn’t mind it wasn’t entirely borne out by Josh, who was all for being a fly on the wall for all the meets. (Donna didn’t have one before.)
Donna let a friend to lobby Sam, who was preparing a list for the President to consider pardoning. I liked that he turned out to have a personal connection, in that he’d taken an interest in the case at Princeton. (I knew nothing about the real case the podcast referred to, although in hindsight, it makes sense that it wasn’t all made up, but tweaked for their purposes.)
And so Sam took it on and we got to meet Agent Mike Casper (and watching it now, one wonders if Coulson was undercover), although back in the day I’m sure I thought ‘Oh, that’s Agent Caspar’. (Also I of course recognised the main social justice mapper chap as Dr Phlox from Enterprise.)
Being less involved than Sam, I was quicker to accept Nancy’s word (and the fact that the scene with Caspar was so early in the episode was suggestive.) But of course, Sam was transferring so much of his emotions about the discovery of his father’s infidelity. (As it had worked, I was a bit unsympathetic when he got hurt that Donna had encouraged her friend to boost his ego. BTW, the fact that said friend knew Josh struck me as a bit weird as this was the first time she’d come to the White House, so it didn’t seem like she and Donna were that close. Also, although Donna’s workplace is the top trump, she’s not an associate professor.)
But overall, I liked how Donna was the liaison in this plotline, and that we got to see their relationship. I was struck by the amazingly platonic hug, given that it involved the hotness that is Sam Seaborne, although a Sam who has been massively disillusioned. Most importantly, it did look like it offered him some comfort.
Yes, CJ, Toby probably did want to make out with you for negotiating no TV cameras at the meet with the protesters, and everyone understood why. (It seemed like less of a win when we met the chaotic protestors, but still.) But also, Hrishi never saw the Toby/CJ UST before when he was obsessively rewatching the show? I mean, it’s become obvious that different things jump out at viewers, but SRSLY? I enjoyed Toby’s interplay with the police officer. A little part of me is disappointed that we didn’t get to see him take the protesters on in person too.
I’ve forgotten what the President was up to, was he enjoying himself lecturing about economics again at some point? Or trade? That’s maybe the trouble for me of watching a triple bill (that and it takes me forever to get post ready.)
Ginger had a couple of nice moments, opening up the communication office (I hope that they have a rota for that, given the long days those assistants work) and ignoring Sam’s orders to tell him Nancy McNally wanted to see him.
And I was aware at some level of the thematic link between the dodgy maps and Sam’s father having so let him down/the spy’s betrayal, but I appreciated how fully they teased that out on the podcast.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/464046.html.
And next, the triple bill of The West Wing
2.14 The War at Home
I actually watched this a few days after ‘Bartlet’s Third State of the Union’, so although it would have worked out better here if I’d stuck to my usual pattern of double-bills, I appreciated that this picked up almost immediately after that ep and continued with the pressure of the Colombian hostage situation and the impending discussion/argument with Abbey, all putting Bartlet under considerable stress. More so than I might have had I been waiting a week.
Ainsley rightly called Sam out for ignoring her wishes about meeting the President, and it was again embarrassing (I bet she checked her skirt after what Leo said, even if she did realise quite quickly she’d opened the wrong door), but Bartlet said far nicer words than ’sex kitten’. Toby got threatened over the blue-ribbon commission, and the linking together of all the core base they’d seemed to hack off in the speech was more threatening that it had first appeared.
Josh was seriously more bugged by ‘impervious’ Donna continuing the attack over him dating Joey, both in discussing it with Sam and after Joey explained it to him. Easy enough to breezily discount what he was saying (oh, does that make me Sam? Eww.) I presume he and Sam were cogitating about what the President asked them to do about drugs policy at the back of their minds, as they were busy with other things all ep. (Though, yeah, the podcast made a good point that that was more about expositing to the audience than him credibly telling them stuff they didn’t know about drugs policy.)
The failure of the mission (and you’d hope that they might want to look over the intel mess-up) was horrible. Vietnam doesn’t have the resonance for me as it would for men of the President and Leo’s generation or even Americans more generally, but referencing it was still poweful.
As ever, I loved the insight into the Bartlets’ marriage, and how it was clear that Abbey was really worried about his health, and capable of making him face up to what he was letting happen (I will presume that Josh, CJ and Sam are too in the middle of it to really pick up on this as a definite shift for gearing up to re-elect, especially if they were half assuming they’d be going for two terms. Josh is probably the one looking furthest ahead.)
After several iterations of the discussion about giving into the drug gang’s demands that just showed what a tough call it was, the Colombian President did offer a convenient way out. I hadn’t registered that his name was Santos until Hrishi pointed it out, and they made a good pont on the podcast about how on earth his actions would play out in ‘deus ex Colombia.’
2.15 Ellie
Continuing themes: in both the previous and this ep, we had women explaining other women to men, although in this case, it was the Surgeon General Godmother explaining a daughter to her father. I mean, duh, she adores you, Jed. (As the father of three daughters, no wonder Bartlet referenced her father to Ainsley in the previous ep.)
Drugs continued to be a theme, but from a different angle - I’m presuming with Ellie’s studying medicine, being Abbey’s daughter and the Surgeon General being her godmother (oh, hai, nepotism), she just followed the transcript online and reacted accordingly.
We even had the same ‘X evening’ format on title cards, even if this was obviously a little later. Toby had to deal with Gllette and more fall-out from the blue-ribbon commission (by the time he got to fighting about it with Andi, he had come up with a cogent argument for having a free and frank discussion with all options on the table.) As ever, Andi was delightful, especially when calling out patronising sexism that wasn’t even the most egregious example of such. He had perhaps not quite calculated for the heat he was going to get for his re-election mode from inside his own party?
I felt for Sam having to put up with the ball bouncing, (podcast confirms this is the first instance) and although I was perfectly sure CJ (whose running ‘I quit’ was amusing) could have CRUSHED that producer all on her own, thank you very much, yay! Sam. And Mrs L was dryly funny and spot on about that film - totally not something the President would want to watch. Or me once I heard its descripton.
I liked that the work family was allowed to watch the movies (as Josh had hubristically called leaving at nine on a Wednesday a win at the start of the ep, the team deserve it). But Ellie was new, even if Leo’s admonition about all the crises that had come up while the President was in Tokyo was not. The podcast made an excellent point that Leo’s arguments about the political fight that they would have to have because of the SG’s comments still remained valid and should have undercut the win for ‘President Dad’, but they suggested it wasn’t going to be a recurring point. Hrishi also pointed out that the MS and something else that had been a big deal in the previous episode was parked, and that mainly this episode was about exploring the impact of being President on Bartlet family life from another angle.
2.16 Somebody’s Going to Emergency, Somebody’s Going To Jail
Such a different opening from the norm. Sam really didn’t want to listen to Leo about going home, and it was obvious he’d had a few days like this and everyone was concerned, so there was already a different flavour to this Big Block of Cheese Day. The whole thing about the Mercator map being essentially wrong has stayed with me since I first saw the show.
I was amused by Donna, hating herself a bit, being the one to give Leo’s speech (which he was interrupted from completin), although her claim that they all didn’t mind it wasn’t entirely borne out by Josh, who was all for being a fly on the wall for all the meets. (Donna didn’t have one before.)
Donna let a friend to lobby Sam, who was preparing a list for the President to consider pardoning. I liked that he turned out to have a personal connection, in that he’d taken an interest in the case at Princeton. (I knew nothing about the real case the podcast referred to, although in hindsight, it makes sense that it wasn’t all made up, but tweaked for their purposes.)
And so Sam took it on and we got to meet Agent Mike Casper (and watching it now, one wonders if Coulson was undercover), although back in the day I’m sure I thought ‘Oh, that’s Agent Caspar’. (Also I of course recognised the main social justice mapper chap as Dr Phlox from Enterprise.)
Being less involved than Sam, I was quicker to accept Nancy’s word (and the fact that the scene with Caspar was so early in the episode was suggestive.) But of course, Sam was transferring so much of his emotions about the discovery of his father’s infidelity. (As it had worked, I was a bit unsympathetic when he got hurt that Donna had encouraged her friend to boost his ego. BTW, the fact that said friend knew Josh struck me as a bit weird as this was the first time she’d come to the White House, so it didn’t seem like she and Donna were that close. Also, although Donna’s workplace is the top trump, she’s not an associate professor.)
But overall, I liked how Donna was the liaison in this plotline, and that we got to see their relationship. I was struck by the amazingly platonic hug, given that it involved the hotness that is Sam Seaborne, although a Sam who has been massively disillusioned. Most importantly, it did look like it offered him some comfort.
Yes, CJ, Toby probably did want to make out with you for negotiating no TV cameras at the meet with the protesters, and everyone understood why. (It seemed like less of a win when we met the chaotic protestors, but still.) But also, Hrishi never saw the Toby/CJ UST before when he was obsessively rewatching the show? I mean, it’s become obvious that different things jump out at viewers, but SRSLY? I enjoyed Toby’s interplay with the police officer. A little part of me is disappointed that we didn’t get to see him take the protesters on in person too.
I’ve forgotten what the President was up to, was he enjoying himself lecturing about economics again at some point? Or trade? That’s maybe the trouble for me of watching a triple bill (that and it takes me forever to get post ready.)
Ginger had a couple of nice moments, opening up the communication office (I hope that they have a rota for that, given the long days those assistants work) and ignoring Sam’s orders to tell him Nancy McNally wanted to see him.
And I was aware at some level of the thematic link between the dodgy maps and Sam’s father having so let him down/the spy’s betrayal, but I appreciated how fully they teased that out on the podcast.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/464046.html.