"You're brother didn't have anymore fight in him. You still do."
CLT aired 'Drought Conditions' last week and it was just as fantastic as I remembered it. Sometimes I can't believe it's a post-Sorkin ep because it's a perfect mix of a serious plotline and humour but then again, it's written by Debora Cahn. Is she still working on Grey's? Because that's a waste of her talent.
Anyway. I love the framing of the whole ep, jumping back and forth between the present and the past.
Other things that I love:
The reveal of Senator Rafferty at the end
The beginning of Will/Kate
Charlie and Kate talking about the guy at the gym
Charlie: "Is Kate Harper seeing anyone?" I misunderstood the initial inquiry, didn't I?
CJ wearing Margaret's jacket
CJ: Can I lose the pin?
Margaret: It was my aunt's... she's no longer with us.
CJ: Then you should wear it.
Margaret: It's covering a hole.
Debbie refusing to let anyone see Jed
Donna: How are you doing?
Debbie: A little back pain.
Donna: I'm sorry to hear that.
Debbie: I'm thinking about heroin.
Donna: Really?
Debbie: Will's not getting in, don't make me repeat it.
Cliff Calley (obnoxious yet he makes me laugh)
Cliff: My niece loves those little M&Ms with the seal of the president on them. She takes them to school, gets a lot of attention. You got any of those lying around?
The whole sequence with 'Take Five' playing in the background
I love CJ's dress here.
And let's be real, Toby makes this episode.
The fight between him and Josh leaves you holding your breathe because they're brothers and it's painful to see them this way, and the scene between him and CJ makes me want to bawl my eyes out. OH TOBY. (Richard Schiff is fucking brilliant in both scenes.)
Screencaps from Screenmusings.net.
There's a recent article on Richard Schiff that mostly talks about him stumping for Joe Biden, but he mentions Toby in a paragraph:
Everywhere I go around this vast country, I get a common response: "I wish The West Wing were real. I wish we had a government and a president like you had on your show." I got some comments like that even when I was in Britain last year, performing on the West End stage. The West Wing had a couple of episodes that flashed back to the first Bartlet campaign. In one, while in New Hampshire, Toby Ziegler (my character) is sitting in a bar, having a cigar and a Scotch. A woman sidles up to him and asks: "Are you one of those political operatives?" Toby says yes. The woman asks: "Have you ever won?" I remember when we shot this. I took an inordinately long pause. Toby spent a good minute pressing his mind to remember. He couldn't recall one instance in his past when he had been on the winning side.
That was the moment I fell in love with my character. Not that he was a loser, but it had never occurred to him to keep score; he had never considered winning as his raison d'être for a life in politics. He was a man of conscience who followed his heart, and consequences be damned.
I've always read that scene as Toby being slightly embarrassed about never winning a campaign, but his interpretation works for me too since that is central to Toby's character. Toby ♥!
Anyway. I love the framing of the whole ep, jumping back and forth between the present and the past.
Other things that I love:
The reveal of Senator Rafferty at the end
The beginning of Will/Kate
Charlie and Kate talking about the guy at the gym
Charlie: "Is Kate Harper seeing anyone?" I misunderstood the initial inquiry, didn't I?
CJ wearing Margaret's jacket
CJ: Can I lose the pin?
Margaret: It was my aunt's... she's no longer with us.
CJ: Then you should wear it.
Margaret: It's covering a hole.
Debbie refusing to let anyone see Jed
Donna: How are you doing?
Debbie: A little back pain.
Donna: I'm sorry to hear that.
Debbie: I'm thinking about heroin.
Donna: Really?
Debbie: Will's not getting in, don't make me repeat it.
Cliff Calley (obnoxious yet he makes me laugh)
Cliff: My niece loves those little M&Ms with the seal of the president on them. She takes them to school, gets a lot of attention. You got any of those lying around?
The whole sequence with 'Take Five' playing in the background
I love CJ's dress here.
And let's be real, Toby makes this episode.
The fight between him and Josh leaves you holding your breathe because they're brothers and it's painful to see them this way, and the scene between him and CJ makes me want to bawl my eyes out. OH TOBY. (Richard Schiff is fucking brilliant in both scenes.)
Screencaps from Screenmusings.net.
There's a recent article on Richard Schiff that mostly talks about him stumping for Joe Biden, but he mentions Toby in a paragraph:
Everywhere I go around this vast country, I get a common response: "I wish The West Wing were real. I wish we had a government and a president like you had on your show." I got some comments like that even when I was in Britain last year, performing on the West End stage. The West Wing had a couple of episodes that flashed back to the first Bartlet campaign. In one, while in New Hampshire, Toby Ziegler (my character) is sitting in a bar, having a cigar and a Scotch. A woman sidles up to him and asks: "Are you one of those political operatives?" Toby says yes. The woman asks: "Have you ever won?" I remember when we shot this. I took an inordinately long pause. Toby spent a good minute pressing his mind to remember. He couldn't recall one instance in his past when he had been on the winning side.
That was the moment I fell in love with my character. Not that he was a loser, but it had never occurred to him to keep score; he had never considered winning as his raison d'être for a life in politics. He was a man of conscience who followed his heart, and consequences be damned.
I've always read that scene as Toby being slightly embarrassed about never winning a campaign, but his interpretation works for me too since that is central to Toby's character. Toby ♥!