In Defence Of Season 5
Yeah, I'm doing a thing right now. I intended to come on and basically freak out about the Brothers and Sisters finale, but in my world, this takes precedence. I was flisting and flisting my flist's flists (lol, yes stalker) and I saw at least 4 posts and comments in which people diss season 5. And I am so sick and tired of it. Apart from a couple
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A lot of the arcs (Gaza, the showdown at the Capitol) are pretty awesome and though it depresses me a lot 'Slow News Day' is heartbreaking, ballsy and brilliant, you're so right. And YAY love for 'No Exit', totally one of my guilty pleasures episodes. (And yeah, Toby/Will. *nods* ;)) And 'Supremes' - there is no bad there, 'tis true. And 'Han' breaks me into little pieces. Plus, S5 is where you first see the twins. Properly. *dies* Ahem.
I think, thank god someone else has said it, that you're absolutely right about the good parts of 5 being better than 7, but then I do hate 7 an awful lot, so not objective there!
There are plenty of moments when season 5 does what The West Wing does, and it inspires you and makes you think, as well as making you laugh, and wanting to crawl through the screen and give your character of choice a big fat hug.
YES. That. Absolutely. Perhaps the early seasons are so packed full of those moments for some of us that we tend to be more derisive of the seasons where they don't seem to come up so often. Maybe. (For me, there are genuine issues with the way Toby's arcs come to be handled but hey, he's still there and as you say, Schiff always kills, so. Better than 7.)
So, um, yes. Job done? Because now I'm thinking I should re-watch S5 with a much more open mind. So, this post is awesome and FTW. :D
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I think that's exactly the problem. The first four seasons were just so incredible, that nothing was ever going to match up, no matter how good they were. I think that every season has those episodes that you forget about and miss out when watching, but they also have those really stunning ones, and season 5 is no different.
The thing about characterisation is that, like I said, they couldn't possibly be the same people that they were in season 1. Too much happened. And people do develop and change over time. Maybe I'm biased, because I seem to be the only person who's pleased with what happened to their favourite character (Donna) and I can't help but wonder that if Sorkin had stayed on, she wouldn't have stepped out on her own.
But I am very very glad that I successfully changed opened your mind :) GO WATCH IT NOW ;)
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Yeeeeesss. To an extent. And, maybe I'll feel differently after I re-watch (which I will totally be doing very soon!) but my feeling re. Toby is that no-one had a proper handle on the character or where he was going. From the moment Will leaves to be with Bingo Bob, Toby arc turns into a downslide. Which, obviously, I'm not okay with and I think is based on a misreading of prior characterisation. But on the other hand, you're totally right: it's not like other characters have solely OMG happy times and they do change and mature and become different people, as they totally should. But I feel like the writers had a better idea of what to do with some characters than others. I think Toby lost a few of the layers he has in the earlier seasons and I couldn't hate his send-off more. Which colours my perceptions, OBviously! But anyway, sorry! *shutsup*
(And yes, I agree - I'm pretty sceptical about Donna getting as much development as she does in the late seasons if Sorkin had stayed. I'm glad she did get that development.)
:D *gets dvds out now*
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I completely understand that, and I appreciate that you know a lot more than I do when it comes to Toby! He's a really hard character to read, and I think, clearly to write for, so I can see why they had some problems getting to grips with him, as it were. And your point about "losing some of his layers"... that's exactly it.
WOOT! *Claims victory*
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