In Defence Of Season 5

[so_bambiesque]

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

Comments

[caz963]

I never really got the S5 hate thing, either. Sure, there are things wrong with parts of it, but there are some very good episodes - and as I'm very fond of saying "West Wing on a bad day was still miles ahead of anything else on television."
Not that they were all bad days, but you get what I mean.

Like you, I attribute some of the Pod!Leo-ness at the start of the season to all the crap he's been dealing with; Jed becoming distant from him, you know there have been times when Leo and Abbey haven't seen eye-to-eye, etc. etc.

I also think that some of the post-Sorkin writers took longer to find their feet than others, but one of the things they recognised that they had to do was to further develop Donna. quaggy_mire said it right when she said in that S1-4, Donna was "an assistant, wanting to do something more" but by S5 and 6, she was "something more stuck in the role of an assistant." The new guys knew they had to make her "something more" if she was ever going to end up with Josh, because, much as I adored them, a relationship between them earlier would have been too unequal.

I don't get the JD 'shippers' CJ hate either. Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have said what she did, because it came from a not-very-nice-place she was in at that time, (I think, relating to her own relationship) but it's not like she wasn't telling the truth. Or at least, the truth as she saw it. And I agree with the CJ/Hoynes stuff, too - it seemed perfectly plausible to me, and made earlier interactions between them - like waaaaay back at the start of S1 make a lot more sense.

I'll let you have your LJ back now, and just say that I watched Shutdown yesterday and as a result - this happened!

[so_bambiesque]

Like raedbard said above, "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.". Season 5 was never going to live up to the first four. I think that the last three seasons were a totally different animal, especially with all of the new guys. Not a bad animal, just a different one.

I think you only have to look back to The Stackhouse Filibuster, and maybe even earlier, I can't think of anything earlier right now, to know that Donna was way too smart to stay an assistant forever. I really worry that if Sorkin stayed, she wouldn't have developed at all, and I'd never say that I'm glad he left, but I guess it had it's potential benefits, at least where Donna is concerned. Blasphemy.

See, I do think that she should have said it. It was pretty clear that Donna was just staying for Josh, and holding herself back, and if she was going to listen to anyone, I think it would be CJ. Maybe CJ didn't intend it to all blurt out like that, but I think it's awesome that it did. If what CJ said led to Donna leaving the White House in season 6... Well I think it's great.

I honestly wonder if the CJ/Hoynes reveal had always been on the cards. I'm sure it wasn't but... I really do wonder... I'd love an answer to that somehow.

Yay, nice picspam! But there's still soooo much than just hot!Josh to redeem season 5! I know, I all day wittering on about it! ;)

[caz963]

But there's still soooo much than just hot!Josh to redeem season 5!

Yes - but picspamming pretty!Josh is a nice way to unwind after writing loads of school reports! :-)