#24- picspam: five season two west wing reactions
At the start of the month I posted my reactions in picspam form to season one, and had made plans to create a follow up reactionary picspam for season two when I finished it. Well, today I finally watched "Two Cathedrals", and since I was sick and slightly bored decided to get onto my reaction picpsam with haste. Here are the results.
1. I can't pinpoint exactly why, but Donna really got on my nerves this season.
Maybe it's because of her expanded role. Maybe it's because of her flirtations with Josh that bore me. Maybe it's because of the actress who plays her voice. I don't know exactly why, but I do know that as of this moment Donna is annoying me. I know that a majority of West Wing fans love her, but I just don't get the notion that if I knew Donna in real life I'd look up to her or be friends with her. And yes, that does mean my Josh/Donna shipper feelings have not changed. (I feel like an oddball fan for feeling this way though.)
2. Charlie Young makes everything better.
While I adored Charlie Young in the first season, throughout this season he quickly shot up to the number two position on my favorite character list. (Leo is number one, of course.) Honestly, this show needs more Charlie Young. I loved his lighter scenes with Ms. Landingham or his heavier scenes learning about how he was the assassination attempt target or warning the President and Leo about Zoe's Georgetown medical forms. I even enjoyed that scene he had with Donna about the stuff falling from the sky. Basically, Charlie can elevate any scene to awesome.
3. I'm confused as to what Ainsley's purpose is besides being a token Republican.
I enjoy watching Ainsley, as she is very comedic, likable character and has good chemistry with Sodapop Curtis Sam Seaborne. Still, I can't help but get the feeling that she was only inserted into the show so that there would be a positive Republican figure, against the sea of Democrats. Her role gets ample screentime, but she only has scenes with Sam or minor characters and has yet to really play into anything but subplots. I hope that the writers figured out what they wanted to do with her in later seasons. (Then again, she'll probably just be written out as I feel like all the other major minor characters did in the early episodes of season two. They bring back Danny, right?!?!)
4. Martin Sheen yelling in a church = OMGAMAZINGNESS.
If you saw my other picspam, you know that this scene was one of the few things I was tipped off about before watching the show. Well, it did not fail to disappoint, even if I had no idea what half of the things he was saying. Also? I think this was the prettiest scene of the entire series I've seen thus far. The shots were you see the whole back of Martin Sheen against the massive backdrop of the church? Gorgeous.
5. Shockingly enough, my favorite episode of the series was "17 People".
"Two Cathedrals" was great. I loved the flashbacks with Chief Vick from Psych playing Young Dolores. We already know my affection for the climatic cathedral yelling scene. Yet, I still think that part of this episode and the two episodes before it got bogged down with too much talking about what they were going to do about the MS, and not enough doing what they were going to do about the MS. "17 People" was fabulous, in that it had it was just based around human emotion with the MS plotline. We got to experience what Toby was feeling and what Bartlett was feeling, and see all the tensions that it caused without much fuss or repetitive strategizing. Plus, it lightened it up a bit with the Correspondent's Dinner subplot. I understand that this was the cheapest episode of the show's season, but it still stood out to be amongst the rest as the best of the season.
+ Do not steal my colored screencaps! They took forever to make pretty, plus you can find originals here.
+Do not post this to Tumblr or Fanpop or anywhere else. If I find out about it, I will send out my rabid band of ninja warriors on you. Plus, it's just not classy.