A 'The West Wing' double-bill
Feb. 5th, 2021 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI’ve started listening to the The West Wing Weekly podcast (h/t ![[dreamwidth.org profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
vialethe, which I’m finding interesting, Hirishi Hirway’s comments are insightful (and er, we agree on certain things) while Joshua Malina’s are about half the interesting perspective of an actor, half less so, with the guests bringing even more insight. I’m still trying to work out the balance between watching episodes and listening to podcasts. For instance, I drafted this, then listened to the podcast of 1.07, in which Josh Malina makes some reasonable criticisms that I hadn’t picked up of ‘State Dinner’. By the way, I'm sorry if there are typs typos or idiocies, but if I read this through again I will never post it.
So, I wouldn’t say that ‘State Dinner’ and ‘Enemies’ were the best double-bill, and I’d urge leaving a gap between both. I thought both were good, but the end of ‘State Dinner’ was so powerful that I should have let it sit for longer than mere seconds – I had a bit of whiplash that the next episode wasn’t carrying on immediately after, even though there was no ‘to be contined’. Very little carries on directly to the next episode, other than CJ/Danny, and we get another shade of Mandy trying to influence policy/coming into conflict with Josh (and Toby a little more here.) What’s going on with Sam actually jars, because a part of me was all ‘stay away for a bit, Mallory, until Sam figures out what he did wrong.’ As it is, one can only hope that he did some reflection and moved on from feeling all his feelings over what had happened with Laurie. On the other hand, now we’ve met her, we feel the absence of Abbey for Jed, perhaps. So, obviously the two episodes were never intended to be a double bill, but episodes shown one week after the other as part of a whole season.
‘State Dinner’ is perhaps the most impactful because there’s the build-up to the dinner, it’s the first time we’ve seen a big do at the White House, and lives are at stake. The central idea of putting on this show of diplomacy with several other things competing for attention is great dramatic fodder. We meet Abbey in a personal capacity, as Jed’s spouse and in her role as First Lady, trying to matchmake CJ just as something has started with Danny. And it mainly feels that it’s her their respective job that is why CJ is saying no to their dating (in the next episode), except she’s disconcerted by him. (IIRC I was never that enthused by CJ/Danny but grew into ‘oh fine’ acceptance?)
I was somewhat annoyed by ‘the boys’ in this ep, directing a lot of ‘grow UP’s at Josh vis a vis Mandy. Yes, she was naïve, but I don’t think she was necessarily wrong to suggest that they ought to be seen to be trying every possible means of getting it done before resorting to violence. I possibly had the same reaction to the FBI man’s language (while being reminded again that the US is a foreign land to me, however much of its media I consume) as she did, but it turned out to be an apt description of those people. Interesting on a personal note that Josh visibly decided not to go after her after she found out the negotiator had been killed. It’s not surprising after the way he told her and that they’d disagreed over this all day, but another step along where the show decided to go with this relationship. And it was striking that we then didn’t see her for a while into the next episode, IIRC.
Her dress with the crimson offsetting the gold was very nice. I’d have been tempted to switch the ratio of the colours, myself. Actually, it was fun to see everyone dressing up, with the men peacocking, and CJ getting rightly complimented and the visual of Donna doing Josh’s tie. (The guest on the podcast about this episode was the costume designer, and apparently it was the First Lady’s cleavage, which I didn’t even register, that got criticised when the show aired.)
Anyway, Toby rightly got hoist with his own petard, as it was a bit rich asking for a favour after delivering a lecture and he should have seen that one coming. I hadn’t remembered what the meeting was about or, alas, that Donna would have got the wrong information about the man’s English language proficiency.
But Sam…so obnoxious. Laurie (I got the name ‘Brittany’ stuck in my head after the episode), why do you find him so charming that you want to spend time with him now, other than the pretty? He was patronising about her need to study, he clearly can’t cope with her job, and just yeah, ugh. The dynamic between him and Toby professionally is interesting and we saw more of it in the next ep.
But it was a rich episode, with little touches like Charlie’s personal stakes with the hurricane, the comedy of the ‘yes/no’ Indonesian president and the tragedy of the battle carrier.
‘Enemies’ didn’t have anything as major, but what it had it did well. The Cabinet meeting was ouch. Yes, Hoynes was puffing himself up unwontedly and he’s got form undermining the President, but Bartlet cut him off at the knees, and the state of their relationship was laid bare, there and in the later encounter. I loved how this central dynamic tied into Josh’s observation, which showed he had been listening to Mandy some. FWIW. I disagreed with the general anti-environmental attitude, but I saw Josh and Toby’s strategic point – hard to argue how right they were about it, or whether they were too geed up to accept that they’d have to compromise and take as much of the win as possible. But it was satisfying that the solution tied into the opening scene, which was funny because Josh had just mumbled a threat to the life of the President who was going on and on about his beloved national parks, got punished for it. But it was still nice that THAT was how Bartlet would get his political win.
The other big thing was Leo-Mallory-Sam, with Bartlet now showing the all-knowingness Abbey had displayed in the previous episode. I was glad that Mallory carried her point that Leo blocking Sam from going on a date with her was not on, to both her father and his friend. I think that the writers were having fun at their own expense with Sam and Toby becoming obsessed with the nailing the birthday message. Although I believe it’s Sam’s general issues with how he sees/treats women (not just Laurie, but also CJ so far), not his work, is the thing Mallory needs to keep an eye out on. Well, that and he really admires her father and… I also agree with Mallory that Leo needs to get his own place and not live in a hotel, but, as the ep showed, unravelling a long marriage is a slow and hurtful process. (But maybe I didn’t side as much with him as the episode wanted me to?)
vialethe, which I’m finding interesting, Hirishi Hirway’s comments are insightful (and er, we agree on certain things) while Joshua Malina’s are about half the interesting perspective of an actor, half less so, with the guests bringing even more insight. I’m still trying to work out the balance between watching episodes and listening to podcasts. For instance, I drafted this, then listened to the podcast of 1.07, in which Josh Malina makes some reasonable criticisms that I hadn’t picked up of ‘State Dinner’. By the way, I'm sorry if there are So, I wouldn’t say that ‘State Dinner’ and ‘Enemies’ were the best double-bill, and I’d urge leaving a gap between both. I thought both were good, but the end of ‘State Dinner’ was so powerful that I should have let it sit for longer than mere seconds – I had a bit of whiplash that the next episode wasn’t carrying on immediately after, even though there was no ‘to be contined’. Very little carries on directly to the next episode, other than CJ/Danny, and we get another shade of Mandy trying to influence policy/coming into conflict with Josh (and Toby a little more here.) What’s going on with Sam actually jars, because a part of me was all ‘stay away for a bit, Mallory, until Sam figures out what he did wrong.’ As it is, one can only hope that he did some reflection and moved on from feeling all his feelings over what had happened with Laurie. On the other hand, now we’ve met her, we feel the absence of Abbey for Jed, perhaps. So, obviously the two episodes were never intended to be a double bill, but episodes shown one week after the other as part of a whole season.
‘State Dinner’ is perhaps the most impactful because there’s the build-up to the dinner, it’s the first time we’ve seen a big do at the White House, and lives are at stake. The central idea of putting on this show of diplomacy with several other things competing for attention is great dramatic fodder. We meet Abbey in a personal capacity, as Jed’s spouse and in her role as First Lady, trying to matchmake CJ just as something has started with Danny. And it mainly feels that it’s her their respective job that is why CJ is saying no to their dating (in the next episode), except she’s disconcerted by him. (IIRC I was never that enthused by CJ/Danny but grew into ‘oh fine’ acceptance?)
I was somewhat annoyed by ‘the boys’ in this ep, directing a lot of ‘grow UP’s at Josh vis a vis Mandy. Yes, she was naïve, but I don’t think she was necessarily wrong to suggest that they ought to be seen to be trying every possible means of getting it done before resorting to violence. I possibly had the same reaction to the FBI man’s language (while being reminded again that the US is a foreign land to me, however much of its media I consume) as she did, but it turned out to be an apt description of those people. Interesting on a personal note that Josh visibly decided not to go after her after she found out the negotiator had been killed. It’s not surprising after the way he told her and that they’d disagreed over this all day, but another step along where the show decided to go with this relationship. And it was striking that we then didn’t see her for a while into the next episode, IIRC.
Her dress with the crimson offsetting the gold was very nice. I’d have been tempted to switch the ratio of the colours, myself. Actually, it was fun to see everyone dressing up, with the men peacocking, and CJ getting rightly complimented and the visual of Donna doing Josh’s tie. (The guest on the podcast about this episode was the costume designer, and apparently it was the First Lady’s cleavage, which I didn’t even register, that got criticised when the show aired.)
Anyway, Toby rightly got hoist with his own petard, as it was a bit rich asking for a favour after delivering a lecture and he should have seen that one coming. I hadn’t remembered what the meeting was about or, alas, that Donna would have got the wrong information about the man’s English language proficiency.
But Sam…so obnoxious. Laurie (I got the name ‘Brittany’ stuck in my head after the episode), why do you find him so charming that you want to spend time with him now, other than the pretty? He was patronising about her need to study, he clearly can’t cope with her job, and just yeah, ugh. The dynamic between him and Toby professionally is interesting and we saw more of it in the next ep.
But it was a rich episode, with little touches like Charlie’s personal stakes with the hurricane, the comedy of the ‘yes/no’ Indonesian president and the tragedy of the battle carrier.
‘Enemies’ didn’t have anything as major, but what it had it did well. The Cabinet meeting was ouch. Yes, Hoynes was puffing himself up unwontedly and he’s got form undermining the President, but Bartlet cut him off at the knees, and the state of their relationship was laid bare, there and in the later encounter. I loved how this central dynamic tied into Josh’s observation, which showed he had been listening to Mandy some. FWIW. I disagreed with the general anti-environmental attitude, but I saw Josh and Toby’s strategic point – hard to argue how right they were about it, or whether they were too geed up to accept that they’d have to compromise and take as much of the win as possible. But it was satisfying that the solution tied into the opening scene, which was funny because Josh had just mumbled a threat to the life of the President who was going on and on about his beloved national parks, got punished for it. But it was still nice that THAT was how Bartlet would get his political win.
The other big thing was Leo-Mallory-Sam, with Bartlet now showing the all-knowingness Abbey had displayed in the previous episode. I was glad that Mallory carried her point that Leo blocking Sam from going on a date with her was not on, to both her father and his friend. I think that the writers were having fun at their own expense with Sam and Toby becoming obsessed with the nailing the birthday message. Although I believe it’s Sam’s general issues with how he sees/treats women (not just Laurie, but also CJ so far), not his work, is the thing Mallory needs to keep an eye out on. Well, that and he really admires her father and… I also agree with Mallory that Leo needs to get his own place and not live in a hotel, but, as the ep showed, unravelling a long marriage is a slow and hurtful process. (But maybe I didn’t side as much with him as the episode wanted me to?)
no subject
Date: 2021-02-07 10:28 am (UTC)The State Dinner is one of my fav S1 episodes, though mostly for that stunning end scene. The rest of the episode has its ups and downs, as you mention, and I can imagine switching into the daily grind fight of Enemies immediately after didn't sit well at all.
Every time I watch the show through again, I think to myself how much more I like Toby than I did on first airing (understandable, as I was 16 when the show premiered) and how much less I like Sam. The way he treats women really is all lip service and very little positive action, and it's incredibly irritating to watch twenty years on. The whole Laurie storyline is the most egregious, but it never really stops with his character.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 08:12 am (UTC)In 'The State Dinner', the interaction between crises and the big set-piece event also appealed to me - making me think of Downton Abbey, in some ways - but as you say, the final scene is a stunner.
I was a little older when I first watched it but hadn't started working, for instance, but it's interesting to come at the show with a changed perspective. I agree with you about Sam - his interactions with CJ are not the most respectful, for instance!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 09:50 am (UTC)Richard Schiff is such a great podcast guest - you can really tell how much of himself he put into Toby, and how strongly he still feels about the character all these years later.