On to season 2
Apr. 17th, 2021 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe West Wing - 2.1 and 2.2 In The Shadow of Two Gunmen parts 1 and 2
Excellent episodes. If I had a quibble, I thought Leo and Bartlet were guilty of repeating themselves, when the point had been made already, towards the end of the first episode, which is ironic given ‘What’s next?’.
I was reminded/aware from Sorkin’s interview on the podcast that he was intentionally using these season openers to reintroduce the characters and picking up on all the intriguing seeds he’d dropped about the campaign (that being the campaign to be the Democrat nominee, and I also inferred that if Leo had resigned from being a Secretary, the incumbent was a Democrat.) It also feels inevitable now that Josh was the one who was shot, with the involvement of Hoynes in the present leading to the likely rumbling storyline of who was in charge when Bartlet was under anaesthesia (Leo – oops), but mostly because of the death of Josh’s father and Bartlet stepping in as a father figure to some extent, and us seeing that pivotal point in their relationship. (It was quite something to learn from the podcast that Bradley Whitford had lost his own father after the pilot and that Sorkin had, sensitively, according to the actor, used that as inspiration. Also, it of course seems unthinkable that anyone else should play Josh Lyman when Sorkin had him in mind when writing the pilot. No matter how pretty Rob Morrow is.)
Josh and his poker face. I mean, JOSH’S FACE when Bartlet admitted that he had done the dairy farmers wrong, then explained why, and JOSH’S FACE when he came to see Sam again.
Yet the unfolding story in the present was so compelling, I was a bit grumpy at the first flashback, but of course they added a texture to everything, letting us see how most of these people had come together.
And it was the moments of humanity that I’ll remember, punctuating the bigger drama: Ginger coming into the office so shaken and Toby, of all people, giving her a hug; Mrs Landingham’s hand covering Donna’s as they waited.
New season 2 credits, with some of the actors’ bits updated and Donna in, Mandy out.
The whole ‘telling it like it is’ theme bashed me over the head because nearly all the characters were at it in the flashbacks.
Even I could see that this was very Josh/Sam friendly with the new-to-us history that may or may not be a retcon (CJ’s working in the entertainment industry, definite retcon, given the ’20 Hours in LA ignorance, as was pointed out on the podcast.) I did find Sam leaving his law office a bit too TV drama, but obviously Josh’s blank on the name of his firm worked wonderfully about how it was anonymous, unimportant. And we learned of a fiancé who we have not heard of since. I suppose she wanted to marry a partner in Anonymous, Unimportant Law Firm, not Sam Seaborne. (I was going to type ‘dodged a bullet there, Sam’ but remembered the context.)
I loved the raspy voice of the woman Toby was talking to, who delightfully turned out to be a random stranger.
Tommy Schlamme claimed on the podcast that everyone looking younger was down to Acting, but CJ’s frizzy hair and Donna’s shorter hair length helped orient me. I felt for CJ with her glasses accident making her departure from her job even more ignoble and then enjoyed the epic pratfalling that made the treadmill gag intro of the pilot seem like nothing (athough I remembered it better.) And so we learned that Toby brought her in, which, along with Josh bringing Sam in, was nice. And a touch more organic.
Donna’s first meet with Josh worked as a contrast, because she was called upon to tell the truth, instead of volunteering it like nearly everyone else i.e. admit she’d been exaggerating, so it was slightly different, and her reasons for joining the campaign were mainly personal, but her question of ‘Why not?’ felt justified. And lo, it was the first of many walks and talks, working beautifully with that awful prefectly pitched moment where you realised she didn’t know Josh had been sot (though it’s only in hindsight that the fact that she was the only assistant to come to the hospital raises its picky little head. The justification is her relationship with Josh, but she had no reason not to do as Ginger had done and go to the workplace. In the moment, that didn’t occur to me at all.) And I loved that ‘I don’t understand’, where she needed to be told by Toby that Josh’s state was critical, because it spoke to how impossible the idea of Josh being so close to death was to her, as someone who hadn’t been there in Rosslyn.
And that chaos played well. Gina’s feeling bad that she couldn’t give more information, when, as Leo said, she’d done good – spotting the signal, giving out the warning – spoke to the high standards she set herself (echoed a bit b Ron Butterfield.) It was extremely satisfying to see Smirky Mcshootface get arrested with the full force of the FBI. Also, the fact that he was clearly smoking at a diner jumped out at me now (I have no idea if there are still eating establishments in the States where you can still smoke, but ew, I hope not, though IIRC it wasn’t unusual here when the show aired.)
And how those human reactions flowed with Jed’s priorities being Zoey, understandably, and then Leo. And looking back as all the talk about The Letter went on, while you wouldn’t expect Bartlet or anyone to be thinking of it when he was about to go under to be operated, the fact is that it was Leo he trusted, Leo who called the shots and Leo that Hoynes deferred to, which partly spoke to his weakness as we saw that Josh couldn’t claim to Sam that he was the real deal a few years ago.
But it’s obviously going to be a problem: Danny isn’t wrong in his questionning. What happened wasn’t very democratic (even if Leo McGarry was fitter to make the big call than John Hoynes.) Oh, and Nancy McNally got introduced, and she was again someone who argued a strongish case, so it was a good introduction, but ’Don’t mess with us tonight’ was the oneliner.
I also loved how the import of the questions hurled at CJ was slowly revealed (and if Toby wasn’t in the middle of it all, he’d see that ultimately the Secret Service line was the the right one, they shouldn’t ever comment on security matters, because even the information that they’d worked around the President/staff’s preference was far too much information for public consumption.) And while my level of engagement was great sympathy to CJ who had every reason to be shaken, it was only after her conversation with Sam that I realised how competent she’d been as Press Secretary underneath it all and indeed in throwing in those statistics about other gun crimes (proving Toby was right to hire her.) Is that the first time she’s called Sam ‘Sparky’? Adorable. Well she could have disclosed that she didn’t want to do the interviews because she didn’t remember what had happened, but I suppose she wanted to save face and stop them from sending her home. Rightly as it didn’t detrace from her core duty.
Obviously, the anaesthetist needed to know about the MS, but that storyline was thusly reintrodced. It struck me that by not going public when first diagnosed (surely before he really thought about running for the highest office), Bartlet had started down a certain path. Abby was great as Dr Bartlet and Mrs Bartlet throughout, and it made total sense that in the face of Josh’s loss, Jed found it in himself to be ready. And yes, I chuckled at his getting the names right.
Another brilliant moment was Charlie finding out he was the target. (I’ve been thinking about Sorkin’s coments that Charlie’s plotlines were alwas the first to get cut, although I can see how, plotwise, that would happen. It’s unfortunate that he’s the only black regular star, and even though bringing Janel Moloney into the credits maintains the previous season’s gender balance, she is mainly there as an adjunct to Josh. That is, conceivably, if Josh had died, she could have remained on staff – I don’t remember how anxious I was that he would make it the first time around, but there was zero tension on this front watching it now, and thinking SPOILER of how he too would resign, as Leo had, when he saw the real deal in the future.)
But the closing ‘What’s next?’ was a great way to lead on into the rest of the season, speaking as a first time rememberer, not a new viewer…
Excellent episodes. If I had a quibble, I thought Leo and Bartlet were guilty of repeating themselves, when the point had been made already, towards the end of the first episode, which is ironic given ‘What’s next?’.
I was reminded/aware from Sorkin’s interview on the podcast that he was intentionally using these season openers to reintroduce the characters and picking up on all the intriguing seeds he’d dropped about the campaign (that being the campaign to be the Democrat nominee, and I also inferred that if Leo had resigned from being a Secretary, the incumbent was a Democrat.) It also feels inevitable now that Josh was the one who was shot, with the involvement of Hoynes in the present leading to the likely rumbling storyline of who was in charge when Bartlet was under anaesthesia (Leo – oops), but mostly because of the death of Josh’s father and Bartlet stepping in as a father figure to some extent, and us seeing that pivotal point in their relationship. (It was quite something to learn from the podcast that Bradley Whitford had lost his own father after the pilot and that Sorkin had, sensitively, according to the actor, used that as inspiration. Also, it of course seems unthinkable that anyone else should play Josh Lyman when Sorkin had him in mind when writing the pilot. No matter how pretty Rob Morrow is.)
Josh and his poker face. I mean, JOSH’S FACE when Bartlet admitted that he had done the dairy farmers wrong, then explained why, and JOSH’S FACE when he came to see Sam again.
Yet the unfolding story in the present was so compelling, I was a bit grumpy at the first flashback, but of course they added a texture to everything, letting us see how most of these people had come together.
And it was the moments of humanity that I’ll remember, punctuating the bigger drama: Ginger coming into the office so shaken and Toby, of all people, giving her a hug; Mrs Landingham’s hand covering Donna’s as they waited.
New season 2 credits, with some of the actors’ bits updated and Donna in, Mandy out.
The whole ‘telling it like it is’ theme bashed me over the head because nearly all the characters were at it in the flashbacks.
Even I could see that this was very Josh/Sam friendly with the new-to-us history that may or may not be a retcon (CJ’s working in the entertainment industry, definite retcon, given the ’20 Hours in LA ignorance, as was pointed out on the podcast.) I did find Sam leaving his law office a bit too TV drama, but obviously Josh’s blank on the name of his firm worked wonderfully about how it was anonymous, unimportant. And we learned of a fiancé who we have not heard of since. I suppose she wanted to marry a partner in Anonymous, Unimportant Law Firm, not Sam Seaborne. (I was going to type ‘dodged a bullet there, Sam’ but remembered the context.)
I loved the raspy voice of the woman Toby was talking to, who delightfully turned out to be a random stranger.
Tommy Schlamme claimed on the podcast that everyone looking younger was down to Acting, but CJ’s frizzy hair and Donna’s shorter hair length helped orient me. I felt for CJ with her glasses accident making her departure from her job even more ignoble and then enjoyed the epic pratfalling that made the treadmill gag intro of the pilot seem like nothing (athough I remembered it better.) And so we learned that Toby brought her in, which, along with Josh bringing Sam in, was nice. And a touch more organic.
Donna’s first meet with Josh worked as a contrast, because she was called upon to tell the truth, instead of volunteering it like nearly everyone else i.e. admit she’d been exaggerating, so it was slightly different, and her reasons for joining the campaign were mainly personal, but her question of ‘Why not?’ felt justified. And lo, it was the first of many walks and talks, working beautifully with that awful prefectly pitched moment where you realised she didn’t know Josh had been sot (though it’s only in hindsight that the fact that she was the only assistant to come to the hospital raises its picky little head. The justification is her relationship with Josh, but she had no reason not to do as Ginger had done and go to the workplace. In the moment, that didn’t occur to me at all.) And I loved that ‘I don’t understand’, where she needed to be told by Toby that Josh’s state was critical, because it spoke to how impossible the idea of Josh being so close to death was to her, as someone who hadn’t been there in Rosslyn.
And that chaos played well. Gina’s feeling bad that she couldn’t give more information, when, as Leo said, she’d done good – spotting the signal, giving out the warning – spoke to the high standards she set herself (echoed a bit b Ron Butterfield.) It was extremely satisfying to see Smirky Mcshootface get arrested with the full force of the FBI. Also, the fact that he was clearly smoking at a diner jumped out at me now (I have no idea if there are still eating establishments in the States where you can still smoke, but ew, I hope not, though IIRC it wasn’t unusual here when the show aired.)
And how those human reactions flowed with Jed’s priorities being Zoey, understandably, and then Leo. And looking back as all the talk about The Letter went on, while you wouldn’t expect Bartlet or anyone to be thinking of it when he was about to go under to be operated, the fact is that it was Leo he trusted, Leo who called the shots and Leo that Hoynes deferred to, which partly spoke to his weakness as we saw that Josh couldn’t claim to Sam that he was the real deal a few years ago.
But it’s obviously going to be a problem: Danny isn’t wrong in his questionning. What happened wasn’t very democratic (even if Leo McGarry was fitter to make the big call than John Hoynes.) Oh, and Nancy McNally got introduced, and she was again someone who argued a strongish case, so it was a good introduction, but ’Don’t mess with us tonight’ was the oneliner.
I also loved how the import of the questions hurled at CJ was slowly revealed (and if Toby wasn’t in the middle of it all, he’d see that ultimately the Secret Service line was the the right one, they shouldn’t ever comment on security matters, because even the information that they’d worked around the President/staff’s preference was far too much information for public consumption.) And while my level of engagement was great sympathy to CJ who had every reason to be shaken, it was only after her conversation with Sam that I realised how competent she’d been as Press Secretary underneath it all and indeed in throwing in those statistics about other gun crimes (proving Toby was right to hire her.) Is that the first time she’s called Sam ‘Sparky’? Adorable. Well she could have disclosed that she didn’t want to do the interviews because she didn’t remember what had happened, but I suppose she wanted to save face and stop them from sending her home. Rightly as it didn’t detrace from her core duty.
Obviously, the anaesthetist needed to know about the MS, but that storyline was thusly reintrodced. It struck me that by not going public when first diagnosed (surely before he really thought about running for the highest office), Bartlet had started down a certain path. Abby was great as Dr Bartlet and Mrs Bartlet throughout, and it made total sense that in the face of Josh’s loss, Jed found it in himself to be ready. And yes, I chuckled at his getting the names right.
Another brilliant moment was Charlie finding out he was the target. (I’ve been thinking about Sorkin’s coments that Charlie’s plotlines were alwas the first to get cut, although I can see how, plotwise, that would happen. It’s unfortunate that he’s the only black regular star, and even though bringing Janel Moloney into the credits maintains the previous season’s gender balance, she is mainly there as an adjunct to Josh. That is, conceivably, if Josh had died, she could have remained on staff – I don’t remember how anxious I was that he would make it the first time around, but there was zero tension on this front watching it now, and thinking SPOILER of how he too would resign, as Leo had, when he saw the real deal in the future.)
But the closing ‘What’s next?’ was a great way to lead on into the rest of the season, speaking as a first time rememberer, not a new viewer…
no subject
Date: 2021-04-18 03:36 am (UTC)The smoking in the diner is an extra layer of grossness on our would-be assassin - by that point in the US, smoking was starting to be looked down on in general. It was already illegal to smoke in restaurants where I live then, though it varies by state and might still be legal somewhere for all I know.
And we learned of a fiancé who we have not heard of since. I suppose she wanted to marry a partner in Anonymous, Unimportant Law Firm, not Sam Seaborne.
That's certainly what Sam believes, yes. Keep her in mind!
though it’s only in hindsight that the fact that she was the only assistant to come to the hospital raises its picky little head. The justification is her relationship with Josh, but she had no reason not to do as Ginger had done and go to the workplace. In the moment, that didn’t occur to me at all.
Honestly it never occurred to me either, though it's certainly a relevant nitpick! We do see Mrs Landingham there as well, of course - and who's to say Margaret or Bonnie or Carol didn't come along too, only to return to the office when it was apparent that's where they were needed? But of course we know the real reason Donna was there, even if the show doesn't bother to justify it.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-18 02:49 pm (UTC)In that context, the way he stubs the cigarette out speaks to arrogance, he thinks he's got away with it, he's shown them (from Charlie and the rest to whoever would tell him he shouldn't smoke in the diner.)
I suppose it only struck me about Donna because Ginger's instinct was to come to work, while Mrs Landingham and Margeret were at work when they found out, and we saw Mrs Landingham come to the hosptal later. Otherwise, because there's emotional truth at the heart of it - Donna would go where she thought Josh needed her, even if she didn't know how much at the time, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. And none of the other characteurs do. It seems as if they haven't really questioned the Josh-and-Donna of Josh and Donna, just accepted that's how they are.