shallowness: Kira in civvies looking straight ahead (Rogue X-Men Films)
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The West Wing - 2.11 The Leadership Breakfast

Josh and Sam’s attempt to start a fire was always worrying. It took me a few moments to realise that they were in the White House, and then it was clear that it was a Really Bad Idea of theirs. Donna was our link between this and the seven and a half hours arranging seating and…I’m not sure it was remembering, noticing they hadn’t mentioned his name or the familiarity of the set-up, but as soon as Toby mentioned the flaw, I knew what it was heading. And then Charlie had to wake the President. Very funny opening, possibly less so when it tied into Toby’s major mess-up over the breakfast.

The shambles over the offscreen Karen Cahill was played for laughs, though it showed off some more incompetence. It was beautifully played, so intricate, with Leo comng up with the indirect apology, which Josh handed off to Sam. It was never clear whether Sam actually broached Leo and the shoe comment, because for him it was always about being impressive. Donna was fairly hubristic over being a people person, (I didn’t catch the link with the previous scene as noted in the podcast, which also pointed out that impressing others was a theme) and mocking cute!Sam, and so sarcastic about the contents of the envelope delivered to Josh, so her fall felt justified. But I kind of think that the knickers incident topped it all, although I was more amused than squicked by the embarrassment factor. Because there was Josh (in view of Sam and CJ) holding her knickers. And then…asking Charlie to get the President to interfere? Oh, Donna. Although couldn’t Karen Cahill have sent the object back to Donna directly instead of bringing her boss into it? I suppose she was getting weary of the White House staffers.

But on the other hand, Sam really not listening to CJ’s flat-out veto of moving the press, which from the outside, looks like such a non-starter, because he was so into his idea, and again made Josh a co-conspirator…and the boys were still not seeing the wood for the trees over the pollster calling a reporter.

Between that and the breakfast fall-out, as Josh observed, CJ is one class act (although not so much so that she couldn’t comment on the underwear business.) The podcast noted all this and Toby’s behaviour as the male staff undermining their femal colleague again, despite ‘Galileo’. Toby did acknowledge her protests later.

What struck me was that maybe this is Dee Dee Myers’s input, not quite in a Press Secretary’s Revenge kind of way, although inevitably, perhaps, female Press Secretary’s View of interaction with male colleagues, and the stories about tensions being more interesting than the ones where things all went smoothly.

The breakfast was all about Toby’s hubris. I thought I only three-quarters tracked the undercurrent of Toby and Ann’s past relationship until I heard the podcasters’ take was similar to mine. I thought the comparison of the Democrats and Republicans’ relationship with Leo and Toby’s failed marriages a bit laboured. Anyway, he misread Ann, undercut CJ’s professional call and status with Ann, and it’s not like the debate wasn’t being had at the margins by staff on both sides. As Leo later reminded Toby, he’d told him not to push it, but no, Toby was off on one, wanting the discussion, chafing at what he saw as the minutiae of seating places and all, and not seeing the wood for the trees.

I don’t blame Bartlet for not wanting to talk to him, especially after a night of broken sleep! And yet, Leo, hearing everything Toby had to say, decided to turn to him and start the re-election campaign. Of course, we now know that Toby was the first to join the team after Leo,, and even then (and lo, it got played out in the next episode) this committee, or conspiracy, if you will, had its problems. The main one at that point for me was they were doing it without Bartlet’s knowledge or consent. It totally made sense if you were making decisions on his behalf all day long, and knowing the man, while being convinced he was the right person to run again (glibly, because he was willing to consider being a one-term President.) But Leo knows, unlike Toby, about the MS.

The scene where the four staffers came up with CJ’s line was fun.

The podcast for this episode was self-admittedly more rambly and less focused on the show, because they were taking in Trump’s win.

2.12 The Drop In

The team’s attitude towards environmentalism is seriously frustrating twenty plus years on. I suspect it may have irked me the first time around too. So, on one level, I was all ‘Listen to Sam, and then go further than what he’s suggesting.’

Josh and his relaxation technique was excellent comedy punctuation, but CJ’s trip to New York didn’t quite work for me, so I listened to the debate about it on the podcast and sort of agreed with the argument that the build up hadn’t been sufficient to get us invested. I have changed my mind about thinking they might as well have focused on the prize that CJ was getting and Toby was so dismissive of, because it was linked thematically as another instance of distancing yourself from your supporters for politics to the main plotline.

Sam was in full Sam flow, to the dismay of his staff (hee), over getting to write a green speech for the President. I don’t think we knew why Toby was away on a trip, but if it wasn’t work related, all that happened will do nothing to curb his workaholic tendencies. Because, of course, here was the problem with his and Leo’s committee of two, the others didn’t know about the goal of re-election, which I assume was something that they thought was to be thought about later down the line, and acted accordingly. Sam was looking to inspire, to do the right thing (although yeah, his ego wanted them to rise from the socks at his words.) I wonder if the President got around to telling him that he liked what he’d written for the breakfast. But Toby and Leo were looking at the politics.

The clash between Sam (so furious) and Toby was so powerful, and how far Toby went in explaining the drop in – his line about needing to win to govern ought to be a big enough clue to Sam, who’s smart enough, if he thinks about it again when he’s cooled down, to see where this was coming from. It took the podcast to point out to me that the words of the drop in applied to Toby needing to tell Sam (some more of) the truth, and they made an excellent point about his conflict avoidance, following on from his behaviour to CJ in the previous episode.

And alongside that, we had the new ambassadors to enjoy. After two seconds of wondering if why Leo was in the situation room was because India-Pakistan were kicking off and that would explain why Lord John Marbury was in the previouslies, like the rest of the the audience, I knew who the new British ambassador would be well before the characters. It struck me that the three ceremonies we saw involved monarchies. (Also, nitpick, but they dropped off Northern Ireland when talking about Great Britain. But, admittedly, I would not be able to address His Lord Johnness of Marburyshire esq. appropriately.)

I was amused by Bartlet’s Peanuts jibe over Leo being obsessed by the missile thing. Of course, Leo saw it as a former pilot, while everyone else couldn’t get over how it missed. Marbury really went into it with him. But I took issue with the President sayng that it was a matter for serious men to get into – his national security adviser is a woman for one thing, and if Abbey had heard him, she’d have quite rightly taken him to task. (I wasn’t as perturbed over the Donna and royal men/boys thread as the podcasters were. It just seemed so ludicrous that I filed it under ‘American weirdness over the British monarchy’ and moved on.)

Anyway, having Marbury in Washington and the tensions of Leo and Toby’s secret mission, while battling the West Wing’s tendency to self-sabotage is going to be fertile ground, I presume.

Oh, and lastly, I liked the continuity that Leo was looking after Josh.
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