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shallownessI watched these episodes a fortnight ago, but the Olympics and an extra podcast episode discussing the finale held up this post.
The West Wing - 2.21 18th and Potomac
Before I get into it, I’ll admit I hadn’t registered the episode title or quite how close we were to the season finale when I watched this, so it was only as Charlie mansplained buying cars to Mrs Landnigham that I thought ‘Uh-oh.’ I was with her as she resolutely stood up to him and to others’ mansplaining, and her insistence to stick to the spirit of the law had resonance (tired of having the conversation about what our guidance says about lifts in cars with well-meaning but ignorant friends who drive.)
I loved the women of The West Wing all this episode: Joey standing up for Kenny; Nancy coming in to be the adult in the (situation) room; Donna’s concern for the President (although I think her overall response to the news was down to the overriding Josh needing her?); Dr Abbey Bartlet, who was shown by Babbish the ethical lines she’d crossed as a doctor because she was a wife; competent CJ, arguing for the best way to manage the interview, the ‘Right up to my head’ line as she secured it; and of course Mrs Landingham, especially when she told Jed that this was the first new car she was buying for herself because her husband had always got her used cars.
To go back to Toby telling Donna because Josh was stalling on it, really, she got told because she’s a regular character. Josh was shown working on tobacco for most of the episode, and it would have made more sense for the first assistant to be someone in communications, or Margaret or Mrs Landingham. As was pointed out in the podcast, Donna didn’t need to know yet (although I’d counter the argument that they could have just ordered her to sort out the blankets, by saying that none of them would have thought of it beforehand.) But it led to good drama, like Josh trying to lie to her and her cutting through it.
We subtly got to see Sam’s reaction to the news, as he argued certain strategies – I thought Toby was referring to him, not Josh or Toby when saying that Donna was an example of how to respond. (But as Oliver Platt noted on the podcast, here were a close-knit group of people finding out that the man they were so loyal to had feet of clay. Completely understandable that Sam and Ch were still processing and directing their hurt and anger elsewhere.)
Of course, Sam was right about Abbey’s use of language not helping communicate anything to most of the viewing public.
I tried to follow the resisting Democrats’ issues about the anti-tobacco case, and had come up with ‘What about children?’ before Josh said it out loud.
Oh, I haven’t even talked about the basement, and how meeting there gave them all a bad feeling and was reflective of what they were going to do, and how the numbers really were that bad.
And then we ended with this deceptively simple, wonderfully acted and produced sequence (and it felt inescapable as Jed had called Mrs Landingham ‘Dolores,’ which he rarely if ever has done, even if it was because he wanted to see her to admit the truth about his MS.) How Charlie delivered the news, how John Spencer played Leo just absorbing it, his gait, as he went to inform the President, shown indirectly through a glass. Everything else, even the news they were going to spring on the public, even the deaths in Haiti of people we didn’t know were overshadowed.
2.22 Two Cathedrals
So, I felt that this was Aaron Sorkin and his show showing all TV dramas and their writers how staples such as character death and flashbacks and pathetic fallacy should be done. Having said that, if I followed the timings correctly, my, that’s quick for a funeral service, although the non-denominational (Protestant) service was wonderfully done AND CHARLIE READING. My heart. And Toby etc as pallbearers. But like the podcast pointed out, Mrs Landingham didn’t have any close family left, Bartlet and her work family were her family.
Although the final scene with Mrs Landingham worked for me emotionally – the big sister demanding Jed did better - because I wasn’t quite sure if I’d seen a shot of Jed talking to himself, I wondered if this was a visitation, and the biggest step out of the realist mode the show has taken during the unprecedented tropical storm –
side bar, r u sure it’s not climate change and u might want to do better on environmental issues, Bartlet presidency.
So I did understand the confusion Sorkin was asked to clarify in the podcast.
But anyway, here was everything coming to a head, all recontextualised by grief. I loved loved loved the flashbacks. They cast young Jed Bartlet beautifully, they cast young Mrs Landingham, certainly vocally, beautifully, (the podcast interview with the actress was charming, and it seems like the stars aligned there), and it was lovely to see the beginnings of what we’d been introduced to as a long-established relationship. (I might have issues with the idea that an older sister’s role is to push her brilliant younger brother into being the best he can be, but one of the ways she chose to do that was to demand equal pay for women for equal work, so I’ll just note the worldview and move on.) And of course, we learned about his father – I’d remembered he was a violent bully, but not that Jed Bartlet’s Catholicism had come from his mother. This, more than Bartlet’s position at the school, as a kind of charity student (who was cleverer and more influential than the boys whose daddies paid for their places), was so telling. And it set up the callback to the stubbed cigarette in a church, and, of course, the decision making.
But there was a reminder that even if he’d lost Dolores, he had a Leo, who we learned was still manipulating away (Toby’s unwanted job offer) because he believed Bartlet would change his mind. A mind that for ages the staff didn’t know. And on this day, CJ very definitely snubbed the grand plan to ‘light em up’ - ironic word choice in the context - that Josh and Leo had got so excited about previously.
The scene at the Cathedral was shocking, Bartlet reverting to the teenage boy rebel, it was fascinating that some of it emanated from Catholic beliefs about good works. Sheen was amazing, all anger and hurt and defiance, giving a sacrilegious account of all that we had seen happen, and an almost breathtaking nod to the irony that the writer had come up with of someone getting killed in a car accident in a new car they’d proudly described as safe.
(It was nice to see Donna stepping in to inform Bartlet about tropical storms, because of her reaction in the previous ep, but yet another reminder that Mrs Landingham’s desk was empty.)
Glorious season’s end, with us knowing how Bartlet would answer.
The West Wing - 2.21 18th and Potomac
Before I get into it, I’ll admit I hadn’t registered the episode title or quite how close we were to the season finale when I watched this, so it was only as Charlie mansplained buying cars to Mrs Landnigham that I thought ‘Uh-oh.’ I was with her as she resolutely stood up to him and to others’ mansplaining, and her insistence to stick to the spirit of the law had resonance (tired of having the conversation about what our guidance says about lifts in cars with well-meaning but ignorant friends who drive.)
I loved the women of The West Wing all this episode: Joey standing up for Kenny; Nancy coming in to be the adult in the (situation) room; Donna’s concern for the President (although I think her overall response to the news was down to the overriding Josh needing her?); Dr Abbey Bartlet, who was shown by Babbish the ethical lines she’d crossed as a doctor because she was a wife; competent CJ, arguing for the best way to manage the interview, the ‘Right up to my head’ line as she secured it; and of course Mrs Landingham, especially when she told Jed that this was the first new car she was buying for herself because her husband had always got her used cars.
To go back to Toby telling Donna because Josh was stalling on it, really, she got told because she’s a regular character. Josh was shown working on tobacco for most of the episode, and it would have made more sense for the first assistant to be someone in communications, or Margaret or Mrs Landingham. As was pointed out in the podcast, Donna didn’t need to know yet (although I’d counter the argument that they could have just ordered her to sort out the blankets, by saying that none of them would have thought of it beforehand.) But it led to good drama, like Josh trying to lie to her and her cutting through it.
We subtly got to see Sam’s reaction to the news, as he argued certain strategies – I thought Toby was referring to him, not Josh or Toby when saying that Donna was an example of how to respond. (But as Oliver Platt noted on the podcast, here were a close-knit group of people finding out that the man they were so loyal to had feet of clay. Completely understandable that Sam and Ch were still processing and directing their hurt and anger elsewhere.)
Of course, Sam was right about Abbey’s use of language not helping communicate anything to most of the viewing public.
I tried to follow the resisting Democrats’ issues about the anti-tobacco case, and had come up with ‘What about children?’ before Josh said it out loud.
Oh, I haven’t even talked about the basement, and how meeting there gave them all a bad feeling and was reflective of what they were going to do, and how the numbers really were that bad.
And then we ended with this deceptively simple, wonderfully acted and produced sequence (and it felt inescapable as Jed had called Mrs Landingham ‘Dolores,’ which he rarely if ever has done, even if it was because he wanted to see her to admit the truth about his MS.) How Charlie delivered the news, how John Spencer played Leo just absorbing it, his gait, as he went to inform the President, shown indirectly through a glass. Everything else, even the news they were going to spring on the public, even the deaths in Haiti of people we didn’t know were overshadowed.
2.22 Two Cathedrals
So, I felt that this was Aaron Sorkin and his show showing all TV dramas and their writers how staples such as character death and flashbacks and pathetic fallacy should be done. Having said that, if I followed the timings correctly, my, that’s quick for a funeral service, although the non-denominational (Protestant) service was wonderfully done AND CHARLIE READING. My heart. And Toby etc as pallbearers. But like the podcast pointed out, Mrs Landingham didn’t have any close family left, Bartlet and her work family were her family.
Although the final scene with Mrs Landingham worked for me emotionally – the big sister demanding Jed did better - because I wasn’t quite sure if I’d seen a shot of Jed talking to himself, I wondered if this was a visitation, and the biggest step out of the realist mode the show has taken during the unprecedented tropical storm –
side bar, r u sure it’s not climate change and u might want to do better on environmental issues, Bartlet presidency.
So I did understand the confusion Sorkin was asked to clarify in the podcast.
But anyway, here was everything coming to a head, all recontextualised by grief. I loved loved loved the flashbacks. They cast young Jed Bartlet beautifully, they cast young Mrs Landingham, certainly vocally, beautifully, (the podcast interview with the actress was charming, and it seems like the stars aligned there), and it was lovely to see the beginnings of what we’d been introduced to as a long-established relationship. (I might have issues with the idea that an older sister’s role is to push her brilliant younger brother into being the best he can be, but one of the ways she chose to do that was to demand equal pay for women for equal work, so I’ll just note the worldview and move on.) And of course, we learned about his father – I’d remembered he was a violent bully, but not that Jed Bartlet’s Catholicism had come from his mother. This, more than Bartlet’s position at the school, as a kind of charity student (who was cleverer and more influential than the boys whose daddies paid for their places), was so telling. And it set up the callback to the stubbed cigarette in a church, and, of course, the decision making.
But there was a reminder that even if he’d lost Dolores, he had a Leo, who we learned was still manipulating away (Toby’s unwanted job offer) because he believed Bartlet would change his mind. A mind that for ages the staff didn’t know. And on this day, CJ very definitely snubbed the grand plan to ‘light em up’ - ironic word choice in the context - that Josh and Leo had got so excited about previously.
The scene at the Cathedral was shocking, Bartlet reverting to the teenage boy rebel, it was fascinating that some of it emanated from Catholic beliefs about good works. Sheen was amazing, all anger and hurt and defiance, giving a sacrilegious account of all that we had seen happen, and an almost breathtaking nod to the irony that the writer had come up with of someone getting killed in a car accident in a new car they’d proudly described as safe.
(It was nice to see Donna stepping in to inform Bartlet about tropical storms, because of her reaction in the previous ep, but yet another reminder that Mrs Landingham’s desk was empty.)
Glorious season’s end, with us knowing how Bartlet would answer.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-07 09:36 pm (UTC)We subtly got to see Sam’s reaction to the news, as he argued certain strategies – I thought Toby was referring to him, not Josh or Toby when saying that Donna was an example of how to respond.
That's interesting! Sam obviously didn't take it the best - not shocking that Sam would take being betrayed by the second paternal figure in a few months quite badly - but I don't think I ever had ever considered Toby might be referring to Sam as much as himself there. It does seem an obvious place to go now, though.
Two Cathedrals - what is there to say about that one. It's still possibly the best hour of television I've seen, all these years later.
The larger theme with Bartlet's attempts to stand up to paternal authority figures, and his failures there - and Mrs Landingham coming back one last time to remind him that it's not about himself and his feelings, it's about what he can do for others (I've always thought the debate about whether she's a ghost or not is amusing, as it almost doesn't matter) - combined with the perfect little details connecting past and present, the cigarette and the hands in the pockets.
And the Brothers in Arms montage! It's just so well shot, with the camera swooping through the halls and changing which character it's following. Charlie taking off his coat after the President refuses his! CJ not being with her 'brothers' but instead holding the front line all on her own until they get there! And Leo's "Watch this," which still gives me a lump in my throat just thinking of it. Perfection.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-10 01:37 pm (UTC)That's interesting! Sam obviously didn't take it the best - not shocking that Sam would take being betrayed by the second paternal figure in a few months quite badly - but I don't think I ever had ever considered Toby might be referring to Sam as much as himself there. It does seem an obvious place to go now, though.
Well, I willingly accepted Toby's follow-up that he was really talking to himself, but before that, as per Josh thinking it applied to him, to me Sam's response had been stronger (understandably so for the reason you state,) so Toby would probably be thinking more about Sam than Josh if the 'other people' hadn't been mainly him.
Two Cathedrals - what is there to say about that one.
Indeed, both in the broad themes and the details as you mention. I don't feel qualified to comment so much on the montage, as with my sight issues and not being all that familiar with the song, I knew I was missing loads, but that moment with Leo and his faith and knowledge of the man, is ace.