Delayed TWW s3 finale post
Feb. 28th, 2022 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessSo, I won't be cross-posting or posting to Livejournal for the foreseeable future. I had planned to post what’s below and other things over te weekend, but because I did not save a document when I thought I had, I can only offer this.
The West Wing 3.22 Posse Comitatus
I finally got to rewatch this (the upside of getting the third season on DVD is that I can also finally watch ‘Isaac and Ishmael’.) FWIW, I watched this, listened to The West Wing Weekly podcast and drafted this before Russia under Putin launched its invasion of Ukraine.
And it’s a satisfying finale. The West Wing may have been the first, or one of the first, to use ‘Hallelujah’ and it wasn’t to know it would become such a cliché, or maybe it was and Sorkin didn’t know it given his comments on the podcast. I don’t like the song, but if you’re going to use it, use the Jeff Buckley version. Besides even I could appreciate that the final visual of Bartlet’s profile with the Janus effect as he slipped behind a curtain was terrific after one of the toughest calls of his presidency, in the context of a play about kings and death, when we had finally seen his opponent in the upcoming election. As I’ve probably said, I had forgotten who played Ritchie; in fact I’d mostly forgotten all of this – I knew Donavan was going to die, but not how, and that Lily Tomlin would be playing Debbie and get hired.
Regarding Ritchie, I had two thoughts: how tawdry he was when he repeated his platitudes, was hopeless at the news of Donavan’s death, nasty about Bartlet, in an echo of Bartlet’s father, and clearly unfit to take the decision that Bartlet was wrestling with. At the same time, I was rewatching him over twenty years later, comparing him with real life political figures that have emerged since then.
Donna was shortchanged, maybe, and Abbey should have been there somewhere. I was left looking forward to being reminded of why they fired Debbie for hiring Charlie (the podcast was slightly spoilery on this front) and to see the fight against Ritchie, with a re-energised Sam – on display here, side by side with Toby – and Josh, who got the win, but was still fighting with Amy, and the victory had cost her.
On the other hand, CJ was kneecapped. Maybe the introduction of the kid Simon was mentoring was a bit much, the tragedy of the timing was quite enough, although while I take Sorkin’s argument about someone having to die, dramatically speaking, to balance out Bartlet’s kill order, it felt like it was chiefly a CJ loss than a team loss. Before that, we’d had one more round of CJ not recognising the threat that meant Simon had to go to New York, (for lo, her stalker went there,) and that she needed specific protection and couldn’t ‘step outside for air’ alone, again, compounded by their unprofessional feelings. I felt that Simon was so angry with her because he was aware that the threat was almost over, but as the scene developed, he claimed it was because she seemed to be giving him mixed signals. Anyway, CJ’s stalker did get nabbed (I loved the cheer from Simon’s secret service colleagues at the news) and that shadow was lifted – showing that even if CJ didn’t fully appreciate it as in the examples above, she knew she’d been under the shadow of a threat, all rgiht. And suddenly the question of professionalism didn’t come into it.
Aww, at least they got to kiss, because it was the possibility of what might have been that was stolen from her on top of the tragedy that everyone felt around his death. You couldn’t blame him for being in too much of a happy bubble to pick up the vibes at the store and when he did to react overconfidently, perhaps. Though a cop who’d been trained for that situation, Donavan in a different mood might have done differently. I didn’t feel the scene was rushed. (Or that we desperately needed the set-up that Simon hadn’t eaten all day that Sorkin rued cutting.)
Showing Josh finding out the news, apart from putting his and Amy’s fight into context, just with shooting and Donavan’s connection with Roslyn in the mix was powerful.
So many pay-offs! I liked that they brought in Stanley the shrink (it prepped me for making the connection between Ritchie and Bartlet’s father) and Jed really couldn’t tell him what his conundrum was. I felt that Bartlet’s objections were ones that he’d hashed out before, the only difference was that the decision had to be made now and he’d met and faced the guy.
I was a bit critical of the ‘not in The Oval Office’ line, although it worked dramatically, and one understood entirely why Bartlet didn’t want to shake the hands of a man who he knew had been behind atrocities, but he was about to commit an atrocity upon because that was what national security demanded. Even if Diplomat Terrorist needed a translator, surely he or his bodyguards would have understood enough English or ‘Oval Office’ to grasp Bartlet was lying about the allergy.
Of course, they could well have taken that as no more than an indication that Bartlet knew he was behind the terrorism, not as a hint of what was planned for him, and I don’t think that the meeting had quite the ‘face to the name’ effect that Leo feared. Striking that Fitz was the only black man in the gang of eight.
But with a few minor caveats, it was a rich and powerful finale. I was struck by how this show was at its pomp because we saw so much of the stage production, which obviously added another layer to the drama, it (and the shooting on location) emphasised that The West Wing was prestige television, and deserving all the bucks thrown at it, and using them well.
[Edited for typos 24/12/24.]
The West Wing 3.22 Posse Comitatus
I finally got to rewatch this (the upside of getting the third season on DVD is that I can also finally watch ‘Isaac and Ishmael’.) FWIW, I watched this, listened to The West Wing Weekly podcast and drafted this before Russia under Putin launched its invasion of Ukraine.
And it’s a satisfying finale. The West Wing may have been the first, or one of the first, to use ‘Hallelujah’ and it wasn’t to know it would become such a cliché, or maybe it was and Sorkin didn’t know it given his comments on the podcast. I don’t like the song, but if you’re going to use it, use the Jeff Buckley version. Besides even I could appreciate that the final visual of Bartlet’s profile with the Janus effect as he slipped behind a curtain was terrific after one of the toughest calls of his presidency, in the context of a play about kings and death, when we had finally seen his opponent in the upcoming election. As I’ve probably said, I had forgotten who played Ritchie; in fact I’d mostly forgotten all of this – I knew Donavan was going to die, but not how, and that Lily Tomlin would be playing Debbie and get hired.
Regarding Ritchie, I had two thoughts: how tawdry he was when he repeated his platitudes, was hopeless at the news of Donavan’s death, nasty about Bartlet, in an echo of Bartlet’s father, and clearly unfit to take the decision that Bartlet was wrestling with. At the same time, I was rewatching him over twenty years later, comparing him with real life political figures that have emerged since then.
Donna was shortchanged, maybe, and Abbey should have been there somewhere. I was left looking forward to being reminded of why they fired Debbie for hiring Charlie (the podcast was slightly spoilery on this front) and to see the fight against Ritchie, with a re-energised Sam – on display here, side by side with Toby – and Josh, who got the win, but was still fighting with Amy, and the victory had cost her.
On the other hand, CJ was kneecapped. Maybe the introduction of the kid Simon was mentoring was a bit much, the tragedy of the timing was quite enough, although while I take Sorkin’s argument about someone having to die, dramatically speaking, to balance out Bartlet’s kill order, it felt like it was chiefly a CJ loss than a team loss. Before that, we’d had one more round of CJ not recognising the threat that meant Simon had to go to New York, (for lo, her stalker went there,) and that she needed specific protection and couldn’t ‘step outside for air’ alone, again, compounded by their unprofessional feelings. I felt that Simon was so angry with her because he was aware that the threat was almost over, but as the scene developed, he claimed it was because she seemed to be giving him mixed signals. Anyway, CJ’s stalker did get nabbed (I loved the cheer from Simon’s secret service colleagues at the news) and that shadow was lifted – showing that even if CJ didn’t fully appreciate it as in the examples above, she knew she’d been under the shadow of a threat, all rgiht. And suddenly the question of professionalism didn’t come into it.
Aww, at least they got to kiss, because it was the possibility of what might have been that was stolen from her on top of the tragedy that everyone felt around his death. You couldn’t blame him for being in too much of a happy bubble to pick up the vibes at the store and when he did to react overconfidently, perhaps. Though a cop who’d been trained for that situation, Donavan in a different mood might have done differently. I didn’t feel the scene was rushed. (Or that we desperately needed the set-up that Simon hadn’t eaten all day that Sorkin rued cutting.)
Showing Josh finding out the news, apart from putting his and Amy’s fight into context, just with shooting and Donavan’s connection with Roslyn in the mix was powerful.
So many pay-offs! I liked that they brought in Stanley the shrink (it prepped me for making the connection between Ritchie and Bartlet’s father) and Jed really couldn’t tell him what his conundrum was. I felt that Bartlet’s objections were ones that he’d hashed out before, the only difference was that the decision had to be made now and he’d met and faced the guy.
I was a bit critical of the ‘not in The Oval Office’ line, although it worked dramatically, and one understood entirely why Bartlet didn’t want to shake the hands of a man who he knew had been behind atrocities, but he was about to commit an atrocity upon because that was what national security demanded. Even if Diplomat Terrorist needed a translator, surely he or his bodyguards would have understood enough English or ‘Oval Office’ to grasp Bartlet was lying about the allergy.
Of course, they could well have taken that as no more than an indication that Bartlet knew he was behind the terrorism, not as a hint of what was planned for him, and I don’t think that the meeting had quite the ‘face to the name’ effect that Leo feared. Striking that Fitz was the only black man in the gang of eight.
But with a few minor caveats, it was a rich and powerful finale. I was struck by how this show was at its pomp because we saw so much of the stage production, which obviously added another layer to the drama, it (and the shooting on location) emphasised that The West Wing was prestige television, and deserving all the bucks thrown at it, and using them well.
[Edited for typos 24/12/24.]
