shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2022-05-28 08:29 am
shallowness) wrote2022-05-28 08:29 am
Entry tags:
Voting yay!
The West Wing 4.7 Election Night
I didn’t really register the title cards, informing us of the tallies of the presidential election and the ever more important Californian election, until the last one, where I used the pause button to peer at it. For what it’s worth, apart from knowing Sam would run and Will would come to work at the West Wing, what I remembered most clearly was Donna swapping her vote with Lieutenant Commander Jack Rees. Or to be more precise, as played by Christian Slater, in a military uniform. Hey, I’m a woman of a certain age, and I suspect her mistake has made me neurotic about consciously checking my vote before folding it and putting it in the box.
I was a bit thrown by the cold opening, because as Josh encountered person after person finding ways to fail at voting, I was thinking ‘But surely this is the ep where Donna needs to swop a vote,’ and then, ‘This feels like a dream/nightmare that Josh is going to wake up from, except The West Wing isn’t that kind of show.’ And then things settled down as Toby’s name got mentioned and it turned out to be a revenge prank, in the third episode in a row in which pranks feature.
As we’d just had a local elections day here (in which a lot of counts didn’t happen until the next day), the peculiar feel of the day felt about right, with some staffers wandering around looking for something to do (nap, people, NAP!)
I thought they played Bartlet’s health deterioration beautifully, just enough for us to know and worry, and how Abbey was kept out of the loop except she’s one of the smart people who love Jed, and eagle eyed enough to spot it. The final Jed/Abbey scene and how it contrasted with the sweet victory at New Hampshire on top of the re-election were a triumph. It also worked nicely as Debbie started to do her job finally (what if he’d lost? Shortest time in that post ever?), wielded her authority and saw things with new eyes. As a result, feathers were slightly ruffled (although eh, Josh was so disrespectful) and Bartlet took it as a criticism of Mrs Landingham. But Debbie was looking out for him in her own way and good at her job.
Otherwise, there was lightish relief, with Charlie’s Little Brother wanting him to do his magic for another kid. I was way less enamoured of this whole thing than Hrishi; I have little interest in American football. Ah well, Charlie got him to vote!?
My eyesight made me miss out on the empty cup acting noted in the podcast, but I was reminded of how well Donna and Sam bounce off each other, as he confided his dilemma to her as this other, improbable race played along with the big one(s), and Will called upon lightning. It took the podcast to point out to me that Will and Elsie’s relationship had now been retconned, and henceforth we were to take them as brother and sister. I think I’d just assumed she was putting him in an adoptive big brother role as I rewatched, which seems silly if I was also thinking that they had only met for this campaign, based on the previous episode. Ah well, retcon noted.
4.8 Process Stories
And Thornton Wilder/Horton Wilde won, and Sam putting his name forward as his replacement candidate in the special election got revealed to the West Wing. Hee. The Aristotelian thing went over my head in both the episode and discussion of it on the podcast, but the build up of that reveal was fun. I also appreciated, as Hrishi and Josh did, that we continued to follow on from ‘Election Night’ without pause.
Less fun was how male gazey the ep was, I mean my reflexive response to early noughties Christian Slater feels like nothing given that we had two women in shoulderless tops for Bruno’s delectation, Amy’s bare shoulders silencing Josh, and feh. The podcast went after the mansplaining, which is fair, but not what got to me in the rewatch.
Jed and Leo trying to brag over states as nerd sweet talk was funny. Everything I thought about Leo/Jordan has been upturned by learning that that would be the last we’d see of her. (I’m grateful to the podcast for pointing out that Hoynes and Stackhouse were in the background for this or the previous ep, because I couldn’t make them out. It does indeed say a lot about the show’s status, but adds to its richness.) Poor Charlie, having to usher Sam, Leo (totally legit) and Toby to spoil Jed’s night of celebration. Nice to have a bit of farce as always.
Jack found out Donna worked at the White House, which we and she already knew. I suppose his being so flustered by her and by being laughed at in the sit room was endearing. He had a validish policy reason for supporting Ritchie, although AN ASHTRAY, ON A NUCLEAR SUB?!?!
As dogged as Donna was about why he’d wanted to vote for Ritchie was CJ in her ire over that jumped-up whoever and wanting Bruno (and Leo) to have their dues instead. I loved that she got her dues from Bruno. (But I am very disappointed in Bruno slobbering over all the women.)
Typical that a coup d’etat had to happen that night, and the podcast was right, they were very loose lipped about it.
I was a bit confused about why Andi wasn’t in Maryland, other than plot convenience, but apparently 75 per cent of its voters would vote for a senator who…never visited their state? Toby and fatherhood is touching, but Andi wanting to keep things quiet for the first trimester is totally fair. I’ve said my say on Toby needing better reasons to get her to agree to remarry him, and he found out she wanted to fight for single moms.
The reference to the Bill Bailey song made me think of the English comedian/Strictly winner, but I was amused that Donna could get a hold of Will when Ginger and Bonnie couldn’t (although why didn’t she tell Josh that Leo was in the situation room instead of getting distracted by Jack…oh never mind.) Josh totally played Will into giving him the data he wanted, and I liked the progression from Josh, CJ and Toby just finding out about Sam to Amy proposing he should run to Josh and CJ coming to that view, to the final scene between them, where Sam sought Toby’s opinion, but rejected it, having made up his own mind (framed as not breaking a promise to a widow, and tying into fighting the good fight that the little campaign that could had already established)…and allowing Rob Lowe to walk off (with Amy as Sam’s assistant? That could have made for a short spin-off I’d watch in another universe.) Knowing it was coming, I’m probably way more mellow than I would have been at the time I first saw this.
[Edited for typos 23/1/25.]
I didn’t really register the title cards, informing us of the tallies of the presidential election and the ever more important Californian election, until the last one, where I used the pause button to peer at it. For what it’s worth, apart from knowing Sam would run and Will would come to work at the West Wing, what I remembered most clearly was Donna swapping her vote with Lieutenant Commander Jack Rees. Or to be more precise, as played by Christian Slater, in a military uniform. Hey, I’m a woman of a certain age, and I suspect her mistake has made me neurotic about consciously checking my vote before folding it and putting it in the box.
I was a bit thrown by the cold opening, because as Josh encountered person after person finding ways to fail at voting, I was thinking ‘But surely this is the ep where Donna needs to swop a vote,’ and then, ‘This feels like a dream/nightmare that Josh is going to wake up from, except The West Wing isn’t that kind of show.’ And then things settled down as Toby’s name got mentioned and it turned out to be a revenge prank, in the third episode in a row in which pranks feature.
As we’d just had a local elections day here (in which a lot of counts didn’t happen until the next day), the peculiar feel of the day felt about right, with some staffers wandering around looking for something to do (nap, people, NAP!)
I thought they played Bartlet’s health deterioration beautifully, just enough for us to know and worry, and how Abbey was kept out of the loop except she’s one of the smart people who love Jed, and eagle eyed enough to spot it. The final Jed/Abbey scene and how it contrasted with the sweet victory at New Hampshire on top of the re-election were a triumph. It also worked nicely as Debbie started to do her job finally (what if he’d lost? Shortest time in that post ever?), wielded her authority and saw things with new eyes. As a result, feathers were slightly ruffled (although eh, Josh was so disrespectful) and Bartlet took it as a criticism of Mrs Landingham. But Debbie was looking out for him in her own way and good at her job.
Otherwise, there was lightish relief, with Charlie’s Little Brother wanting him to do his magic for another kid. I was way less enamoured of this whole thing than Hrishi; I have little interest in American football. Ah well, Charlie got him to vote!?
My eyesight made me miss out on the empty cup acting noted in the podcast, but I was reminded of how well Donna and Sam bounce off each other, as he confided his dilemma to her as this other, improbable race played along with the big one(s), and Will called upon lightning. It took the podcast to point out to me that Will and Elsie’s relationship had now been retconned, and henceforth we were to take them as brother and sister. I think I’d just assumed she was putting him in an adoptive big brother role as I rewatched, which seems silly if I was also thinking that they had only met for this campaign, based on the previous episode. Ah well, retcon noted.
4.8 Process Stories
And Thornton Wilder/Horton Wilde won, and Sam putting his name forward as his replacement candidate in the special election got revealed to the West Wing. Hee. The Aristotelian thing went over my head in both the episode and discussion of it on the podcast, but the build up of that reveal was fun. I also appreciated, as Hrishi and Josh did, that we continued to follow on from ‘Election Night’ without pause.
Less fun was how male gazey the ep was, I mean my reflexive response to early noughties Christian Slater feels like nothing given that we had two women in shoulderless tops for Bruno’s delectation, Amy’s bare shoulders silencing Josh, and feh. The podcast went after the mansplaining, which is fair, but not what got to me in the rewatch.
Jed and Leo trying to brag over states as nerd sweet talk was funny. Everything I thought about Leo/Jordan has been upturned by learning that that would be the last we’d see of her. (I’m grateful to the podcast for pointing out that Hoynes and Stackhouse were in the background for this or the previous ep, because I couldn’t make them out. It does indeed say a lot about the show’s status, but adds to its richness.) Poor Charlie, having to usher Sam, Leo (totally legit) and Toby to spoil Jed’s night of celebration. Nice to have a bit of farce as always.
Jack found out Donna worked at the White House, which we and she already knew. I suppose his being so flustered by her and by being laughed at in the sit room was endearing. He had a validish policy reason for supporting Ritchie, although AN ASHTRAY, ON A NUCLEAR SUB?!?!
As dogged as Donna was about why he’d wanted to vote for Ritchie was CJ in her ire over that jumped-up whoever and wanting Bruno (and Leo) to have their dues instead. I loved that she got her dues from Bruno. (But I am very disappointed in Bruno slobbering over all the women.)
Typical that a coup d’etat had to happen that night, and the podcast was right, they were very loose lipped about it.
I was a bit confused about why Andi wasn’t in Maryland, other than plot convenience, but apparently 75 per cent of its voters would vote for a senator who…never visited their state? Toby and fatherhood is touching, but Andi wanting to keep things quiet for the first trimester is totally fair. I’ve said my say on Toby needing better reasons to get her to agree to remarry him, and he found out she wanted to fight for single moms.
The reference to the Bill Bailey song made me think of the English comedian/Strictly winner, but I was amused that Donna could get a hold of Will when Ginger and Bonnie couldn’t (although why didn’t she tell Josh that Leo was in the situation room instead of getting distracted by Jack…oh never mind.) Josh totally played Will into giving him the data he wanted, and I liked the progression from Josh, CJ and Toby just finding out about Sam to Amy proposing he should run to Josh and CJ coming to that view, to the final scene between them, where Sam sought Toby’s opinion, but rejected it, having made up his own mind (framed as not breaking a promise to a widow, and tying into fighting the good fight that the little campaign that could had already established)…and allowing Rob Lowe to walk off (with Amy as Sam’s assistant? That could have made for a short spin-off I’d watch in another universe.) Knowing it was coming, I’m probably way more mellow than I would have been at the time I first saw this.
[Edited for typos 23/1/25.]