TWW: The Inauguration double-bill
Sep. 3rd, 2022 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe West Wing 4.14 Inauguration Part 1 and 4.15 Inauguration Over There (I’ll be discussing them together)
In the opener just before the inauguration, CJ’s kiss to Bartlet being her comment on the speech/new foreign policy intention had added resonance after the previous episode. There was a lot of that beginning that I didn’t fully understand then, but with Josiah Bartlet about to be sworn in again as President, the swelling notes of the credits began and then the rest of the episode went back in time to fill in those blanks. It was a very assured and elegant structure for the double-bill, which carried on chronologically, and went beyond this point.
Trying to write about my reactions to all this emphasises for me how well it wove together. Some things from the first episode had always stuck with me – the Chief Justice who they were worried about because he was writing opinions in metre. (As was said in the podcast, if the administration was really worried, wouldn’t that have extended to his role in the inauguration?) I was more impressed that Leo could recognise what type of metre it was than that Toby and Will could. More seriously, the recurring reference to some of the people of Kundu switching family members into their neighbours’ houses to try to mitigate some of the horror has always stayed with me too.
I think Rwanda was specifically cited in this ep, but agree that this was processing that (confirmed on the podcast by one of the story’s instigators). From 2022, the question of Western intervention is a big thorny one, and we’re living with the results of interventions from before and after The West Wing aired today. (Between watching these eps and listening to the podcast. I watched a documentary about Afghanistan.) I say ‘Western’, but yeah, we mean American. Sweeping music and humanitarian impulses are all well and good, but such intervention is even messier and more complicated than this show portrays, although it did try to grapple with it honourably, so this isn’t a criticism, just a reflection of how I felt watching it.
The shadow of Sharif’s assassination on top of race and Western attitudes towards Africa were a part of that portrayal. There was this slight awkwardness about wanting a reaction from Charlie because they were talking about Africans, and his reaction was what it was, well, American. Actually, what mainly struck me about Charlie’s reaction to the unfolding horror in Kundu was how young he was. He needed Josh to explain the significance of the neighbours thing (so did I when I first watched this, Charlie.)
I will just note that the contrast between Bartlet watching Laurel and Hardy and news footage and someone who shall remain nameless (but was named on the podcast) reportedly watching Fox News struck me.
Jack Reese had a massive impact on these episodes despite Christian Slater not appearing (the podcast raised intriguing, unanswered questions about the actor’s involvement and departure). Donna’s loving, detailed description of the dress uniform that he would be wearing at the ball(s) (and we already knew we wouldn’t see), was a bit of gratuitous rubbing of salt into Josh’s wounds. I was later a bit exasperated by her because Jack was clearly working on national security stuff (and by that point it was fairly obvious that the administration was worried about Kundu) so she ought to have known not to be talking about that even to Josh. The podcast jumped on some of Josh’s response being pretty mean.
What really puzzled me was why they (okay, Leo, because Bartlet was loath to see it) had kept on/given this Sec of Defence the post a few weeks ago if he was being so territorial and intransigent that they felt they had to bypass him. They were already dealing with State’s entrenched recalcitrance, and that seemed to come from departmental orthodoxy, not to mention ‘trade’ and Congress…
As set up, we got to see Leo misspeak and drop Jack in it, who was just following orders and absolutely was a casualty of turf wars. I really liked how the quote storyline developed, because the Josh/Donna was complicating matters, in that Josh was clearly taking it more personally than everyone else, but the reveal of the full quote and that Jack had ultimately shot his mouth off because he’s less loyal – granted, his loyalties were more complicated, and he had been treated badly, but Josh and we came to know that Donna had covered for him. Those two are so unprofessional! But I also loved the snowball scene for Josh’s bad cops, who were clearly a bit tipsy and delightful.
Donna’s poor neighbours, though.
Danny and CJ were fighting over at least three stories and having power-play issues. I enjoyed that CJ managed to play him and prove that she could have him easily, as she’d been caught saying. I say this because I too had fallen for it and was just thinking ‘How many days was it since you slept with that guy you went to high school with?’ But it was to prove a point, and of course the Sharif story and work is still an issue between them. So, as to the question posed on the podcast of whether it would have pinged differently if a man had done that to a woman, I didn’t think so, because of their history, mainly.
But CJ was totally right to call Leo out on trying to protect her because he too sees her as a work daughter, when, as the Press Secretary, she can offer valuable advice (that’s her job!) on a story that is obviously going to break, especially given the hostility of Defence.
And all the while we knew that Bartlet was going to shift foreign policy, because Will got to him. I too would have liked to know why Bartlet had the El Salvador speech struck from the record. The budding work relationship between Toby and Will worked nicely, great use of that ball, and I liked how Elsie was pulled in. Overall, we had one or two mentions too many of Tom Bailey in the two episodes, if I’m honest, but they have integrated Will pretty well by this point, and he was finally able to speak truth to power or offer backtalk to the President as Bartlet put it.
I loved that moment where, after Toby and Josh had seemed resistant to a big policy shift for valid political reasons if not humanitarian ones (as the show presented it), the new foursome were so eager to carry out this new doctrine that they didn’t even let Bartlet finish. Jed and Leo’s reaction to that was beautifully played, and confirmation for Bartlet that he was doing the right thing. We’d already had Abbey teasing him for being tipped over by Laurel and Hardy, so he earned his speech to the main cast (who really were all there so that the main cast could all be there at that moment. I get that after they’d made up that Josh was keeping Donna at his side, and Charlie was there to hand stuff over to Bartlet, and Abbey was there because she’s Abbey, but it still felt like, ‘Look, everyone from the main credits, bar Rob Lowe’).
They’d earned the right to give Will a permanent gig, and we saw Toby and Josh’s hoaxing instincts in telling Charlie to give sleep-deprived Will the experience of a call from the Office of the President. Toby and Leo made arrangements for Sam to return as Senior Counsel if he lost the election, and I realised I don’t remember what happens to him at this point. I’ll find out soon.
The running gag about Bartlet’s indecisiveness over the Bible was a more overblown version of the tie, almost, wasn’t it? Oh, but going back to the elegance, I liked how we came up to the scene we’d already seen and how we saw some bits again just from another perspective and then completely new bits with other characters from that time. Also speaking of the show’s confidence is the fact that they got in all those extras just for the closing scene of Our Guys walking purposefully into the ball. Just for that – obviously, there had been extras at earlier scenes at the ball, but not so many, and we’d had stuff like the motorcade, just reminders that this was Prestige Drama.
[Edited for typos 31/1/25.]
In the opener just before the inauguration, CJ’s kiss to Bartlet being her comment on the speech/new foreign policy intention had added resonance after the previous episode. There was a lot of that beginning that I didn’t fully understand then, but with Josiah Bartlet about to be sworn in again as President, the swelling notes of the credits began and then the rest of the episode went back in time to fill in those blanks. It was a very assured and elegant structure for the double-bill, which carried on chronologically, and went beyond this point.
Trying to write about my reactions to all this emphasises for me how well it wove together. Some things from the first episode had always stuck with me – the Chief Justice who they were worried about because he was writing opinions in metre. (As was said in the podcast, if the administration was really worried, wouldn’t that have extended to his role in the inauguration?) I was more impressed that Leo could recognise what type of metre it was than that Toby and Will could. More seriously, the recurring reference to some of the people of Kundu switching family members into their neighbours’ houses to try to mitigate some of the horror has always stayed with me too.
I think Rwanda was specifically cited in this ep, but agree that this was processing that (confirmed on the podcast by one of the story’s instigators). From 2022, the question of Western intervention is a big thorny one, and we’re living with the results of interventions from before and after The West Wing aired today. (Between watching these eps and listening to the podcast. I watched a documentary about Afghanistan.) I say ‘Western’, but yeah, we mean American. Sweeping music and humanitarian impulses are all well and good, but such intervention is even messier and more complicated than this show portrays, although it did try to grapple with it honourably, so this isn’t a criticism, just a reflection of how I felt watching it.
The shadow of Sharif’s assassination on top of race and Western attitudes towards Africa were a part of that portrayal. There was this slight awkwardness about wanting a reaction from Charlie because they were talking about Africans, and his reaction was what it was, well, American. Actually, what mainly struck me about Charlie’s reaction to the unfolding horror in Kundu was how young he was. He needed Josh to explain the significance of the neighbours thing (so did I when I first watched this, Charlie.)
I will just note that the contrast between Bartlet watching Laurel and Hardy and news footage and someone who shall remain nameless (but was named on the podcast) reportedly watching Fox News struck me.
Jack Reese had a massive impact on these episodes despite Christian Slater not appearing (the podcast raised intriguing, unanswered questions about the actor’s involvement and departure). Donna’s loving, detailed description of the dress uniform that he would be wearing at the ball(s) (and we already knew we wouldn’t see), was a bit of gratuitous rubbing of salt into Josh’s wounds. I was later a bit exasperated by her because Jack was clearly working on national security stuff (and by that point it was fairly obvious that the administration was worried about Kundu) so she ought to have known not to be talking about that even to Josh. The podcast jumped on some of Josh’s response being pretty mean.
What really puzzled me was why they (okay, Leo, because Bartlet was loath to see it) had kept on/given this Sec of Defence the post a few weeks ago if he was being so territorial and intransigent that they felt they had to bypass him. They were already dealing with State’s entrenched recalcitrance, and that seemed to come from departmental orthodoxy, not to mention ‘trade’ and Congress…
As set up, we got to see Leo misspeak and drop Jack in it, who was just following orders and absolutely was a casualty of turf wars. I really liked how the quote storyline developed, because the Josh/Donna was complicating matters, in that Josh was clearly taking it more personally than everyone else, but the reveal of the full quote and that Jack had ultimately shot his mouth off because he’s less loyal – granted, his loyalties were more complicated, and he had been treated badly, but Josh and we came to know that Donna had covered for him. Those two are so unprofessional! But I also loved the snowball scene for Josh’s bad cops, who were clearly a bit tipsy and delightful.
Donna’s poor neighbours, though.
Danny and CJ were fighting over at least three stories and having power-play issues. I enjoyed that CJ managed to play him and prove that she could have him easily, as she’d been caught saying. I say this because I too had fallen for it and was just thinking ‘How many days was it since you slept with that guy you went to high school with?’ But it was to prove a point, and of course the Sharif story and work is still an issue between them. So, as to the question posed on the podcast of whether it would have pinged differently if a man had done that to a woman, I didn’t think so, because of their history, mainly.
But CJ was totally right to call Leo out on trying to protect her because he too sees her as a work daughter, when, as the Press Secretary, she can offer valuable advice (that’s her job!) on a story that is obviously going to break, especially given the hostility of Defence.
And all the while we knew that Bartlet was going to shift foreign policy, because Will got to him. I too would have liked to know why Bartlet had the El Salvador speech struck from the record. The budding work relationship between Toby and Will worked nicely, great use of that ball, and I liked how Elsie was pulled in. Overall, we had one or two mentions too many of Tom Bailey in the two episodes, if I’m honest, but they have integrated Will pretty well by this point, and he was finally able to speak truth to power or offer backtalk to the President as Bartlet put it.
I loved that moment where, after Toby and Josh had seemed resistant to a big policy shift for valid political reasons if not humanitarian ones (as the show presented it), the new foursome were so eager to carry out this new doctrine that they didn’t even let Bartlet finish. Jed and Leo’s reaction to that was beautifully played, and confirmation for Bartlet that he was doing the right thing. We’d already had Abbey teasing him for being tipped over by Laurel and Hardy, so he earned his speech to the main cast (who really were all there so that the main cast could all be there at that moment. I get that after they’d made up that Josh was keeping Donna at his side, and Charlie was there to hand stuff over to Bartlet, and Abbey was there because she’s Abbey, but it still felt like, ‘Look, everyone from the main credits, bar Rob Lowe’).
They’d earned the right to give Will a permanent gig, and we saw Toby and Josh’s hoaxing instincts in telling Charlie to give sleep-deprived Will the experience of a call from the Office of the President. Toby and Leo made arrangements for Sam to return as Senior Counsel if he lost the election, and I realised I don’t remember what happens to him at this point. I’ll find out soon.
The running gag about Bartlet’s indecisiveness over the Bible was a more overblown version of the tie, almost, wasn’t it? Oh, but going back to the elegance, I liked how we came up to the scene we’d already seen and how we saw some bits again just from another perspective and then completely new bits with other characters from that time. Also speaking of the show’s confidence is the fact that they got in all those extras just for the closing scene of Our Guys walking purposefully into the ball. Just for that – obviously, there had been extras at earlier scenes at the ball, but not so many, and we’d had stuff like the motorcade, just reminders that this was Prestige Drama.
[Edited for typos 31/1/25.]
no subject
Date: 2022-09-04 05:08 am (UTC)But really it's the snowballs and "you're gonna have to sit in somebody's lap" that win my heart. They are awful and unprofessional and annoying an entire neighborhood at god knows what time of night, but...I love them.
Oh, and CJ demonstrating to Danny just what she'd do to have him, can't forget that. Damn, girl.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-04 07:08 am (UTC)They are awful and unprofessional and annoying an entire neighborhood at god knows what time of night, but...I love them.
ITA. I know I picked up what bugged me about their behaviour in my post, but I'm as helpless before their charms as Danny is before CJ's.