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shallowness) wrote2022-10-22 02:26 pm
shallowness) wrote2022-10-22 02:26 pm
Entry tags:
The fictional political drama show
The West Wing 4.18 Privateers
I gradually realised how amusing the episode is, though I don’t share Bartlet’s optimism because Zoey is the future. For one thing, her getting inducted into the DAR just smacks of hereditary exclusivity. The DAR got some airtime on the podcast, but as Josh said, how could a group that’s for a select group of women be more inclusive? Oh, apparently reaching out to the African Americans who were always eligible but they pretended they weren’t for generations. How nice. (Still, is there a fic where Abbey and Emily Gilmore meet/cross swords/save the world?)
Also, Zoey has been picking J-P over Charlie. Granted the deck is stacked against the French stoner, but Charlie showed again that he had game as he respectfully declined Zoey’s request because he was still in love with her. Even I could see the smile playing on her lips in response. The podcasters ‘bumped on this’, but I really didn’t, perhaps because I am a sucker for romantic comedy and unwilling to see the stalker vibes, but I don’t think that was what was going on here. What we’d seen of Charlie’s behaviour around Zoey this season hasn’t been that stalky.
I also wondered whether Amy was from New Hampshire if Abbey used to babysit her. Hrishi did a thorough critique of how shonky Amy’s backstory actually is, and the reminders of what we already knew of Abbey and Amy’s relationship was telling. But then in the next ep of the podcast, they admitted that listeners were right, there was a valid explanation for Amy’s comment about not being in the dorms any more to Josh, but some people were arguing that the babysitting was more figurative, which didn’t persuade me.
In between hazing Amy and everything else, no mention of Kundu. All I initially noted about CJ’s giggle fic is ‘Allison Janney again proving her comedy chops’, while the podcast went on about it, suggesting that its’s a much bigger deal in the fandom than I realised. Actually Mary-Lousie Parker showed her comedy chops too, as did Janel Moloney, playing Donna, designated stalker.
I was more exercised about side-eyeing Leo et al. Yes, guys, the glacier melting was caused by global warming. We knew that then, and okay, the staff did a nobleish thing by getting the message out in a politically acceptable way (Will, loser in relationships and still getting hazed, showing he was a good team player) but it’s certainly struck me in this rewatch that the Bartlet administration could have been greener.
4.19 Angel Maintenance
This was less funny, with mild jeopardy on Airforce One (<3 Margaret and her concerns), the legitimacy of CJ gagging the press pack’s for national security reasons and the return of Kundu. Nice that it was the reporter who’d given CJ the heads up about the friendly fire incident who didn’t fall for the obvious decoy, spotted the fighter jet and rumbled them. I liked the professional respect the journos showed CJ when she gave them back their phone privileges.
Nice too that Josh eventually listened to Donna and gave her another duty.
Josh was busy working with the moderate Republican who loved Chesapeake Bay, but it all got wrecked because the wrong people were walking down the wrong corridor (possibly because of that faulty light on the plane.)
The podcast made much of Barlet’s sangfroid on the plane, but I thought his frustration, especially with the whole business of recertifying Colombia, and, to a lesser extent having to call the soldier’s families, was potent. I liked the edges of the ‘bringing back the draft to make people less cavalier about going to war’ debate storyline of Toby coming from the head of the black caucus’s constituency and probably agreeing with him more than Leo more than I engaged with the whole. Actually I thought that was more of a Josh job than a Toby one.
Maybe the ending was a little cheap? Admittedly, it fed into continuing frustration, especially because poor Will had been all ‘don’t jinx it’ and then we were left wondering, as most people on the plane were, what was really going on. Was it the weather conditions, the fake spill on a strip or SOMETHING ELSE? But I was sure they’ll have landed by the next episode, and probably forgot about it until the next time that they flew.
[Edited for typos 25/2/25.]
I gradually realised how amusing the episode is, though I don’t share Bartlet’s optimism because Zoey is the future. For one thing, her getting inducted into the DAR just smacks of hereditary exclusivity. The DAR got some airtime on the podcast, but as Josh said, how could a group that’s for a select group of women be more inclusive? Oh, apparently reaching out to the African Americans who were always eligible but they pretended they weren’t for generations. How nice. (Still, is there a fic where Abbey and Emily Gilmore meet/cross swords/save the world?)
Also, Zoey has been picking J-P over Charlie. Granted the deck is stacked against the French stoner, but Charlie showed again that he had game as he respectfully declined Zoey’s request because he was still in love with her. Even I could see the smile playing on her lips in response. The podcasters ‘bumped on this’, but I really didn’t, perhaps because I am a sucker for romantic comedy and unwilling to see the stalker vibes, but I don’t think that was what was going on here. What we’d seen of Charlie’s behaviour around Zoey this season hasn’t been that stalky.
I also wondered whether Amy was from New Hampshire if Abbey used to babysit her. Hrishi did a thorough critique of how shonky Amy’s backstory actually is, and the reminders of what we already knew of Abbey and Amy’s relationship was telling. But then in the next ep of the podcast, they admitted that listeners were right, there was a valid explanation for Amy’s comment about not being in the dorms any more to Josh, but some people were arguing that the babysitting was more figurative, which didn’t persuade me.
In between hazing Amy and everything else, no mention of Kundu. All I initially noted about CJ’s giggle fic is ‘Allison Janney again proving her comedy chops’, while the podcast went on about it, suggesting that its’s a much bigger deal in the fandom than I realised. Actually Mary-Lousie Parker showed her comedy chops too, as did Janel Moloney, playing Donna, designated stalker.
I was more exercised about side-eyeing Leo et al. Yes, guys, the glacier melting was caused by global warming. We knew that then, and okay, the staff did a nobleish thing by getting the message out in a politically acceptable way (Will, loser in relationships and still getting hazed, showing he was a good team player) but it’s certainly struck me in this rewatch that the Bartlet administration could have been greener.
4.19 Angel Maintenance
This was less funny, with mild jeopardy on Airforce One (<3 Margaret and her concerns), the legitimacy of CJ gagging the press pack’s for national security reasons and the return of Kundu. Nice that it was the reporter who’d given CJ the heads up about the friendly fire incident who didn’t fall for the obvious decoy, spotted the fighter jet and rumbled them. I liked the professional respect the journos showed CJ when she gave them back their phone privileges.
Nice too that Josh eventually listened to Donna and gave her another duty.
Josh was busy working with the moderate Republican who loved Chesapeake Bay, but it all got wrecked because the wrong people were walking down the wrong corridor (possibly because of that faulty light on the plane.)
The podcast made much of Barlet’s sangfroid on the plane, but I thought his frustration, especially with the whole business of recertifying Colombia, and, to a lesser extent having to call the soldier’s families, was potent. I liked the edges of the ‘bringing back the draft to make people less cavalier about going to war’ debate storyline of Toby coming from the head of the black caucus’s constituency and probably agreeing with him more than Leo more than I engaged with the whole. Actually I thought that was more of a Josh job than a Toby one.
Maybe the ending was a little cheap? Admittedly, it fed into continuing frustration, especially because poor Will had been all ‘don’t jinx it’ and then we were left wondering, as most people on the plane were, what was really going on. Was it the weather conditions, the fake spill on a strip or SOMETHING ELSE? But I was sure they’ll have landed by the next episode, and probably forgot about it until the next time that they flew.
[Edited for typos 25/2/25.]