shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2022-11-10 05:17 pm
shallowness) wrote2022-11-10 05:17 pm
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Allsorts on TV
The West Wing: 4.20 Evidence of Things Unseen
I suppose I should say that I deliberately chose not to watch a double bill as I usually do, thinking there were two episodes left of the season, but there are three. Oops.
I mostly really liked this, although my attention may have wandered during one of Bartlet’s phone calls to the Russian president, and I sometimes felt as if references were passing me by. But I liked the contrast between the staff’s downtime and the work they were called back to do, with the added jolt of the shooting.
I loved Bartlet’s statecraft. The podcast went after the ‘leap of faith’ he made and how such conversations averted nuclear war, but what struck me was that Bartlet had met his Russian opposite number (yes, I’m using an epithet instead of guessing at the spelling) and had some sense of the man, which was why he was dubious about the cover stories the Pentagon and State were suggesting via Leo. It wasn’t such a leap of faith to come clean.
There was a bit of weirdness about Matthew Perry turning up (a podcast about a previous episode had reminded me he’d already appeared on the show as himself,) some of it powered by my realising this was after Friends and feeling all the weight of time, because I binged a lot of Friends in spring 2020. (Richard Schiff and Malina were droll on this podcast episode about how much/little work they thought was involved in appearing on Friends vis a vis on The West Wing.) I must have also thought way back when that Perry would be capable of delivering Sorkinese.
Perry was playing Joe Quincy AKA ‘the male Ainsley’, according to Josh. Ugh, Josh. I agreed with Hrishi on the podcast about describing him like that. Okay, some of it was reacting to Donna calling Quincy handsome, and ugh to you too, Donna, for the objectification, but they both did it in front of Joe! The show finally admitted Ainsley had followed the actress, i.e. gone. It felt a bit weird that they felt they needed a replacement Republican lawyer helping them. Will, after all, filled Sam’s professional role, but is distinct rather than just being gender flipped. (Well, there’s the whole Southern thing too.) And okay, Sam and Will were regulars, while Ainsley and Joe were recurring guest stars, but still. Have a Republican insider again, by all means, but why in the exact same post?
Speaking of Will, his being an air reservist, as mentioned in the previous episode, became a bigger thing this episode. I liked that he was still basically a lawyer, but that Bartlet treated him as a military man.
I felt for Zoey, accidental spymaster. It must be tough that all the other students felt the need to come and tell her about Charlie’s doings. She laid out what seemed like fairly valid reasons for wanting Jean-Paul in her life right now (although he must be showing her a whole different personality – ‘evidence of things unseen on the show’ as the podcast put it, indeed). Apart from vague dread about what’s coming (I don’t remember much, we’ll see how much comes back to me about what’s happening in the next scene as/scenes/episodes as I rewatch), I mainly felt that we haven’t quite seen enough Charlie/Zoey onscreen to track where they’re at and be as invested as we/I could be in their relationship.
I liked that it was ambiguous about how all right Josh really was, reliving his trauma. He did seem to be more engaged in trying to puzzle out Quincy than flipping out. I thought the podcast made valid points about that exchange where Josh referenced hearing music when his PTSD was triggered and wondering why he’d say that to Joe and how Joe understood what he was talking about. Donna’s concern for Josh here was lovely. Schiff made the point that in his rewatch he was struck by how Sorkin, who knew he was leaving, wrote their and others’ relationships so lovingly. Because Schiff was a guest on the podcast, there was lots of talk about Toby/CJ and not acting on it, but no mention that the timing of Andi’s pregnancy being one very good reason why it would have been complicated to do so.
This is where I stopped with my notes originally, so I’m mainly going on what the podcast raised now – I too loved both Charlie and Debbie bursting in to check the President was all right. The possibility of the attack being one of a spate leading to the lockdown led to some echoes of ‘Isaac and Ishmael’ as well as the more obvious echoes of the shooting at Rosslyn (this was a much better episode than I&I).
Ghosts: 4.4 Gone Gone
Well, I walked into that when watching Annie’s ascension made me think, but not too long, about how awful it would be if one of our ghosts did the same, but they went and did it to Mary. In fairness, they have given Mary a lovely arc in this fourth series, finally able to face her death and not being demanding of Alison in the previous ep. I hope the actress was okay with it, though, as she isn’t one of the core group of creators (and it does mean one fewer regular female character, unfortunately.)
It led to a very poignant exploration of grief, with all of them reacting so differently. I knew Robin would row back from apparently not caring, and the point of being the oldest ghost giving him a broader perspective was well made. It was suggestive about why so many of the ghosts are relatively recent, with four from the last century and a half or so. I hadn’t much considered it other than Pat and Julian having more understanding of modern life and the viewers being more familiar with those eras.
Pat’s terrible attempts to comfort Kitty/stop her from crying turned into a very Maryesque surreal story he whipped up from whatever book spines suggested to him. It was quite something.
I liked the moment when Lady Button started watching the Loose Women, yelled for Mary that it was on, having forgotten Mary was gone…
Alison was lovely, stunned and grieving herself, but able to herd them to come to an appropriate ceremony. (Having only almost died, not died herself, and having experienced grief more recently, apart from being sane!Alison, helped. Good use of Humphrey’s head, with him needing to be told last.
The ‘alive’ plotline was just as good, with Mike having to navigate Alison’s grief and that of all the sad ghosts he can’t really interact with. Of course his breezy assumption that he’d got the party sorted was set-up for it all going wrong. That point about ‘old-fashioned’ names having come round has certainly occurred to me for the past decade or more, although I think other names are more popular than Ethel and Biddy (and tbh, how many eightysomethings are called Biddy and Ethel? Don’t those names belong to the generation above more?) The Captain had some amusing non-interaction with the car parking. They had just about enough charm to get away with the big set pieces i.e. the kids’ boredom at the crooner and their excitement at Mad Hatter!Mike, who wisely realised that sweets was the way to win them over.
I was left wondering if the whole ‘you’re really good with kids’ exchange with Alison, who was all about making the most of life after her loss, might lead to Alison and Mike thinking about having a baby, which could be an interesting storyline.
Hart of Dixie: 2.8 Achy Breaky Hearts
What jumped out at me during Zoe and Wade’s conversation in the opening scene was his asking if they were going to keep their relationship on the downlow until they died, which to me revealed he was in it for the long haul. (Granted, said relationship is mainly sexual.) I nonetheless snorted at Zoe’s enthusiastic agreement that they should do that (having just dived behind a bed to hide from George). I made the same noise when Wade agreed to help out at the camp solely to avoid George. They’re made for each other in their brand of craziness.
But ouch, Wade, that Zoe insisted he hand the phone over to George for advice, instead of turning to him. At least his reason for withholding permission for George to date Tansy was down to his anxieties about Zoe and himself, which this ep was very clearly showing stemmed from his inferiority complex, which he was recognising had been there for a good 20 years.
(Does Wade have his own Rose now in this kid? You knew Wade would end up being an unlikely mentor/good influence on him somehow. And vice-versa.)
But it wasn’t just the inferiority complex. Zoe gave herself away – we’d been prepped for it with all her talk of uncertain futures – when she learned that George knew about her and Wade. Just as Wade was admitting to himself that he wanted something more permanent than casual, which he’d always claimed he wanted, it became clear that he was still a placeholder for future Zoe/George for her. (Or so she thinks.) Well, this ‘casual’ business was never going to be enough. It didn’t end very cleanly, just with Wade excusing himself from the sexytimes.
I suppose the writers felt they couldn’t make George so stupid as not to figure it out. I think I have mynon for when he did. George was not that annoying this episode. I still think Tansy is going to get hurt if she entangles herself in the love pentagon, although it’s shifting geometrically, but at least George was having none of the women as baked goods nonsense, and said he wasn’t really asking for Wade’s permission because he believed in Tansy’s agency. There was a whiff of George making it known that he thought Wade or Zoe should have told him about them, although he and Zoe only pretended to be married for five minutes, while Wade and Tansy’s relationship was a more tangible thing.
The anvils were raining hard over Zoe’s hypocrisy about wanting to be honest about not liking Ruby but wanting to be dishonest about sleeping with Wade. She would not be won over – Ruby is just a trifle too syrupy, so I couldn’t be too bothered about what Zoe’s feelings as Lavon’s sister from another mother should be about all this.
Lemon’s motivations WRT Lavon/Ruby were more clear cut, and despite AnnaBeth’s advice, of course she plotted to get Ruby gone. Of course it turned out the man was a headhunter, not a secret lover. Zoe got enmeshed in Lemon’s scheming, but figured out Lemon’s feelings for Lavon.
I could totally see where Ruby was coming from because of the way Lavon accused her and didn’t accept her word (mainly out of hurt, and she hadn’t been entirely straight with him.) Much was made of the fact that she hasn’t settled in Bluebell and found her place there like Zoe has. (Emily’s decision reinforced this. I could see that from her perspective Brick asking her to give up her life for him, one daughter who’d nearly killed her and another who was a teenage weathervane, wasn’t all that attractive.)
Lemon cares enough for Lavon to see that her scheming had hurt him badly and to try to do the right thing, and thus got him and Zoe involved in her second batch of scheming, but I don’t think there’s much mileage in Lavon/Ruby, although maybe Ruby can hang around long enough for Zoe to vent about the latest with Wade (which I care about more).
Every time a character spoke of something from the chicken episode, I went ‘ugh’.
When I saw the trailer for 'The English' on YouTube months ago, I presumed Hugo Blick was doing features now but no, it turns out it's a six parter, and it starts tonight, so I will be watching. In one sentence it looks like it's a Western revenge featuring Emily Blunt, with at least one significant native American character. 'The Honourable Woman' and 'Black Earth Rising' had their problems, but they were certainly thought-provoking...
[Edited for typos 12/2/25.]
I suppose I should say that I deliberately chose not to watch a double bill as I usually do, thinking there were two episodes left of the season, but there are three. Oops.
I mostly really liked this, although my attention may have wandered during one of Bartlet’s phone calls to the Russian president, and I sometimes felt as if references were passing me by. But I liked the contrast between the staff’s downtime and the work they were called back to do, with the added jolt of the shooting.
I loved Bartlet’s statecraft. The podcast went after the ‘leap of faith’ he made and how such conversations averted nuclear war, but what struck me was that Bartlet had met his Russian opposite number (yes, I’m using an epithet instead of guessing at the spelling) and had some sense of the man, which was why he was dubious about the cover stories the Pentagon and State were suggesting via Leo. It wasn’t such a leap of faith to come clean.
There was a bit of weirdness about Matthew Perry turning up (a podcast about a previous episode had reminded me he’d already appeared on the show as himself,) some of it powered by my realising this was after Friends and feeling all the weight of time, because I binged a lot of Friends in spring 2020. (Richard Schiff and Malina were droll on this podcast episode about how much/little work they thought was involved in appearing on Friends vis a vis on The West Wing.) I must have also thought way back when that Perry would be capable of delivering Sorkinese.
Perry was playing Joe Quincy AKA ‘the male Ainsley’, according to Josh. Ugh, Josh. I agreed with Hrishi on the podcast about describing him like that. Okay, some of it was reacting to Donna calling Quincy handsome, and ugh to you too, Donna, for the objectification, but they both did it in front of Joe! The show finally admitted Ainsley had followed the actress, i.e. gone. It felt a bit weird that they felt they needed a replacement Republican lawyer helping them. Will, after all, filled Sam’s professional role, but is distinct rather than just being gender flipped. (Well, there’s the whole Southern thing too.) And okay, Sam and Will were regulars, while Ainsley and Joe were recurring guest stars, but still. Have a Republican insider again, by all means, but why in the exact same post?
Speaking of Will, his being an air reservist, as mentioned in the previous episode, became a bigger thing this episode. I liked that he was still basically a lawyer, but that Bartlet treated him as a military man.
I felt for Zoey, accidental spymaster. It must be tough that all the other students felt the need to come and tell her about Charlie’s doings. She laid out what seemed like fairly valid reasons for wanting Jean-Paul in her life right now (although he must be showing her a whole different personality – ‘evidence of things unseen on the show’ as the podcast put it, indeed). Apart from vague dread about what’s coming (I don’t remember much, we’ll see how much comes back to me about what’s happening in the next scene as/scenes/episodes as I rewatch), I mainly felt that we haven’t quite seen enough Charlie/Zoey onscreen to track where they’re at and be as invested as we/I could be in their relationship.
I liked that it was ambiguous about how all right Josh really was, reliving his trauma. He did seem to be more engaged in trying to puzzle out Quincy than flipping out. I thought the podcast made valid points about that exchange where Josh referenced hearing music when his PTSD was triggered and wondering why he’d say that to Joe and how Joe understood what he was talking about. Donna’s concern for Josh here was lovely. Schiff made the point that in his rewatch he was struck by how Sorkin, who knew he was leaving, wrote their and others’ relationships so lovingly. Because Schiff was a guest on the podcast, there was lots of talk about Toby/CJ and not acting on it, but no mention that the timing of Andi’s pregnancy being one very good reason why it would have been complicated to do so.
This is where I stopped with my notes originally, so I’m mainly going on what the podcast raised now – I too loved both Charlie and Debbie bursting in to check the President was all right. The possibility of the attack being one of a spate leading to the lockdown led to some echoes of ‘Isaac and Ishmael’ as well as the more obvious echoes of the shooting at Rosslyn (this was a much better episode than I&I).
Ghosts: 4.4 Gone Gone
Well, I walked into that when watching Annie’s ascension made me think, but not too long, about how awful it would be if one of our ghosts did the same, but they went and did it to Mary. In fairness, they have given Mary a lovely arc in this fourth series, finally able to face her death and not being demanding of Alison in the previous ep. I hope the actress was okay with it, though, as she isn’t one of the core group of creators (and it does mean one fewer regular female character, unfortunately.)
It led to a very poignant exploration of grief, with all of them reacting so differently. I knew Robin would row back from apparently not caring, and the point of being the oldest ghost giving him a broader perspective was well made. It was suggestive about why so many of the ghosts are relatively recent, with four from the last century and a half or so. I hadn’t much considered it other than Pat and Julian having more understanding of modern life and the viewers being more familiar with those eras.
Pat’s terrible attempts to comfort Kitty/stop her from crying turned into a very Maryesque surreal story he whipped up from whatever book spines suggested to him. It was quite something.
I liked the moment when Lady Button started watching the Loose Women, yelled for Mary that it was on, having forgotten Mary was gone…
Alison was lovely, stunned and grieving herself, but able to herd them to come to an appropriate ceremony. (Having only almost died, not died herself, and having experienced grief more recently, apart from being sane!Alison, helped. Good use of Humphrey’s head, with him needing to be told last.
The ‘alive’ plotline was just as good, with Mike having to navigate Alison’s grief and that of all the sad ghosts he can’t really interact with. Of course his breezy assumption that he’d got the party sorted was set-up for it all going wrong. That point about ‘old-fashioned’ names having come round has certainly occurred to me for the past decade or more, although I think other names are more popular than Ethel and Biddy (and tbh, how many eightysomethings are called Biddy and Ethel? Don’t those names belong to the generation above more?) The Captain had some amusing non-interaction with the car parking. They had just about enough charm to get away with the big set pieces i.e. the kids’ boredom at the crooner and their excitement at Mad Hatter!Mike, who wisely realised that sweets was the way to win them over.
I was left wondering if the whole ‘you’re really good with kids’ exchange with Alison, who was all about making the most of life after her loss, might lead to Alison and Mike thinking about having a baby, which could be an interesting storyline.
Hart of Dixie: 2.8 Achy Breaky Hearts
What jumped out at me during Zoe and Wade’s conversation in the opening scene was his asking if they were going to keep their relationship on the downlow until they died, which to me revealed he was in it for the long haul. (Granted, said relationship is mainly sexual.) I nonetheless snorted at Zoe’s enthusiastic agreement that they should do that (having just dived behind a bed to hide from George). I made the same noise when Wade agreed to help out at the camp solely to avoid George. They’re made for each other in their brand of craziness.
But ouch, Wade, that Zoe insisted he hand the phone over to George for advice, instead of turning to him. At least his reason for withholding permission for George to date Tansy was down to his anxieties about Zoe and himself, which this ep was very clearly showing stemmed from his inferiority complex, which he was recognising had been there for a good 20 years.
(Does Wade have his own Rose now in this kid? You knew Wade would end up being an unlikely mentor/good influence on him somehow. And vice-versa.)
But it wasn’t just the inferiority complex. Zoe gave herself away – we’d been prepped for it with all her talk of uncertain futures – when she learned that George knew about her and Wade. Just as Wade was admitting to himself that he wanted something more permanent than casual, which he’d always claimed he wanted, it became clear that he was still a placeholder for future Zoe/George for her. (Or so she thinks.) Well, this ‘casual’ business was never going to be enough. It didn’t end very cleanly, just with Wade excusing himself from the sexytimes.
I suppose the writers felt they couldn’t make George so stupid as not to figure it out. I think I have mynon for when he did. George was not that annoying this episode. I still think Tansy is going to get hurt if she entangles herself in the love pentagon, although it’s shifting geometrically, but at least George was having none of the women as baked goods nonsense, and said he wasn’t really asking for Wade’s permission because he believed in Tansy’s agency. There was a whiff of George making it known that he thought Wade or Zoe should have told him about them, although he and Zoe only pretended to be married for five minutes, while Wade and Tansy’s relationship was a more tangible thing.
The anvils were raining hard over Zoe’s hypocrisy about wanting to be honest about not liking Ruby but wanting to be dishonest about sleeping with Wade. She would not be won over – Ruby is just a trifle too syrupy, so I couldn’t be too bothered about what Zoe’s feelings as Lavon’s sister from another mother should be about all this.
Lemon’s motivations WRT Lavon/Ruby were more clear cut, and despite AnnaBeth’s advice, of course she plotted to get Ruby gone. Of course it turned out the man was a headhunter, not a secret lover. Zoe got enmeshed in Lemon’s scheming, but figured out Lemon’s feelings for Lavon.
I could totally see where Ruby was coming from because of the way Lavon accused her and didn’t accept her word (mainly out of hurt, and she hadn’t been entirely straight with him.) Much was made of the fact that she hasn’t settled in Bluebell and found her place there like Zoe has. (Emily’s decision reinforced this. I could see that from her perspective Brick asking her to give up her life for him, one daughter who’d nearly killed her and another who was a teenage weathervane, wasn’t all that attractive.)
Lemon cares enough for Lavon to see that her scheming had hurt him badly and to try to do the right thing, and thus got him and Zoe involved in her second batch of scheming, but I don’t think there’s much mileage in Lavon/Ruby, although maybe Ruby can hang around long enough for Zoe to vent about the latest with Wade (which I care about more).
Every time a character spoke of something from the chicken episode, I went ‘ugh’.
When I saw the trailer for 'The English' on YouTube months ago, I presumed Hugo Blick was doing features now but no, it turns out it's a six parter, and it starts tonight, so I will be watching. In one sentence it looks like it's a Western revenge featuring Emily Blunt, with at least one significant native American character. 'The Honourable Woman' and 'Black Earth Rising' had their problems, but they were certainly thought-provoking...
[Edited for typos 12/2/25.]