Governing/campaigning
Mar. 10th, 2024 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe West Wing - 6.12 365 Days
Leo’s first official day back – I sort of wondered why make quite such a big deal of it now, apart from episode contrivance, as he had been back to help out before, but now he had a meeting at 7 a.m. with the senior staff where he started to talk and then Kate’s pager went off. Of all the staff’s! Next it was CJ’s and soon they were all peeling off. Awkward! But he found something to do in his new office, barely decorated, despite Margaret’s displeasure.
It was the morning after the (last) state of the union address, Toby was extra discomfited, although it had gone well, but perhaps that was because everyone knew it’d be the last one. That message Kate had got had been about a situation in Bolivia…
Bartlet had regained his balance, at least, but was still trying to work in the new regime, the one where he napped. Meanwhile Leo had a chance to look at things from a new perspective, as Bartlet hadn’t defined his new role, and CJ was clearly chief of staff.
Annabeth was standing up to Toby – quite right too, as he wanted her to prep the First Lady for a Nascar thing. She found a way to do so (by appealing to Abbey’s baser instincts, which I didn’t love.) I didn’t get as hung up as they did on the podcast about being derogatory about NASCAR fans, though I agreed that this subplot wasn’t up to much. But as Annabeth is clearly the boss of Carol these days, I wondered if she was now the de facto press secretary, even if they only let Toby brief.
Charlie was trying to fight for something mentioned in the speech – with a dull name, according to Annabeth – that would help poorer people, though it was going down like a lead balloon.
Will, back in Washington, was getting grief (mainly from Toby) because the Veep would only give a week to bigging up the SoU out of his campaigning. (Ooh, Hrishi went deep by suggesting that in the middle of what was a rerun of Toby being angry with Will, the ‘plucked from obscurity’ line referred more to Will than Russell.) Will had a telling conversation about Russell’s strengths and weaknesses with Leo, where he talked about trying to see what Bartlet and Leo had seen in him when they’d appointed him Veep. Er, getting someone politically palatable and holding their noses, IIRC. Leo was noncommittal. They had a long discussion about this on the podcast. I think Malina’s investment in Will made him demand that Leo had told him the truth. The point about the energy of the scene in that Leo didn’t was fair.
But Leo had it out with Bartlet about why they should still be ambitious in their final year. (At one point in the ep I thought ‘he’s going to be doing what Toby made a pitch for a while back’. But Hrishi pointed out that we’d had all this in ‘Let Bartlet Be Bartlet’.)
Seeing Toby and Charlie sign (back) in at nearly 10 pm was a good way of bringing us back to the beginning. For this get-together, convened by the Prez, Leo had something pithy to say, and like the staff, we were left energised about what those remaining in the West Wing would do. Well, I was. The podcasters less so, and they did make a good point about the very last line (from Will’s mouth) being uninspiring in the extreme. And that all this talk about Bolivia would lead nowhere in the show.
6.13 King Corn
Back to the campaign trail (and Will in informal clothes), which is a plotline that’s already grabbed us. I loved the structure, one start, then following three candidates and their teams’ days in succession, showing us how they reacted differently to the same news and in the same places, and then bringing some of them together at the end, because they were all staying at the same hotel. How much does that really happen in a campaign?
The staying in the same hotel thing was intensified for Donna and Josh, when he forced his way into her elevator, not knowing she was in it. Both tired, both knowing each other pretty well, but now at a big old remove. Of course Donna had to show him how to use the keycard. Of course she’d prepped her coffee before going to sleep while he was far more slapdash about it. I really liked that we followed their different morning routines and what it said about them (and interesting that we then followed Arnie Vinick, who is a relative stranger to us, so this was all about sketching him out. Alan Alda has now made it to the credits.)
It's notable that we never saw Hoynes or any visible signs of his campaign, although he was oft mentioned. Josh and Santos were still figuring out their dynamic and what they wanted the campaign to be. The new element was Helen, who was the first to object to Josh automatically saying they had to be pro-ethanol to be acceptable in Iowa. On the podcast, they discussed whether or not Josh and Santos should have sorted this by now, or whether it said something interesting about Santos that he hadn’t stuck to his principles this time.
For dramatic purposes, it was clear that Russell’s campaign, both candidate and manager, had no problem with ‘signing the ethanol pledge’ if that was what they had to do. Turned out that Santos did, while Josh was desperate not to turn another state against them. So much for a campaign of ideas! There was mild drama about what Santos would say in his big old speech (he folded), and then all this was reversed in Vinick’s campaign, where he’d historically been anti-ethanol line, but his team were desperate for him to reverse it, so much so they put a speech saying this up on his prompter. He remained true to himself (we could hear the audience’s disgruntlement), and, as far as the non-Iowan audience was concerned, did the right thing, making Santos feel really bad.
The podcast had quite a lengthy discussion about ethanol (zzz.) Its depiction ruffled some feathers when it aired as did mentioning Turkey. I can see why the insinuation that you as a country that has prohibited the death penalty used it on a woman for adultery from a show made in the country that has not prohibited the death penalty might rankle. They had to apologise, although they won a legal case because it was based on a non-Government-sanctioned stoning. As they said on the podcast, ‘this is what Qumar is for!’
Interesting to hear from the actors playing Santos’s staffers how their experience as actors joining the show fed into what their characters was going through, and how that was probably true of Jimmy Smits, too.
The Russell team was massive, the Santos team was growing, while the Vinick team seemed more professional. Telling that Donna, after her success at fund raising, had to vet the fringe candidates and only briefly got introduced to Russell, who gave her a generic ‘thanks for what you’re doing’.
In Santos and Vinick’s final interaction, as a rewatcher, it felt like Josh, realise it or not, you’re watching the two eventual candidates arguing respectfully.
The episode closed with a montage following the main players showing something of their personal lives. (I had not taken in Will’s thing with the ice cream sandwich, discussed to death on the podcast.)
My takeout from this double bill: sleep deprivation is probably not good for making important decisions!
Leo’s first official day back – I sort of wondered why make quite such a big deal of it now, apart from episode contrivance, as he had been back to help out before, but now he had a meeting at 7 a.m. with the senior staff where he started to talk and then Kate’s pager went off. Of all the staff’s! Next it was CJ’s and soon they were all peeling off. Awkward! But he found something to do in his new office, barely decorated, despite Margaret’s displeasure.
It was the morning after the (last) state of the union address, Toby was extra discomfited, although it had gone well, but perhaps that was because everyone knew it’d be the last one. That message Kate had got had been about a situation in Bolivia…
Bartlet had regained his balance, at least, but was still trying to work in the new regime, the one where he napped. Meanwhile Leo had a chance to look at things from a new perspective, as Bartlet hadn’t defined his new role, and CJ was clearly chief of staff.
Annabeth was standing up to Toby – quite right too, as he wanted her to prep the First Lady for a Nascar thing. She found a way to do so (by appealing to Abbey’s baser instincts, which I didn’t love.) I didn’t get as hung up as they did on the podcast about being derogatory about NASCAR fans, though I agreed that this subplot wasn’t up to much. But as Annabeth is clearly the boss of Carol these days, I wondered if she was now the de facto press secretary, even if they only let Toby brief.
Charlie was trying to fight for something mentioned in the speech – with a dull name, according to Annabeth – that would help poorer people, though it was going down like a lead balloon.
Will, back in Washington, was getting grief (mainly from Toby) because the Veep would only give a week to bigging up the SoU out of his campaigning. (Ooh, Hrishi went deep by suggesting that in the middle of what was a rerun of Toby being angry with Will, the ‘plucked from obscurity’ line referred more to Will than Russell.) Will had a telling conversation about Russell’s strengths and weaknesses with Leo, where he talked about trying to see what Bartlet and Leo had seen in him when they’d appointed him Veep. Er, getting someone politically palatable and holding their noses, IIRC. Leo was noncommittal. They had a long discussion about this on the podcast. I think Malina’s investment in Will made him demand that Leo had told him the truth. The point about the energy of the scene in that Leo didn’t was fair.
But Leo had it out with Bartlet about why they should still be ambitious in their final year. (At one point in the ep I thought ‘he’s going to be doing what Toby made a pitch for a while back’. But Hrishi pointed out that we’d had all this in ‘Let Bartlet Be Bartlet’.)
Seeing Toby and Charlie sign (back) in at nearly 10 pm was a good way of bringing us back to the beginning. For this get-together, convened by the Prez, Leo had something pithy to say, and like the staff, we were left energised about what those remaining in the West Wing would do. Well, I was. The podcasters less so, and they did make a good point about the very last line (from Will’s mouth) being uninspiring in the extreme. And that all this talk about Bolivia would lead nowhere in the show.
6.13 King Corn
Back to the campaign trail (and Will in informal clothes), which is a plotline that’s already grabbed us. I loved the structure, one start, then following three candidates and their teams’ days in succession, showing us how they reacted differently to the same news and in the same places, and then bringing some of them together at the end, because they were all staying at the same hotel. How much does that really happen in a campaign?
The staying in the same hotel thing was intensified for Donna and Josh, when he forced his way into her elevator, not knowing she was in it. Both tired, both knowing each other pretty well, but now at a big old remove. Of course Donna had to show him how to use the keycard. Of course she’d prepped her coffee before going to sleep while he was far more slapdash about it. I really liked that we followed their different morning routines and what it said about them (and interesting that we then followed Arnie Vinick, who is a relative stranger to us, so this was all about sketching him out. Alan Alda has now made it to the credits.)
It's notable that we never saw Hoynes or any visible signs of his campaign, although he was oft mentioned. Josh and Santos were still figuring out their dynamic and what they wanted the campaign to be. The new element was Helen, who was the first to object to Josh automatically saying they had to be pro-ethanol to be acceptable in Iowa. On the podcast, they discussed whether or not Josh and Santos should have sorted this by now, or whether it said something interesting about Santos that he hadn’t stuck to his principles this time.
For dramatic purposes, it was clear that Russell’s campaign, both candidate and manager, had no problem with ‘signing the ethanol pledge’ if that was what they had to do. Turned out that Santos did, while Josh was desperate not to turn another state against them. So much for a campaign of ideas! There was mild drama about what Santos would say in his big old speech (he folded), and then all this was reversed in Vinick’s campaign, where he’d historically been anti-ethanol line, but his team were desperate for him to reverse it, so much so they put a speech saying this up on his prompter. He remained true to himself (we could hear the audience’s disgruntlement), and, as far as the non-Iowan audience was concerned, did the right thing, making Santos feel really bad.
The podcast had quite a lengthy discussion about ethanol (zzz.) Its depiction ruffled some feathers when it aired as did mentioning Turkey. I can see why the insinuation that you as a country that has prohibited the death penalty used it on a woman for adultery from a show made in the country that has not prohibited the death penalty might rankle. They had to apologise, although they won a legal case because it was based on a non-Government-sanctioned stoning. As they said on the podcast, ‘this is what Qumar is for!’
Interesting to hear from the actors playing Santos’s staffers how their experience as actors joining the show fed into what their characters was going through, and how that was probably true of Jimmy Smits, too.
The Russell team was massive, the Santos team was growing, while the Vinick team seemed more professional. Telling that Donna, after her success at fund raising, had to vet the fringe candidates and only briefly got introduced to Russell, who gave her a generic ‘thanks for what you’re doing’.
In Santos and Vinick’s final interaction, as a rewatcher, it felt like Josh, realise it or not, you’re watching the two eventual candidates arguing respectfully.
The episode closed with a montage following the main players showing something of their personal lives. (I had not taken in Will’s thing with the ice cream sandwich, discussed to death on the podcast.)
My takeout from this double bill: sleep deprivation is probably not good for making important decisions!
