Boss handling
Mar. 24th, 2024 07:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe West Wing - 6.14 The Wake Up Call
Back to the White House, but with a title that spoke to the previous episode as well.
This was mostly about CJ having to manage the President’s time under the new health regime while an international situation flared up. On Valentine’s Day. Oh, and also learning what it was like, as Bartlet’s chief of staff, to be the third wheel in the Bartlets’ marriage. As Abbey said and CJ could see, Bartlet wasn’t great at taking care of himself, but all CJ’s points by the second half were valid. Doctor she might be, but Abbey’s requests for staff ought to be through CJ. Leo weighed in at some point to offer CJ perspective about what difference Bartlet being up could have done to the UK Prime Minister’s actions – not much, he said. And despite her having had so little sleep, she was able to weigh it up, recognise her mistakes and correct for future reference. Because the numbers of dead on the plane could have been over a hundred Americans and half a dozen Brits.
British involvement meant that Kate got to meet Lord John Marbury. Yes, he did call you a courtesan. But, frankly, Gilbert and Sullivan is not a national obsession. Hrishi hated on him on the podcast. Was he worse than usual? It’s always going to be amusing that he was an Englishman played by a Welshman as written by Americans.
My struggles were with the depiction of a feisty post-Thatcher Thatcherlike UK PM (with a name that suggested an Irish heritage) given all the time I have lived here and our country’s relationship with the US (this was during the Blair years, right?) I also had some eyebrows going up about the depiction of Belarus, but that had more to do with paying attention to it over the last few years. Also, regarding Iran, the depiction of its future by The West Wing seems a bit Panglossian from the 2020s.
Belarus came up because Toby was helping a kindly, wise professor (played by Christopher Lloyd, it was quite something to learn this person really exists and really was involved in work on the Georgian constitution) trying to help a group of Belarussians to come up with a constitution. This offered Toby a chance to opine on his experience and checks and balances. (Thank goodness Toby is a fictional character and didn’t have to live through what started in, ooh 2016.)
There was a lot of leering over Miss World of Bhutan. I didn’t find the fact that she could talk intelligently about some science thing and was useful for distracting a journalist made up for all the leering (Leo, Ed and Larry, I am disappointed in you. Ditto Mr Reporter Chap.) Not even Margaret being really into it blunted the edge, though it made me smile. To his credit?, Toby was as dismissive of her as he was of the Belarussian party until Professor Christopher Lloyd started listing their credentials. So, maybe not so much to Toby’s credit, for as the podcast noted, he could have taken her good cause a little more seriously. (Learning that the actress was of Iranian heritage via the podcast was Quite Something.)
We got to hear Kirsten Chenoweth sing, as Annabeth sung sotto voce just enough so that nobody could go, ‘You’re good at this media management thing, but have you ever considered being a professional singer?’
Vinick appeared onscreen to comment on Iran just to remind us the campaign was ongoing.
The Bartlets spent Valentine’s night fighting. Of course, some of Bartlet’s motivation is still the sense of legacy while time is running out and his body is failing him. This situation tied into the point that Leo made in ‘365 Days’ about perspective. They really hated this ep on the podcast, while I think I was a little more forgiving.
Charlie didn’t have much to do except step up as one of the people CJ could hand off meetings to.
6.15 Freedonia
Back to New Hampshire and the build-up to the Democrat primary revolving around the final debate. And ads. Donna had got more integrated into the senior campaign team, which meant Will invited her to dinner, even though she was giving off uninterested vibes. (I suppose Will wouldn’t have seen much of Colin or past boyfriends. Sorry, that is shallow objectification, but there’s no chemistry there. And is he assuming that she’s going to follow the exact same pattern as she did with Josh with him? A. arrogant. B. wishful thinking, mate. The podcast was enlightening on this, it was writer Eli Attie flying a kite on his own, which the actors didn’t lean into.)
Donna thus made good points about whether the attack ad needed to be so attacky, what they ought to do about the debate in view of Russell’s position as frontrunner, but she also fell into the giant chicken trap Josh had set.
Josh and Santos were still trying to find a way of working together. Santos was trying to be high-minded, but also had enough of an ego to know that he’d beat Russell in a proper debate, so he couldn’t follow instructions at the meeting with the paper about the debate with Russell, and piqued Russell’s ego. Josh wasn’t quite able to go as high, although he adequately diagnosed what they could do with that one ad to go viral before going viral was a thing. They combined early to come up with the idea of an alternative debate, but they didn’t combine well when Santos employed help with debate prep.
Unlike Josh, we had the assistance of the credits to know it would be Amy. She made an entrance with an outside fur hat and scarf (faux fur, surely) and an incongruous ice cream, although I would later adore her long cardigan. Sharpish advice about how Santos presented himself, but…Hoynes was appearing in this episode, wanted to meet with Josh and revealed that Amy had been sharing a memo about a stronger stance on security to all the Democrat candidates.
Josh exploded. But it turned out that Santos had known she was doing it all along and still hired her. COMMUNICATE, SIRS. With a piqued Russell having decided to shut Santos out of a mano-a-mano debate with Hoynes (brave of Bingo Bob as we, Will and Donna and the voters of New Hampshire watched him overuse the seal joke) on his terms, Santos was questioning what they were doing. After all, Josh was right that they were almost nowhere, but Josh’s ‘feisty’ chicken ad was hardly the stuff of Capra (unless if remade by Adam Sandler.) I should note that chicken suits have been employed recently in UK politics.
But Santos came up with an idea for an ad, and delivered a live ‘let Santos be Santos’ ad that spoke to his views about campaign ads, debate and used a plausible presidential voice. They won big, Amy returned to stop Josh from ruining it, and the episode ended with the debate Santos had wanted. Just before, Josh ate humble pie about what he was offering Santos, but his candidate was gracious. Let’s hope they can start working together better from now on.
I thought Whitfield was great at conveying Josh’s reactions, especially as Amy stepped all over his buttons. They did have a low level thing of women finding Santos attractive (because he’s played by Jimmy Smits), but I wouldn’t say it was at the leering at Miss World level. The link with the mothership was Josh calling CJ (with some natty curl to her hair) at one point.
Back to the White House, but with a title that spoke to the previous episode as well.
This was mostly about CJ having to manage the President’s time under the new health regime while an international situation flared up. On Valentine’s Day. Oh, and also learning what it was like, as Bartlet’s chief of staff, to be the third wheel in the Bartlets’ marriage. As Abbey said and CJ could see, Bartlet wasn’t great at taking care of himself, but all CJ’s points by the second half were valid. Doctor she might be, but Abbey’s requests for staff ought to be through CJ. Leo weighed in at some point to offer CJ perspective about what difference Bartlet being up could have done to the UK Prime Minister’s actions – not much, he said. And despite her having had so little sleep, she was able to weigh it up, recognise her mistakes and correct for future reference. Because the numbers of dead on the plane could have been over a hundred Americans and half a dozen Brits.
British involvement meant that Kate got to meet Lord John Marbury. Yes, he did call you a courtesan. But, frankly, Gilbert and Sullivan is not a national obsession. Hrishi hated on him on the podcast. Was he worse than usual? It’s always going to be amusing that he was an Englishman played by a Welshman as written by Americans.
My struggles were with the depiction of a feisty post-Thatcher Thatcherlike UK PM (with a name that suggested an Irish heritage) given all the time I have lived here and our country’s relationship with the US (this was during the Blair years, right?) I also had some eyebrows going up about the depiction of Belarus, but that had more to do with paying attention to it over the last few years. Also, regarding Iran, the depiction of its future by The West Wing seems a bit Panglossian from the 2020s.
Belarus came up because Toby was helping a kindly, wise professor (played by Christopher Lloyd, it was quite something to learn this person really exists and really was involved in work on the Georgian constitution) trying to help a group of Belarussians to come up with a constitution. This offered Toby a chance to opine on his experience and checks and balances. (Thank goodness Toby is a fictional character and didn’t have to live through what started in, ooh 2016.)
There was a lot of leering over Miss World of Bhutan. I didn’t find the fact that she could talk intelligently about some science thing and was useful for distracting a journalist made up for all the leering (Leo, Ed and Larry, I am disappointed in you. Ditto Mr Reporter Chap.) Not even Margaret being really into it blunted the edge, though it made me smile. To his credit?, Toby was as dismissive of her as he was of the Belarussian party until Professor Christopher Lloyd started listing their credentials. So, maybe not so much to Toby’s credit, for as the podcast noted, he could have taken her good cause a little more seriously. (Learning that the actress was of Iranian heritage via the podcast was Quite Something.)
We got to hear Kirsten Chenoweth sing, as Annabeth sung sotto voce just enough so that nobody could go, ‘You’re good at this media management thing, but have you ever considered being a professional singer?’
Vinick appeared onscreen to comment on Iran just to remind us the campaign was ongoing.
The Bartlets spent Valentine’s night fighting. Of course, some of Bartlet’s motivation is still the sense of legacy while time is running out and his body is failing him. This situation tied into the point that Leo made in ‘365 Days’ about perspective. They really hated this ep on the podcast, while I think I was a little more forgiving.
Charlie didn’t have much to do except step up as one of the people CJ could hand off meetings to.
6.15 Freedonia
Back to New Hampshire and the build-up to the Democrat primary revolving around the final debate. And ads. Donna had got more integrated into the senior campaign team, which meant Will invited her to dinner, even though she was giving off uninterested vibes. (I suppose Will wouldn’t have seen much of Colin or past boyfriends. Sorry, that is shallow objectification, but there’s no chemistry there. And is he assuming that she’s going to follow the exact same pattern as she did with Josh with him? A. arrogant. B. wishful thinking, mate. The podcast was enlightening on this, it was writer Eli Attie flying a kite on his own, which the actors didn’t lean into.)
Donna thus made good points about whether the attack ad needed to be so attacky, what they ought to do about the debate in view of Russell’s position as frontrunner, but she also fell into the giant chicken trap Josh had set.
Josh and Santos were still trying to find a way of working together. Santos was trying to be high-minded, but also had enough of an ego to know that he’d beat Russell in a proper debate, so he couldn’t follow instructions at the meeting with the paper about the debate with Russell, and piqued Russell’s ego. Josh wasn’t quite able to go as high, although he adequately diagnosed what they could do with that one ad to go viral before going viral was a thing. They combined early to come up with the idea of an alternative debate, but they didn’t combine well when Santos employed help with debate prep.
Unlike Josh, we had the assistance of the credits to know it would be Amy. She made an entrance with an outside fur hat and scarf (faux fur, surely) and an incongruous ice cream, although I would later adore her long cardigan. Sharpish advice about how Santos presented himself, but…Hoynes was appearing in this episode, wanted to meet with Josh and revealed that Amy had been sharing a memo about a stronger stance on security to all the Democrat candidates.
Josh exploded. But it turned out that Santos had known she was doing it all along and still hired her. COMMUNICATE, SIRS. With a piqued Russell having decided to shut Santos out of a mano-a-mano debate with Hoynes (brave of Bingo Bob as we, Will and Donna and the voters of New Hampshire watched him overuse the seal joke) on his terms, Santos was questioning what they were doing. After all, Josh was right that they were almost nowhere, but Josh’s ‘feisty’ chicken ad was hardly the stuff of Capra (unless if remade by Adam Sandler.) I should note that chicken suits have been employed recently in UK politics.
But Santos came up with an idea for an ad, and delivered a live ‘let Santos be Santos’ ad that spoke to his views about campaign ads, debate and used a plausible presidential voice. They won big, Amy returned to stop Josh from ruining it, and the episode ended with the debate Santos had wanted. Just before, Josh ate humble pie about what he was offering Santos, but his candidate was gracious. Let’s hope they can start working together better from now on.
I thought Whitfield was great at conveying Josh’s reactions, especially as Amy stepped all over his buttons. They did have a low level thing of women finding Santos attractive (because he’s played by Jimmy Smits), but I wouldn’t say it was at the leering at Miss World level. The link with the mothership was Josh calling CJ (with some natty curl to her hair) at one point.
