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shallownessThe West Wing - 6.20 In God We Trust
Aaaand the campaigning storyline met the governing storyline again in an episode that, ultimately, was a close look at Vinick as he won the last primary, confirming he was the Republican candidate. Santos won New Jersey, just, putting him second, Russell first and Hoynes a distant third in the Democrats’ race, with neither Santos or Russell having enough delegates to claim a win and it needing to go down to the Democratic convention to decide who’d become the Democrat candidate for the drama!
Of course the characters were talking about the politics of it, Vinick’s team wanting to milk the Democrats’ chaos, which the White House had to manage, as Bartlet was still head of the party. Leo was warning they didn’t have anyone who could beat Vinick and Charlie had grown a moustache. Bartlet insisted on an equal ops photo op for Russell and Santos – Will got nowhere with CJ on trying to make that more favourable for his guy, while there was what only a glimpse of Josh. Of course, Santos was fairly new to the place and meeting Bartlet for the first time. I did think when Bartlet ordered both men not to attack each other that someone needed to say the same to Will and Josh.
But the focus was mainly on Vinick and in the West Wing, where there was also a debt ceiling to manage. Vinick’s high of winning was of course cut short, as the question of who would be his Veep came up, and Bruno (BRUNO!) came to see him, being rather excited at a Republican candidate who was quite centrist and where the voters were at. He urged him to run a positive campaign and dangled winning more states than anyone ever as the prize.
On the podcast, Hrishi went right back to when Bruno was first introduced on the show, when Leo said he thought he’d never voted, explaining perhaps his excitement about Vinick as a candidate. But Vinick’s campaign wasn’t sure what to make of Bruno and his plan until circumstances forced them to embrace both.
Those circumstances included abortion, religion and the religious right (who needed to be kept a little further away in Bruno’s plan). I thought Vinick symbolically putting the file of ‘the best candidate’ in a drawer and closing it meant he’d made his mind up to offer the safer candidate then, but on the podcast, they thought he decided during his meeting with Butler. Who, on the whole, was classy and stopped Vinick before he made the offer, because he wasn’t going to accept it because of conscience, which Vinick had to respect.
I thought they did a pretty good job of developing his right hand woman and how she juggled being a mother, taking personal calls in between work calls. Her daughter also worked as a representative of the people, as well as reminding me of Vinick’s grand-daughter. I liked that they went deeper with him, that it wasn’t just losing his wife that had led to his stopping going to church. (A part of me raised an eyebrow that after several months of campaigning and, for some, working for Vinick for even longer, his people didn’t know he was a non-attendee.)
Anyway, the Democrats were still playing politics, and Bartlet still had an eye to his legacy, so a last-minute thing with the minimum wage came up as a rider to sorting out the debt ceiling. So, Vinick’s conversation with his more malleable candidate to run for Veep (and they cast all these new senior politicians well*) was cut short so that he could meet Bartlet for discussions in his new role as Republican leader. Quick deal making, long conversation over ice cream. They’d built up that both men had respect for each other all episode, and of course, Jed Bartlet, devout Catholic, had a view on Vinick’s dilemma about whether he should go to church. The podcast pointed out that it was an interesting dynamic, because Bartlet was interacting with a political peer (they forgot to mention the interaction with former Presidents, although they were as much reminders of what lay ahead of him as peers.) Moreover, Santos and Russell had definitely not been peers.
After an episode where he’d had the real pressure of being the candidate exerted on him, wobbled while showing why he’d won the nomination and why h was a candidate his opposition feared, Vinick found a way to answer the press well (something he’d failed to do previously, perhaps unrealistically) and find some higher ground about sticking to the truth.
Really good episode, my quibbles were minor. There were layers, there was meatiness, and the show benefitted from focusing much more on a new character, in a different political environment (as a Republican politician) with unique pressures (as the chosen candidate). Of course, the thing that’s struck me about Vinick is that in the World of the West Wing (and it’s not unreasonable) he was the opposite of predecessor Ritchie, being more centrist and attractive to independents, certainly brighter and to be taken seriously. Reality went in different ways.
*Although, of course they were all men. The main female character was a staffer, and although Vinick talked about his wife and being there for her as she got sick, she was juggling motherhood, even with a supportive boss, in a way that all those men wouldn’t have had to.
6.21 Things Fall Apart
Again, the Bartlet administration was more involved with the campaign storyline, with a bit of governing going on, and characters who’d had less to do in the previous episode had more here, while Vinick was reduced to a (telling) speech. I thought it was a little weaker than the previous episode. For one thing, the ending was more open, and we knew the leak story was to be continued and the ramifications of Santos’s decision would play out in the finale. It may have been the fact that I was rewatching, so, as I said previously, I couldn’t believe (because I knew he wouldn’t) that Santos would accept the offer of being Russell’s Veep. I also remembered who leaked (and I was almost pre-emptively cringing about all that.) But the podcast argued strongly that the episode failed to show us Santos deciding not to become Russell’s Veep or to get into Bartlet’s moral dilemma.
We saw Josh, the man who’s unable to take a hint who walked in on the Santoses, Josh shouting at the TV in a hotel bar, but also a Josh able to appreciate what Donna’s become and the true believer who had become Leo’s equal instead of subordinate. So that was a fun range for Whitford to play. Though I agreed with everything Helen had to say when she first heard that Russell had offered Santos the Veep position, I did think that she was more the voice of an argument than the less political wife she’s supposed to be. Helen as the wife building up her husband’s confidence when he was wrestling with the decision at night was more that character. (The digs at Vinick’s age just made me snort. Older than Santos he might be, but how old are this year’s real candidates!?)
And, fundamentally, as Santos and Josh knew, he didn’t respect Russell, he couldn’t make himself be his subordinate. Santos was already thinking of facing up to Vinick, of what the position he was running for meant. We had plenty of talk about the politics, whether he’d be positioning himself for four years or eight years’ time, IF Russell could really beat Vinick. Donna, being less invested than Will, had seen the calibre of the man and could see that he’d outshine Russell, whereas the Republicans had a classy opponent and a much younger Veep who was willing to be the subordinate and the response to any taunts about Vinick’s age. This was enough for me at the time, although I take the arguments made on the podcast.
At first, I wasn’t sure if Russell and Will were on the same page, as they seemed to be offering the Veep position to different men at the same time, but it turned out to be planned, and Russell hadn’t done more than hint to back-up Baker. Striking that Santos kept repeating ‘why aren’t we smart like that?’ I suspect they probably didn’t have the strategic nous because they were still thinking like insurgents, not used to working from a base of power.
Anyway, all the horse trading was happening with the Republican conference playing on their TVs, and, after the man in charge of organising arranging the Democrat conference folded, the President had to hand over the gig to Leo. (Okay, Leo had the authority and personality to bang heads, but he’d had a heart attack quite recently!) The scene where he met Will and Josh and Hoynes’ guy (not the guy Donna had bested) and found them childish was fun. FWIW I thought they should have a woman presiding over the conference, because testosterone and ego were a part of the mix about getting the best conference for their candidate, which fed into the administration’s worry that it would be chaos as opposed to the well-drilled (if unedifying) conference they were all currently watching.
And of course, after all the going low, Vinick swooped in at the end, went high and looked presidential, and Bartlet hated/respected it. (Like Hrishi, I didn’t mind that we got the President’s reaction or Toby’s, specifically the latter pointing out that Vinick hadn’t mentioned Russell or Santos.) Which is why he and Leo wanted to put their foot down and insist Santos back Russell, except he had decided he couldn’t, and Josh was proud and argued back as a believer and an operative.
Bartlet’s bad mood was about half the opposition bashing him and half having seen Charlie leaving Zoey’s bedroom. I found myself thinking a lot about how little we’ve seen of Zoey recently, but she’s clearly still living at the White House, probably because of the abduction, but what a constricted way to start living your life as an adult. Bartlet was all the huffing and puffing father to the young man who worked for him (although at least he doesn’t work directly for him anymore) and dared to be dating his daughter. Abbey quite rightly teased him, and we all know he rates Charlie. Having said that, according to the chronology of the show, they haven’t got back together all that long, and they’re both only recently graduated so hold your horses on expecting a proposal there, Papa Jed. (I did not think of it in terms of how badly Charlie played the sneaking out of his girlfriend’s bedroom.)
The big governing thing was problems at the space station, it seeming tough to find a fix or a rescue, and then CJ and we found out about the military shuttle (I’m starting to think that CJ is terrible at confidentiality, but then so was the NASA administrator, although if Toby knew, thousands of people probably had some idea of this supersekrit military shuttle. So there’s a massive flaw in the whole leak plotline. That’s the leak of the story, not the oxygen.) She wanted to use it for a rescue, Kate, the bullish Defence Secretary, Leo and, it seemed, the President, thought it more important to keep it a secret (that lots of people half knew about) which was a bit Wonderlandish, but CJ’s humanitarian instinct did seem naïve. We were reminded that Toby is the brother of an astronaut (now deceased by suicide about which he had FEELINGS). They were playing it as though CJ or A N Other could have been the leaker, but given my remembering I noted the shot where he was in more shadow than anyone else and was very sad.
Oh well, I’m looking forward to watching the conference battle.
Aaaand the campaigning storyline met the governing storyline again in an episode that, ultimately, was a close look at Vinick as he won the last primary, confirming he was the Republican candidate. Santos won New Jersey, just, putting him second, Russell first and Hoynes a distant third in the Democrats’ race, with neither Santos or Russell having enough delegates to claim a win and it needing to go down to the Democratic convention to decide who’d become the Democrat candidate for the drama!
Of course the characters were talking about the politics of it, Vinick’s team wanting to milk the Democrats’ chaos, which the White House had to manage, as Bartlet was still head of the party. Leo was warning they didn’t have anyone who could beat Vinick and Charlie had grown a moustache. Bartlet insisted on an equal ops photo op for Russell and Santos – Will got nowhere with CJ on trying to make that more favourable for his guy, while there was what only a glimpse of Josh. Of course, Santos was fairly new to the place and meeting Bartlet for the first time. I did think when Bartlet ordered both men not to attack each other that someone needed to say the same to Will and Josh.
But the focus was mainly on Vinick and in the West Wing, where there was also a debt ceiling to manage. Vinick’s high of winning was of course cut short, as the question of who would be his Veep came up, and Bruno (BRUNO!) came to see him, being rather excited at a Republican candidate who was quite centrist and where the voters were at. He urged him to run a positive campaign and dangled winning more states than anyone ever as the prize.
On the podcast, Hrishi went right back to when Bruno was first introduced on the show, when Leo said he thought he’d never voted, explaining perhaps his excitement about Vinick as a candidate. But Vinick’s campaign wasn’t sure what to make of Bruno and his plan until circumstances forced them to embrace both.
Those circumstances included abortion, religion and the religious right (who needed to be kept a little further away in Bruno’s plan). I thought Vinick symbolically putting the file of ‘the best candidate’ in a drawer and closing it meant he’d made his mind up to offer the safer candidate then, but on the podcast, they thought he decided during his meeting with Butler. Who, on the whole, was classy and stopped Vinick before he made the offer, because he wasn’t going to accept it because of conscience, which Vinick had to respect.
I thought they did a pretty good job of developing his right hand woman and how she juggled being a mother, taking personal calls in between work calls. Her daughter also worked as a representative of the people, as well as reminding me of Vinick’s grand-daughter. I liked that they went deeper with him, that it wasn’t just losing his wife that had led to his stopping going to church. (A part of me raised an eyebrow that after several months of campaigning and, for some, working for Vinick for even longer, his people didn’t know he was a non-attendee.)
Anyway, the Democrats were still playing politics, and Bartlet still had an eye to his legacy, so a last-minute thing with the minimum wage came up as a rider to sorting out the debt ceiling. So, Vinick’s conversation with his more malleable candidate to run for Veep (and they cast all these new senior politicians well*) was cut short so that he could meet Bartlet for discussions in his new role as Republican leader. Quick deal making, long conversation over ice cream. They’d built up that both men had respect for each other all episode, and of course, Jed Bartlet, devout Catholic, had a view on Vinick’s dilemma about whether he should go to church. The podcast pointed out that it was an interesting dynamic, because Bartlet was interacting with a political peer (they forgot to mention the interaction with former Presidents, although they were as much reminders of what lay ahead of him as peers.) Moreover, Santos and Russell had definitely not been peers.
After an episode where he’d had the real pressure of being the candidate exerted on him, wobbled while showing why he’d won the nomination and why h was a candidate his opposition feared, Vinick found a way to answer the press well (something he’d failed to do previously, perhaps unrealistically) and find some higher ground about sticking to the truth.
Really good episode, my quibbles were minor. There were layers, there was meatiness, and the show benefitted from focusing much more on a new character, in a different political environment (as a Republican politician) with unique pressures (as the chosen candidate). Of course, the thing that’s struck me about Vinick is that in the World of the West Wing (and it’s not unreasonable) he was the opposite of predecessor Ritchie, being more centrist and attractive to independents, certainly brighter and to be taken seriously. Reality went in different ways.
*Although, of course they were all men. The main female character was a staffer, and although Vinick talked about his wife and being there for her as she got sick, she was juggling motherhood, even with a supportive boss, in a way that all those men wouldn’t have had to.
6.21 Things Fall Apart
Again, the Bartlet administration was more involved with the campaign storyline, with a bit of governing going on, and characters who’d had less to do in the previous episode had more here, while Vinick was reduced to a (telling) speech. I thought it was a little weaker than the previous episode. For one thing, the ending was more open, and we knew the leak story was to be continued and the ramifications of Santos’s decision would play out in the finale. It may have been the fact that I was rewatching, so, as I said previously, I couldn’t believe (because I knew he wouldn’t) that Santos would accept the offer of being Russell’s Veep. I also remembered who leaked (and I was almost pre-emptively cringing about all that.) But the podcast argued strongly that the episode failed to show us Santos deciding not to become Russell’s Veep or to get into Bartlet’s moral dilemma.
We saw Josh, the man who’s unable to take a hint who walked in on the Santoses, Josh shouting at the TV in a hotel bar, but also a Josh able to appreciate what Donna’s become and the true believer who had become Leo’s equal instead of subordinate. So that was a fun range for Whitford to play. Though I agreed with everything Helen had to say when she first heard that Russell had offered Santos the Veep position, I did think that she was more the voice of an argument than the less political wife she’s supposed to be. Helen as the wife building up her husband’s confidence when he was wrestling with the decision at night was more that character. (The digs at Vinick’s age just made me snort. Older than Santos he might be, but how old are this year’s real candidates!?)
And, fundamentally, as Santos and Josh knew, he didn’t respect Russell, he couldn’t make himself be his subordinate. Santos was already thinking of facing up to Vinick, of what the position he was running for meant. We had plenty of talk about the politics, whether he’d be positioning himself for four years or eight years’ time, IF Russell could really beat Vinick. Donna, being less invested than Will, had seen the calibre of the man and could see that he’d outshine Russell, whereas the Republicans had a classy opponent and a much younger Veep who was willing to be the subordinate and the response to any taunts about Vinick’s age. This was enough for me at the time, although I take the arguments made on the podcast.
At first, I wasn’t sure if Russell and Will were on the same page, as they seemed to be offering the Veep position to different men at the same time, but it turned out to be planned, and Russell hadn’t done more than hint to back-up Baker. Striking that Santos kept repeating ‘why aren’t we smart like that?’ I suspect they probably didn’t have the strategic nous because they were still thinking like insurgents, not used to working from a base of power.
Anyway, all the horse trading was happening with the Republican conference playing on their TVs, and, after the man in charge of organising arranging the Democrat conference folded, the President had to hand over the gig to Leo. (Okay, Leo had the authority and personality to bang heads, but he’d had a heart attack quite recently!) The scene where he met Will and Josh and Hoynes’ guy (not the guy Donna had bested) and found them childish was fun. FWIW I thought they should have a woman presiding over the conference, because testosterone and ego were a part of the mix about getting the best conference for their candidate, which fed into the administration’s worry that it would be chaos as opposed to the well-drilled (if unedifying) conference they were all currently watching.
And of course, after all the going low, Vinick swooped in at the end, went high and looked presidential, and Bartlet hated/respected it. (Like Hrishi, I didn’t mind that we got the President’s reaction or Toby’s, specifically the latter pointing out that Vinick hadn’t mentioned Russell or Santos.) Which is why he and Leo wanted to put their foot down and insist Santos back Russell, except he had decided he couldn’t, and Josh was proud and argued back as a believer and an operative.
Bartlet’s bad mood was about half the opposition bashing him and half having seen Charlie leaving Zoey’s bedroom. I found myself thinking a lot about how little we’ve seen of Zoey recently, but she’s clearly still living at the White House, probably because of the abduction, but what a constricted way to start living your life as an adult. Bartlet was all the huffing and puffing father to the young man who worked for him (although at least he doesn’t work directly for him anymore) and dared to be dating his daughter. Abbey quite rightly teased him, and we all know he rates Charlie. Having said that, according to the chronology of the show, they haven’t got back together all that long, and they’re both only recently graduated so hold your horses on expecting a proposal there, Papa Jed. (I did not think of it in terms of how badly Charlie played the sneaking out of his girlfriend’s bedroom.)
The big governing thing was problems at the space station, it seeming tough to find a fix or a rescue, and then CJ and we found out about the military shuttle (I’m starting to think that CJ is terrible at confidentiality, but then so was the NASA administrator, although if Toby knew, thousands of people probably had some idea of this supersekrit military shuttle. So there’s a massive flaw in the whole leak plotline. That’s the leak of the story, not the oxygen.) She wanted to use it for a rescue, Kate, the bullish Defence Secretary, Leo and, it seemed, the President, thought it more important to keep it a secret (that lots of people half knew about) which was a bit Wonderlandish, but CJ’s humanitarian instinct did seem naïve. We were reminded that Toby is the brother of an astronaut (now deceased by suicide about which he had FEELINGS). They were playing it as though CJ or A N Other could have been the leaker, but given my remembering I noted the shot where he was in more shadow than anyone else and was very sad.
Oh well, I’m looking forward to watching the conference battle.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-19 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-20 06:52 am (UTC)Reagan's obvious Alzheimer's before he left office was a big deal in political circles
Dispassionately speaking, as it should be.
I've always felt sorry for middle-aged leaders as people in that whatever they do next, it is not leading their country, and yet they have all this time and energy left, experience that should be useful, not to mention ego. It's the extremest of early retirement.