Two other things and The West Wing
Jul. 20th, 2024 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessBeen a while, hasn't it? First, I’m giving up on Fallout (just as it gets nominated for an Emmy! Typical.) I basically forced myself to watch the fourth episode, and the balance between gore (and squick) versus plucky survivor Lucy’s journey/quest wasn’t working for me. Not even with the sardonic humour.
Secondly, the recent Strictly news has been dismaying. Graziano is the latest to go, following Giovanni. There may be more. Er, weren’t the producers watching the footage at the time? Presumably through ‘This show is too big to rock the boat’ goggles. Will chaperones (and bringing Aljiaz back) be enough? I feel torn, I have a lot invested in the show, not least the sparkle it brings as autumn settles and turns into winter. I can also grasp that people of different temperaments and backgrounds can take tough talk and treatment from competitive perfectionists differently. So there may be some grey areas. But kicking is not on, and ‘that’s the way I was taught’ is not an argument in favour of abuse, which can be psychological and behavioural. And proper safeguarding is non-negotiable, not even on the most popular show on British TV.
The West Wing
I came across a season 7 DVD boxset cheaply in a charity shop, so I’ll be watching from that from now on.
7.4 Mr Frost
The previouslies explained who Mr Frost was, kind of, although elevating him by titling the episode after him, when he was kind of like the Cheeseman in BtVS felt like a bit much. Otherwise, I enjoyed the fact that we had more regulars, more callbacks (although that meant more comparison with Sorkin episodes, what with the classical music montage). I don’t know if it was objectively better than the previous ep, but I was more engaged. Margaret giving evidence felt like it was getting us off to a dangerous start – I presume the her deposition kept going on because she was going through every call she’d ever listened in on. (Oh, Margaret. But I also kept thinking that presumably she has a kid now.)
Everyone else in the White House was getting subpoenaed – I liked how they slowly revealed the gravity of Leo getting subpoenaed for the Santos campaign – while CJ was rushed off her feet, and lacking her right-handed woman mark 2. Charlie should not give up the day job. And then Farrad got killed, raising the tensions even higher. Frost appeared to be kooky with an element of ‘how did you let him just wander in?’ until his conspiracy theory turned out to be supported by a further assassination.
In the Santos campaign, Josh was trying to impose message discipline, Lou was calling Ned Ted and such is the power of her charisma that it was catching. They did seem like a more gelled team, and Leo and Annabeth were delightful (‘because of the tension’ and HIS FACE. Bwa! Also, it made me think of helsinkibaby. It would have been less fun if a man of Leo’s age conceived that there was something going on between them on his own.) We had some more Santos is smarter and wilier than Josh realises (Joshua, you’ve been working with him for long enough now) as he made politically savvy but just sincere enough use of his Catholic faith to put the squeeze on atheist Vinick and get his education message heard more widely. A play Lou got more than Josh, who had been all ‘answering that question that I told you to avoid then was a disaster.’.The podcast noted that it was a subtle counter punch in response to all the shots Vinick has been landing on him.
So, if he won, he’d be another Catholic Democrat – this tied him in to Bartlet, who was, of course, dealing with an international crisis and trying to gather all the other world leaders to go to show support for the Palestinians, even if nobody could guarantee their safety. And, of course, he felt added guilt, because it was his push for peace (nice moment with Kate) that might well have led to Farrad’s death. As we were, along with CJ, starting to doubt the radicalised student suicide bomber theory, Bartlet reading out the names of the innocents who’d also been killed was perfect. (The podcast pointed out that intercutting this with Santos referencing religion was well done.)
We also had a moment where they were discussing the subpoenas where I wondered if chess grandmaster Bartlet had come to realise the leaker was Toby. With all of his colleagues, but most of all Leo and his role in the ticket for the Democrat presidential candidate being under pressure, Toby finally told CJ. The actors were great in the scene, starting with Margaret returning to action, with CJ’s frenzy being totally understandable after what she’d been through, and Toby quietly but insistently trying to get through to her. The whole ‘don’t need a lawyer if you didn’t do it’/‘I got a lawyer’ exchange was not really subtle, (and got demolished on the podcast, where Hrishi had reminded us that it had been long established on the show that you probably needed a lawyer regardless of innocence) but such is life.
They both praised and critiqued the script in equal measure on the podcast, and I thought they made a fair point that some of the tension was undercut because we were often being told stuff we knew already as an audience, and shouldn’t the administration have given a little more weight to what Frost was saying or brought him in after his predictions started coming true?
Secondly, the recent Strictly news has been dismaying. Graziano is the latest to go, following Giovanni. There may be more. Er, weren’t the producers watching the footage at the time? Presumably through ‘This show is too big to rock the boat’ goggles. Will chaperones (and bringing Aljiaz back) be enough? I feel torn, I have a lot invested in the show, not least the sparkle it brings as autumn settles and turns into winter. I can also grasp that people of different temperaments and backgrounds can take tough talk and treatment from competitive perfectionists differently. So there may be some grey areas. But kicking is not on, and ‘that’s the way I was taught’ is not an argument in favour of abuse, which can be psychological and behavioural. And proper safeguarding is non-negotiable, not even on the most popular show on British TV.
The West Wing
I came across a season 7 DVD boxset cheaply in a charity shop, so I’ll be watching from that from now on.
7.4 Mr Frost
The previouslies explained who Mr Frost was, kind of, although elevating him by titling the episode after him, when he was kind of like the Cheeseman in BtVS felt like a bit much. Otherwise, I enjoyed the fact that we had more regulars, more callbacks (although that meant more comparison with Sorkin episodes, what with the classical music montage). I don’t know if it was objectively better than the previous ep, but I was more engaged. Margaret giving evidence felt like it was getting us off to a dangerous start – I presume the her deposition kept going on because she was going through every call she’d ever listened in on. (Oh, Margaret. But I also kept thinking that presumably she has a kid now.)
Everyone else in the White House was getting subpoenaed – I liked how they slowly revealed the gravity of Leo getting subpoenaed for the Santos campaign – while CJ was rushed off her feet, and lacking her right-handed woman mark 2. Charlie should not give up the day job. And then Farrad got killed, raising the tensions even higher. Frost appeared to be kooky with an element of ‘how did you let him just wander in?’ until his conspiracy theory turned out to be supported by a further assassination.
In the Santos campaign, Josh was trying to impose message discipline, Lou was calling Ned Ted and such is the power of her charisma that it was catching. They did seem like a more gelled team, and Leo and Annabeth were delightful (‘because of the tension’ and HIS FACE. Bwa! Also, it made me think of helsinkibaby. It would have been less fun if a man of Leo’s age conceived that there was something going on between them on his own.) We had some more Santos is smarter and wilier than Josh realises (Joshua, you’ve been working with him for long enough now) as he made politically savvy but just sincere enough use of his Catholic faith to put the squeeze on atheist Vinick and get his education message heard more widely. A play Lou got more than Josh, who had been all ‘answering that question that I told you to avoid then was a disaster.’.The podcast noted that it was a subtle counter punch in response to all the shots Vinick has been landing on him.
So, if he won, he’d be another Catholic Democrat – this tied him in to Bartlet, who was, of course, dealing with an international crisis and trying to gather all the other world leaders to go to show support for the Palestinians, even if nobody could guarantee their safety. And, of course, he felt added guilt, because it was his push for peace (nice moment with Kate) that might well have led to Farrad’s death. As we were, along with CJ, starting to doubt the radicalised student suicide bomber theory, Bartlet reading out the names of the innocents who’d also been killed was perfect. (The podcast pointed out that intercutting this with Santos referencing religion was well done.)
We also had a moment where they were discussing the subpoenas where I wondered if chess grandmaster Bartlet had come to realise the leaker was Toby. With all of his colleagues, but most of all Leo and his role in the ticket for the Democrat presidential candidate being under pressure, Toby finally told CJ. The actors were great in the scene, starting with Margaret returning to action, with CJ’s frenzy being totally understandable after what she’d been through, and Toby quietly but insistently trying to get through to her. The whole ‘don’t need a lawyer if you didn’t do it’/‘I got a lawyer’ exchange was not really subtle, (and got demolished on the podcast, where Hrishi had reminded us that it had been long established on the show that you probably needed a lawyer regardless of innocence) but such is life.
They both praised and critiqued the script in equal measure on the podcast, and I thought they made a fair point that some of the tension was undercut because we were often being told stuff we knew already as an audience, and shouldn’t the administration have given a little more weight to what Frost was saying or brought him in after his predictions started coming true?
