TWW: Where we used to be
Nov. 14th, 2024 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe West Wing - 7.15 Welcome to Wherever You Are
Watched before the recent US election, but listened to The West Wing Weekly podcast episode about it after.
Five days out, goodness knows how many states, one Jon Bon Jovi, playing ‘himself’ and coming off as a nice guy, and a whole lot of cross-talking. Unlike Santos and the rest, I wasn’t sleep deprived when I watched this, but I felt there were too many strands to follow, so I was quite impressed with how reasonably on top of things Santos was, although he was deteriorating with no coffee around.
The other strand was Toby, no longer just the guy on the other end of Josh’s phone. A senior prosecutor guy had hauled him back to his office to offer a deal, Toby had refused five times already (it wasn’t clear whether he was protecting his brother, CJ or the principle of the thing, or, according to the podcast, Someone Else.) The DA upped the ante, by threatening to add obstruction of justice and indict CJ, Leo and Bartlet just before the election. Leo, never forget, was running to be Veep (and although they made more of a plot point of not being able to talk to the current Veep, we pointedly never saw him. The podcast confirmed that John Spencer’s last scene had aired.)
Toby had a bit of added angst to his attempts to be there for his kids – it was Halloween – while sticking to Andi’s demands (and hey, she was worried about re-election). Unsurprisingly, her reaction to his situation was that you’d expect from the mother of his children.
The Santos kids were being co-opted for a trick or treat photo shoot after a long day where Helen, worried about her husband, had been sent to Florida to boost the Latino vote. She pointed out that she probably wasn’t the woman to do it, and managed to create a negative news story by being a little too honest about giving non-violent offenders the vote after they’d done their time. (A group Toby might well join.)
Otherwise there were people to meet, resources to target, media to worry about – Donna was tasked with coming up with a funnier gag for a talkshow than the one the writers wanted Santos to do, while Josh wanted Santos to talk to someone who was big on the internet. (Santos’s son was dressed up as Harry Potter! I had to do mental calculations, but yeah, of course the kid was.) And Santos was increasingly worried that his conversations about national security and what they were going to do with the situation in Kazakhstan were being blown off.
Lou was being embarrassingly gooey eyes around Jon Bon Jovi, Josh and Donna were not talking about anything other than the campaign and candidate, while we were reminded that Toby had been married to Andi.
Toby lectured the ambitious DA about how he wasn’t going to wreck the Presidential election and made it clear he wasn’t going to give up his source of the confidential military shuttle. The podcast made the point that there should have been more to all this, and perhaps the obvious climax would have been the DA ignoring Toby and do his legal thing.
When Santos snapped, it was Josh the chief of staff, not Helen the spouse, who went to deal with it, and tell him that he was going to have to prioritise the stuff that would get him elected over the burdens that he might have to take up as President, and trust what his aides were giving him to do right now. Santos asked, essentially, if it was worth it i.e. did Josh now believe he was going to win. Due space was given to the significant answer that yes, Josh really did. That bit came through even to me, who had felt more baffled than usual during this episode. But it didn’t work for the guys on the podcast, who tried to dissect why, and came up with a lack of focus, finding it a bit of a placeholder episode that showed us something of the last days of a campaign, but dissipated the tension that had been building up and never really went very far on the Toby front.
Watched before the recent US election, but listened to The West Wing Weekly podcast episode about it after.
Five days out, goodness knows how many states, one Jon Bon Jovi, playing ‘himself’ and coming off as a nice guy, and a whole lot of cross-talking. Unlike Santos and the rest, I wasn’t sleep deprived when I watched this, but I felt there were too many strands to follow, so I was quite impressed with how reasonably on top of things Santos was, although he was deteriorating with no coffee around.
The other strand was Toby, no longer just the guy on the other end of Josh’s phone. A senior prosecutor guy had hauled him back to his office to offer a deal, Toby had refused five times already (it wasn’t clear whether he was protecting his brother, CJ or the principle of the thing, or, according to the podcast, Someone Else.) The DA upped the ante, by threatening to add obstruction of justice and indict CJ, Leo and Bartlet just before the election. Leo, never forget, was running to be Veep (and although they made more of a plot point of not being able to talk to the current Veep, we pointedly never saw him. The podcast confirmed that John Spencer’s last scene had aired.)
Toby had a bit of added angst to his attempts to be there for his kids – it was Halloween – while sticking to Andi’s demands (and hey, she was worried about re-election). Unsurprisingly, her reaction to his situation was that you’d expect from the mother of his children.
The Santos kids were being co-opted for a trick or treat photo shoot after a long day where Helen, worried about her husband, had been sent to Florida to boost the Latino vote. She pointed out that she probably wasn’t the woman to do it, and managed to create a negative news story by being a little too honest about giving non-violent offenders the vote after they’d done their time. (A group Toby might well join.)
Otherwise there were people to meet, resources to target, media to worry about – Donna was tasked with coming up with a funnier gag for a talkshow than the one the writers wanted Santos to do, while Josh wanted Santos to talk to someone who was big on the internet. (Santos’s son was dressed up as Harry Potter! I had to do mental calculations, but yeah, of course the kid was.) And Santos was increasingly worried that his conversations about national security and what they were going to do with the situation in Kazakhstan were being blown off.
Lou was being embarrassingly gooey eyes around Jon Bon Jovi, Josh and Donna were not talking about anything other than the campaign and candidate, while we were reminded that Toby had been married to Andi.
Toby lectured the ambitious DA about how he wasn’t going to wreck the Presidential election and made it clear he wasn’t going to give up his source of the confidential military shuttle. The podcast made the point that there should have been more to all this, and perhaps the obvious climax would have been the DA ignoring Toby and do his legal thing.
When Santos snapped, it was Josh the chief of staff, not Helen the spouse, who went to deal with it, and tell him that he was going to have to prioritise the stuff that would get him elected over the burdens that he might have to take up as President, and trust what his aides were giving him to do right now. Santos asked, essentially, if it was worth it i.e. did Josh now believe he was going to win. Due space was given to the significant answer that yes, Josh really did. That bit came through even to me, who had felt more baffled than usual during this episode. But it didn’t work for the guys on the podcast, who tried to dissect why, and came up with a lack of focus, finding it a bit of a placeholder episode that showed us something of the last days of a campaign, but dissipated the tension that had been building up and never really went very far on the Toby front.
