- Yes, it's contrived--we lock down basically the entire regular cast with a group of students as a result of a security breach, and each of them gets a brief monologue to the students "responding to a question"--but it's well made and designed within that contrivance. It was completely put together in two weeks, and given that, it's in decent shape.
- Though Sorkin clearly pushes certain broad points of view, it's significant that the characters are not monolithic on the issues--for instance, CJ's entire monologue is directed to how the CIA is a good thing, while Toby is more skeptical. There's not a lot of debate or interchange, but there's clear difference in where the characters come from.
- Man, John Spencer was good--he has to play the heavy here in a lot of ways, interrogating a White House staffer, and manages to make it work. (And it's an interesting bookend to his plotline back in Season 1 with Liza Weil as the intern who leaked data about him.)
- Even though it's clearly written in and of the moment, it's fascinating how a lot of the issues the episode addresses are still in front of us. (I won't say more so as not to get overly political.)
- While there's an opening warning about "don't worry about continuity," credit to everyone involved for keeping it relatively in continuity--the characters' positions all seem natural and not created for purposes of the episode. The one glaring issue is that Toby talks about a (positive) experience with his father's friend, which seems to be directly contradicted by the 4th Season Christmas episode, which revolved around Toby's frosty relationship with his father.
- Man, Bradley Whitford has aged a lot since then (though part of that is due to the kind of character he's now playing on The Good Guys). It's particularly odd, since the rest of the cast has not seemed to age quite as much.
- I then proceeded to watch Manchester, and had forgotten that Connie Britton recurred in Season 3 as Ron Silver's character's female right hand.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
SHE CAST OUT HAGAR: Prompted by Adam's comment below, I rewatched Isaac and Ishamel, the (in)famous first episode of the third season of The West Wing in which Sorkin and the cast grapple with the events of September 11. A few thoughts:
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