- 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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It's fairly well done for what it is - the problem is that I'm annoyed by what it is. While at the time, Sorkin may have needed to preach, and maybe (maaaaaybe...) the country needed to be preached to a little bit, I have absolutely no desire or reason to watch it now, 9 years later. It clunks.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned, i've been rewatching season 7 (and the part of season 6 that led up to it) for the first time, and it's much, much better than I remembered, in part because I know where all the plot threads are going and can appreciate the planning that it took to get everyone there. It's also interesting to rewatch knowing that the writers had intended a different final outcome. Alan Alda, in particular, puts in a stellar performance, and Teri Polo (who will always be Rebecca to me) is wonderful. The season is worth rewatching just to get the Busfield-Janney chemistry one more time. People always slam the post-Sorkin years, but there's very, very good stuff here.
I loved WW until 9/11, and then I just couldn't watch anymore. There was no way it could compete with reality, it just seemed silly. I watched S1 recently and it was still good, but still not interested in much more of it.
ReplyDeleteThis was the last episode of TWW I ever saw. The world was not waiting with bated breath to hear what Sorkin had to say about events; if he couldn't come up with something less embarrassing in 10 days, he should not have attempted it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, having the WHCOS interrogate a suspect is worse than clunky. And CJ's character is inconsistent with the monologue, though, to be fair, TWW never was quite clear with who CJ was and it's impossible to retcon everything they had her be.
ReplyDeleteI was tolerating Season 7 until they screwed up the convention dynamics, but the best Season 7 episode doesn't crack the top twenty in Seasons 1-4.
Timothy Busfield made me cry at the end of "Institutional Memory" the other day. I agree that he and Janney were terrific at the end of that run.
ReplyDeleteInteresting -- I agree with your comment from a 2010 perspective, but I think that 9 years ago, I kind of was waiting with bated breath for someone to do or say something that would make the slighest bit of sense of it all. Not that this was it. But at the time, it at least felt right for my fake friends in the White House to be experiencing the same feelings as everyone else. It's weirder to think of how many shows waited a few weeks and then went on as though nothing had happened.
ReplyDeleteI'm rewatching the whole series on DVD right now (am just into Season 4), and I'm surprised by how great those first few seasons have held up. I knew they were good and that I had loved them, but I forgot how, by and large, the show didn't assume that it's audience was stupid. It assumed you knew some basics and, if you didn't, well, go look up those throw-away references on your own time because we're still going to make them. I like feeling respected. Which is probably why I come down in the middle on the I&I debate. I completely agree that it's a bit of a clunker and it feels like we're the high school kids being talked down to. But I also totally agree with Spacewoman that I appreciated that someone was trying to have an hour-long discussion about it as soon as possible. Everyone remembers SNL for saying it was okay to laugh again, and I do respect TWW for trying to say go talk about it, too.
ReplyDeleteI definitley don't have the hate for it others here have. I didn't start watching West Wing until after 9/11 so when I saw this it was a blip in a long DVD marathon. Therefore I didn't have a particularly strong reaction to it.
ReplyDeleteCJ's dorky love for the intelligence community, as an example, is ridiciulous in the fact that it never comes back even once and yet somehow in this episode everyone acts like it's her "thing" that she always dorks out about. But really when you think about it, continuity was never really this show's strong point. Noticing things that come up once and then never again is part of the fun of multiple viewings.
What I always point out every time I see either episode is that the nerdy know-it-all kid in the class in this episode is played by the same actor that plays the know-it-all kid in the class on "Three Stories" on House.
Not to derail, but have you posted yet in any depth about "The Good Guys?" If so I apologize for missing it. If not- ?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm really enjoying The Good Guys, it's not deep enough for us to analyze it in any real depth, aside from its blatant disregard for Dallas geography.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that he calls him "son" at the end? So insulting.
ReplyDeleteSlightly aside to this topic but I think the reason why Bradley Whitford looks so much older in Good Guys than anyone else is that whoever did his anti-ageing regime really mucked up the basic structure of his face. He looks pulled and twisted in a way that makes his facial movements really awkward.
ReplyDeleteMarsha - I recently was rewatching some of season 7 as well, and was wondering what you thought of the beginning of the first episode of the season, the one set three years in the future at the opening of the Bartlet Presidential Library. When I first saw that, I thought it seemed clear that Santos won the election, since it's Josh that announces that the president has arrived. I suppose there are many reasons that Josh could be in that position even if Vinick had won, but I always think of that moment when the writers say that originally, Vinick was supposed to win.
ReplyDeleteAnd Russ, I think "institutional Memory" is a fantastic episode. I love that last scene with C.J. and Danny in his apartment as they try to figure out how to make their future work together. (I also love the scene with C.J. and the Bill Gates-like character when she tells him that roads - and then plumbling - are the major problem he should tackle with his $10 billion.)
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