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Sep. 13th, 2007 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merrilySo, I made it through the entire seven seasons of The West Wing no thanks to my scuzzy eBay seller and his 44 bootleg Chinese discs of "The Weat Wing." Weat. You'd think it was about Alberta.
And then I started watching it again because the show just started to be, well, hard to bear about the fifth season. It got intense, the characters all started to have the weight of the world on their shoulders, the dialogue degraded and it was tiring to watch.
I only realized that when I popped the first disc of the first season back into the DVD player, and had a jolt of pleasure from the pilot. It's really, really excellent, you know? Talk about hitting the ground running! We meet Josh... and it's possible he's gonna be fired, in, like, the next five minutes. Sam has just accidentally slept with a prostitute. The crazy right-wing Christians seem to have the White House policymakers hostage. The brilliance! The sheer, undiluted madcap awesomeness!
Where did it go, though, I ask you? I mean, on one hand it makes sense: we meet the team as they're in their second year in office. The momentum is still high; there's still the lingering ebullience from having gotten elected. And then it starts winding down. BUT. The Josh/Donna story arc just... fizzled. I mean, they're together in the end, but I felt hard-put to care. I was still pretty blah about Will. Sure, it was a strong choice to have Toby commit a felony in the last season, but I wanted more for him. His emotional journey seemed to have left him a smaller, sadder man at the end of the series than he was at the beginning.
And lord, but they bled supporting cast members. Partly, that's because their casting directors rocked hard, and the supporting cast was an all-star group who fairly quickly went on to star in other things, but ... I miss them. Ainsley was awesome! Matthew Perry's character was awesome! Timothy Busfield was awesome! Lisa Edelstein! Terry O'Quinn! Anna Deavere Smith!
O my darlings, I would like to know:
1. What's the gift that Josh gives Donna, after she hands him a catalogue with post-its marking the stuff she thinks he should buy, and he says "I've already got your gift" ?
2. Did they ever hire someone to replace CJ as press secretary? If, as I suspect, they didn't, doesn't that seem extremely unbelievable?
3. Sam lost his run at Congress, right? Did they ever announce it? I remember Toby predicting it, but then that seemed to be all we heard from Sam 'till the last two episodes of the last season.
4. Did we ever actually meet Annie Westin?
5. Who were those people in the soap opera President Bartlet was watching in the first season, while sick with the flu?
6. Kate Harper: totally out of Will Bailey's league? [y/n]
I would've made that into a poll, 'cept my account's still a free one, so I can't.
In conclusion, I love most of the show. I miss the show. I wish I'd been watching it as it aired, so I could squeal and write fic. I will probably still write fic, but it won't be the same.
I would like to leave you with this snippet of very excellent Sorkinese:
Donna (surveying the wreckage of hungover, sodden Josh): Are you going to listen to me from now on?
Josh: I'm not even really listening to you right now.
Donna (yelling): ARE YOU GOING TO LISTEN TO ME FROM NOW ON?
Josh (holding his head in pain): Yes! Yes! Ow!
And then I started watching it again because the show just started to be, well, hard to bear about the fifth season. It got intense, the characters all started to have the weight of the world on their shoulders, the dialogue degraded and it was tiring to watch.
I only realized that when I popped the first disc of the first season back into the DVD player, and had a jolt of pleasure from the pilot. It's really, really excellent, you know? Talk about hitting the ground running! We meet Josh... and it's possible he's gonna be fired, in, like, the next five minutes. Sam has just accidentally slept with a prostitute. The crazy right-wing Christians seem to have the White House policymakers hostage. The brilliance! The sheer, undiluted madcap awesomeness!
Where did it go, though, I ask you? I mean, on one hand it makes sense: we meet the team as they're in their second year in office. The momentum is still high; there's still the lingering ebullience from having gotten elected. And then it starts winding down. BUT. The Josh/Donna story arc just... fizzled. I mean, they're together in the end, but I felt hard-put to care. I was still pretty blah about Will. Sure, it was a strong choice to have Toby commit a felony in the last season, but I wanted more for him. His emotional journey seemed to have left him a smaller, sadder man at the end of the series than he was at the beginning.
And lord, but they bled supporting cast members. Partly, that's because their casting directors rocked hard, and the supporting cast was an all-star group who fairly quickly went on to star in other things, but ... I miss them. Ainsley was awesome! Matthew Perry's character was awesome! Timothy Busfield was awesome! Lisa Edelstein! Terry O'Quinn! Anna Deavere Smith!
O my darlings, I would like to know:
1. What's the gift that Josh gives Donna, after she hands him a catalogue with post-its marking the stuff she thinks he should buy, and he says "I've already got your gift" ?
2. Did they ever hire someone to replace CJ as press secretary? If, as I suspect, they didn't, doesn't that seem extremely unbelievable?
3. Sam lost his run at Congress, right? Did they ever announce it? I remember Toby predicting it, but then that seemed to be all we heard from Sam 'till the last two episodes of the last season.
4. Did we ever actually meet Annie Westin?
5. Who were those people in the soap opera President Bartlet was watching in the first season, while sick with the flu?
6. Kate Harper: totally out of Will Bailey's league? [y/n]
I would've made that into a poll, 'cept my account's still a free one, so I can't.
In conclusion, I love most of the show. I miss the show. I wish I'd been watching it as it aired, so I could squeal and write fic. I will probably still write fic, but it won't be the same.
I would like to leave you with this snippet of very excellent Sorkinese:
Donna (surveying the wreckage of hungover, sodden Josh): Are you going to listen to me from now on?
Josh: I'm not even really listening to you right now.
Donna (yelling): ARE YOU GOING TO LISTEN TO ME FROM NOW ON?
Josh (holding his head in pain): Yes! Yes! Ow!