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• CJ lipsyncing "The Jackal" while Toby sits there and smokes a cigar would've been at home in an episode of Twin Peaks
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Aug 7, 2011 02:15
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*College girls asking for Josh's autograph *The President doesn't hold a grudge...that's what he pays me for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzG1W4eYPo Mu Zeta fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Aug 7, 2011 |
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Aug 7, 2011 02:59
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Anyone else a Danny fan? I always liked his interaction with Josh and with CJ. I was glad they got together in the end, jumping off a cliff together. 
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Aug 7, 2011 04:03
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I love this Toby line from "Faith Based Initiative": "God, I hate this issue. It's like walking around town holding a sick chicken."
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Aug 7, 2011 04:19
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I am gonna talk about the end of the series in this post and I'm not gonna spoiler tag the whole thing so don't read any further if you're still watching it fresh. One of my favorite things about this show is how satisfying an ending it gets. After the election is won, there are a good 5 episodes that they spend wrapping it up and giving the viewer resolution to the characters and their stories. From the fifth to last episode, "Requiem," which is all about the characters reminiscing about Leo and coping with his death, we see the characters getting ready for the coming administration and tying up lose ends. We see old characters who haven't been around in a while and learn more about where everyone is going. The scene where everyone sits around telling stories about Leo is one of my favorites in the show. And Sam comes back 
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Aug 7, 2011 10:40
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In retrospect, it wasn't a good idea to plan on just watching one more episode of The West Wing before going to do errands when that episode was Commencement.  ...watching "Twenty Five", now. thexerox123 fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Aug 7, 2011 |
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Aug 7, 2011 17:03
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"Do you guys always walk so fast?" "...yes."
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Aug 7, 2011 23:38
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Toby and Will are currently typing out what they really think of the soon-to-be VP... please tell me that's not going to end up on the teleprompter somehow. It's like Chekov's Gun.
thexerox123 fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Aug 8, 2011 |
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Aug 8, 2011 01:01
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I am confused about what is happening in the Season 3 episode "Hartsfield's Landing". They're worried about voting in HL and that the Flendersons are going to vote for Ritchie. But isn't it the primary? So why would the Flendersons voting for a Republican matter to Democrats? And why would they be voting early for the primary anyway?
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Aug 8, 2011 03:09
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thexerox123 posted:Toby and Will are currently typing out what they really think of the soon-to-be VP... please tell me that's not going to end up on the teleprompter somehow. It's like Chekov's Gun.  I just watched the turkey hotline moment. God this show has so many awesome scenes.
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Aug 8, 2011 03:29
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myron_cope posted:I am confused about what is happening in the Season 3 episode "Hartsfield's Landing". They're worried about voting in HL and that the Flendersons are going to vote for Ritchie. But isn't it the primary? So why would the Flendersons voting for a Republican matter to Democrats? And why would they be voting early for the primary anyway? They kind of wrote themselves into a corner on that one, for that exact reason. There IS a town of like 30 in New Hampshire that communally votes at like 1 minute past midnight on election days. They never explained it well enough, but I'd assume that, while Ritchie getting more votes than Bartlet wouldn't cost him anything in terms of the primary, it would be a full day of news reports that Ritchie GOT more votes than Bartlet.
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Aug 8, 2011 06:17
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Josh explained it that way:Josh posted:That are cast at 12:01 and counted at 12:07. The rest of New Hampshire doesn't come in until nine PM. That's 21 hours of the news having nothing to report but the winner at Hartsfield's Landing. I want it to be us. WoG posted:(That said, in an environment that dynamic and fast-paced, the structure doesn't need to be all that rigid for day-to-day operations.) Yeah, you really see this in that Poet Laureate episode where Josh screws up by posting on a message board: quote:C.J.: I'm assigning an intern from the press office to that web site. They're going to check it every night before they go home. If they discover you've been there, I'm going to shove a motherboard so far up your rear end . . . what?
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Aug 8, 2011 06:28
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It is incredibly stupid but that poo poo does have a huge effect. Declaring an election when east coast polls close can seriously depress turnout on the west coast and if it's a close election, it doesn't take much. Not even just for a national vote like a presidential, I was working a house campaign in 2010 and when the EST polls started going mass Republican our Democrat turnout in the west started dropping. And in elections like ours where the difference was less than 1%, that's a serious problem.
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Aug 8, 2011 06:32
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The rapport between Josh and Bartlet is so great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLqetE0VjY
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Aug 8, 2011 06:57
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Grand Fromage posted:It is incredibly stupid but that poo poo does have a huge effect. Declaring an election when east coast polls close can seriously depress turnout on the west coast and if it's a close election, it doesn't take much. Not even just for a national vote like a presidential, I was working a house campaign in 2010 and when the EST polls started going mass Republican our Democrat turnout in the west started dropping. And in elections like ours where the difference was less than 1%, that's a serious problem. But for a primary? It would be perfectly fine if there was some Democrat challenging Bartlet, but I mean...what if HL just had more republicans than democrats? Unless New Hampshire has open primaries (Wikipedia says they have "semi-open")...but it still seems silly to worry about. Bartlet isn't running against Ritchie or any other republican at that point!
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Aug 8, 2011 08:08
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myron_cope posted:But for a primary? It would be perfectly fine if there was some Democrat challenging Bartlet, but I mean...what if HL just had more republicans than democrats? Unless New Hampshire has open primaries (Wikipedia says they have "semi-open")...but it still seems silly to worry about. Bartlet isn't running against Ritchie or any other republican at that point! It would still be a story, seeing as how the show's media is a lot like the actual media. Bartlet's from New Hampshire and was sent to the House three times and elected Governor twice by crushing margins. Hartsfield's Landing was voting and until the other votes in the NH primary were counted that's all the news media would have had to report on. The top story on all the cable channels, until the votes were all in, would have been "Ritchie Gets More Votes In Hartsfield's Landing Than Bartlet".
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Aug 8, 2011 13:34
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myron_cope posted:But for a primary? It would be perfectly fine if there was some Democrat challenging Bartlet, but I mean...what if HL just had more republicans than democrats? Unless New Hampshire has open primaries (Wikipedia says they have "semi-open")...but it still seems silly to worry about. Bartlet isn't running against Ritchie or any other republican at that point! NH does have open primaries - independents can vote in the primary in the party of their choice, but Ds can't vote in R primaries and vice-versa. The White House would rather have the story be "Voters choose Democratic primary despite Republican contest" than "Ritchie in lead".
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Aug 8, 2011 13:53
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Well, remember that later in the episodes about the debates it's revealed that there is a third-party challenger to Bartlet, Senator Stackhouse, who's running from the left - a pretty thinly veiled Nader proxy who decides to "honorably" drop out before the debate. Since he's a Senator to the left of Bartlet it's a fair assumption that he's a Democrat who might have been trying to primary Bartlet, later switching to a third-party campaign after the primary. So the Flendersons could have voted for him instead.
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Aug 8, 2011 16:47
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t3ch3 posted:Well, remember that later in the episodes about the debates it's revealed that there is a third-party challenger to Bartlet, Senator Stackhouse, who's running from the left - a pretty thinly veiled Nader proxy who decides to "honorably" drop out before the debate. Since he's a Senator to the left of Bartlet it's a fair assumption that he's a Democrat who might have been trying to primary Bartlet, later switching to a third-party campaign after the primary. So the Flendersons could have voted for him instead. I thought Donna said they were voting for Ritchie? Stackhouse was having trouble getting on the ballot in a bunch of states, wasn't he?
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Aug 8, 2011 16:55
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Alter Ego posted:I thought Donna said they were voting for Ritchie? Stackhouse was having trouble getting on the ballot in a bunch of states, wasn't he? That's what confuses me the most about that episode. The choice shouldn't really be Ritchie over Bartlett. It would be Ritchie over the other Republicans, and Bartlett over Stackhouse (if Stackhouse is even on that ballot). So I guess by "winning" they mean people choosing to take the Dem primary over the Republican primary, but honestly, if you're not already a Democrat, who would do that? You'd be throwing your vote away. The whole thing doesn't make much sense, and would work better if it was some random straw poll in a small town that gets national notice for some reason.
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Aug 8, 2011 17:20
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Finished Sports Night. Talk about an unceremonious ending. Seemed like they tried to wrap up as many loose ends as possible at the latest possible minute. I think my favorite storyline was the original Tery Polo arc.
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Aug 8, 2011 18:10
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thrawn527 posted:That's what confuses me the most about that episode. The choice shouldn't really be Ritchie over Bartlett. It would be Ritchie over the other Republicans, and Bartlett over Stackhouse (if Stackhouse is even on that ballot). So I guess by "winning" they mean people choosing to take the Dem primary over the Republican primary, but honestly, if you're not already a Democrat, who would do that? You'd be throwing your vote away. The whole thing doesn't make much sense, and would work better if it was some random straw poll in a small town that gets national notice for some reason. Yeah, I didn't remember the primary part. I think they just conflated the two when they were writing, it makes perfect sense as a general election but none at all as a primary.
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Aug 9, 2011 01:45
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"Mr. Keith, I'm sorry, we're going to have to reschedule this for tomorrow" "Oh...why?" "You're spookin the hell outta the president." Edit: I love Lily Tomlin in this myron cope fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Aug 9, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 05:54
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I just noticed that the world map in the situation room at the end of season five uses the Peters Projection. 
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Aug 10, 2011 02:25
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I'm re watching season 5 for reasons I don't know. S5E4 Han. It's the episode where Russell gets nominated/confirmed as VP and there's a North Korean pianist who wants to defect. Bartlet tells him no due to nuclear talks and the guy mans up and goes back to North Korea rather than publicly asking for asylum. It feels like an episode that Sorkin probably came up with the idea for but man does it seem un-Bartletlike. I realize that the show's very idealistic and liberal biased, but for the same episode to show him nominating a VP that he knows is bland/moderate + throwing the North Korean musician under the bus on seeking asylum. It's depressing. Good episode as far as the music/direction/writing, but it kind of stands out as a "Bartlet isn't perfect" episode. And then the ending is that the North Koreans put the nuclear talks on hold regardless. I don't think it gets addressed again in the series. Probably the most pessimistic episode of the show.
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Aug 10, 2011 06:50
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Mandoira posted:I'm re watching season 5 for reasons I don't know. I'd list the episode with the AIDS negotiations with an African leader whose government is overthrown partway through as more pessimistic than that. What a hopeless episode. It was also the first episode with Ainsley I believe.
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Aug 10, 2011 08:52
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t3ch3 posted:I just noticed that the world map in the situation room at the end of season five uses the Peters Projection. Good thing incoming CoS CJ had a few years to get over her freak-out about it. "What the hell is that?" Lucania fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 18:00
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Angiepants posted:The rapport between Josh and Bartlet is so great. Sheen's delivery is just so spot on. It's really what makes the character more than any other part of his acting. "There are 54 national parks in this country." "Sir, please tell me you haven't been to all of the-" "I have been to all of them. I should show you my slide collection!" It's those pieces that make Bartlet human, as well. It's like knowing that Obama watches and has memorized the same 5 episodes of South Park. It gives you a sense of what they do when they're not doing their job, and since the job is generally all we see, it's an important beat to hit. But Bartlet's is the best. He really is a nerd. Clinton played the sax, Bush mowed the back 40, Obama watches South Park, but Bartlet went to all 54 national parks. you get the feeling that if he was a kid right now, he would be getting every XBox achievement. Riven fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 19:32
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Most of season five has the characters acting like pod people. It gets better as season six progresses, especially for Leo post-heart attack and Josh post-Santos.
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Aug 10, 2011 19:36
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jeffersonlives posted:Most of season five has the characters acting like pod people. It gets better as season six progresses, especially for Leo post-heart attack and Josh post-Santos. Of all the plots in the show's run, the firing of Leo, and Leo's ensuing heart attack, is my least favorite plot. It's like for a while characters start acting completely against type, Leo has a heart attack and is replaced by C.J. of all people. I really hate it. Luckily, season 6 recovers wonderfully, like you said, once it gets into the campaign. But holy poo poo do I hate the beginning of season 6.
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Aug 10, 2011 19:48
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It's really only the first three episodes that are problematic. Liftoff is great and after that the campaign stories and new characters start kicking in. I didn't functionally mind CJ as CoS as much as most. Chiefs of staff sometimes get picked from odd places, and she's probably pretty qualified all things considered. oldfan fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 19:52
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jeffersonlives posted:It's really only the first three episodes that are problematic. Liftoff is great and after that the campaign stories and new characters start kicking in. Yeah, starting with Liftoff it starts to work. I just have a hard time with those first 3 episodes being, in my opinion, terrible. Also, if you were to ask me while Leo was still CoS who would be the best option to replace him, C.J. would have been at the end of the list, after Josh, Toby, and "outside hire". In fact, most of the staffing decisions in season 6 don't make a lot of sense. Toby needed Will to come on in season 4 because he was going to have too much to do, but for all of season 6 there's no Deputy Communications Director (unless Annabeth was filling in there), and for a while there's no Deputy CoS. Also, Toby is acting as both Communications Director and Press Secretary. They seem so ridiculously understaffed at the senior staff level, I'm not sure how they function. I mean, it sure seemed like Toby, Josh, C.J., Leo, and Sam always had full time jobs. Now everyone seems to be pulling double duty. I guess junior staff might have stepped up responsibilities. I'm on season 6 in my rewatch, so I don't remember how this goes in season 7, but I think it gets worse, with Will being Communications Director / Press Secretary, and Leo taking Annabeth away. thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 20:19
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Alan Alda was simultaneously an rear end in a top hat and admirable. If real republicans were like that I might vote for one...nah.
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Aug 10, 2011 21:11
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Vinnick was the more interesting Candidate by a mile and I liked his trio of helpers even if Bob didn't really do anything. The worst thing about the Dem campaign was taking Annebeth away from the Whitehouse. I'd have swapped her and Margret but this would only be to facilitate the cheap laughs I get seeing CJ and Annebeth standing next to each other. I'd have also liked to see some more reasoning behind their choices for certain roles. Why did they make Otto, a 12 year old, their main speech writer for example? Now I think about it I still want to know what Toby did to get some much faith from Leo back when they were making there first run at the Whitehouse.
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Aug 10, 2011 21:59
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Leo and Annabeth doing screwball comedy was one of the highlights of season seven until, well, you know. So Annabeth leaving the White House was not a bad thing at all!
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Aug 10, 2011 22:40
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Popo posted:Now I think about it I still want to know what Toby did to get some much faith from Leo back when they were making there first run at the Whitehouse. When they do that flashback episode where Josh joins the Bartlet campaign it seems that Toby is the only one of Bartlet's advisers who is cool with Leo's vision that they're not running the typical campaign because they don't have the typical candidate. Also, they should have made Edandlarry the Press Secretar(ies) after CJ's promotion. Have them both up at the podium doing fact-heavy briefings.
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Aug 10, 2011 22:51
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jeffersonlives posted:Leo and Annabeth doing screwball comedy was one of the highlights of season seven until, well, you know. So Annabeth leaving the White House was not a bad thing at all! Oh, I know. Leo and Annabeth were great together. "What tension?" indeed. @t3ch3; I guess what I meant was "How did Toby get to be on Leo's radar?" He'd won no races at that point and had caused one of his candidates to faint. It doesn't matter and is likely "They just met and some point and Toby impressed Leo" but it's just one of those things I like to wonder about from time to time.
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Aug 10, 2011 23:54
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Popo posted:Vinnick was the more interesting Candidate by a mile and I liked his trio of helpers even if Bob didn't really do anything. I wonder if they purposefully hired sitcom actors to put them in serious roles. The mom from Home Improvement, Jimmy James from Newsradio, and the dad from Boy Meets World. They all got into the roles really well and I completely forgot about their older shows.
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Aug 11, 2011 01:12
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Mu Zeta posted:I wonder if they purposefully hired sitcom actors to put them in serious roles. The mom from Home Improvement, Jimmy James from Newsradio, and the dad from Boy Meets World. They all got into the roles really well and I completely forgot about their older shows. you forgot Al Bundy
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Aug 11, 2011 01:20
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Riven posted:
I love Bartlet, and I kind of want him to be my grandpa, and this is pretty much the reason why. He is such an INSANE nerd--the Butterball hotline scene mentioned higher up on the page is one of my favorite scenes of any TV show ever. I pretty much stopped watching after season 4--is the rest of the series worth it?
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Aug 11, 2011 01:31
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