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Leo  The election episodes were really good.
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Oct 4, 2011 05:32
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17 People stands as one of my favorite episodes of this series, but I have a pressing question. Since 17 People contains tons of spoilers for season 1 through the first episode of season 2, it doesn't make for a very good intro to the show for someone new. I want to get my friend to start watching what is my absolute favorite TV show, but I can't decide on an episode to direct him to to start off. Basically don't want anything that will spoil the revelation that Bartlet has MS so if anyone has a good recommendation that doesn't bring up that plot point, let me know. I also don't care which season it's from, as long as it stands as a good intro to the series.
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Oct 4, 2011 07:08
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Rums posted:17 People stands as one of my favorite episodes of this series, but I have a pressing question. Since 17 People contains tons of spoilers for season 1 through the first episode of season 2, it doesn't make for a very good intro to the show for someone new. I want to get my friend to start watching what is my absolute favorite TV show, but I can't decide on an episode to direct him to to start off. Basically don't want anything that will spoil the revelation that Bartlet has MS so if anyone has a good recommendation that doesn't bring up that plot point, let me know. I also don't care which season it's from, as long as it stands as a good intro to the series.
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Oct 4, 2011 07:19
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I'm a fan of Evidence of Things Not Seen. It's a good day in the life of the White House episode - a little funny, a little drama - and the poker game is a great way to get to know all the characters pretty quickly.
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Oct 4, 2011 09:08
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Rums posted:17 People stands as one of my favorite episodes of this series, but I have a pressing question. Since 17 People contains tons of spoilers for season 1 through the first episode of season 2, it doesn't make for a very good intro to the show for someone new. I want to get my friend to start watching what is my absolute favorite TV show, but I can't decide on an episode to direct him to to start off. Basically don't want anything that will spoil the revelation that Bartlet has MS so if anyone has a good recommendation that doesn't bring up that plot point, let me know. I also don't care which season it's from, as long as it stands as a good intro to the series. What's wrong with the first episode?
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Oct 4, 2011 10:19
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The only problem with the first episode is that it does emphasise slightly more than most what my friend calls the 'stars and stripes' aspect of the show. I.e.  USA patriotism etc.
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Oct 4, 2011 14:58
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I think I've posted this before but the West Wing also has some xenophobic twinges now and again. Nearly every single foreign leader is portrayed in a negative light. They're always either slightly sinister, or for "friendly" countries they're always arrogant, or a blowhard, or a drunk, something like that. Lord Nigel eventually shows a competent aspect after he's been portrayed as a womanising buffoon for a few appearances, but the Qumari politicians are just cartoon arab villans, basically. The only exception I can think of is the African President (was that Equatorial Kundu?) who was a noble guy, but he got gunned down by his own people.
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Oct 4, 2011 15:15
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Lord John Marbury is shown as very competent through most scenes he's in, it's just usually through a veneer of toffish and slightly alcoholic charm. I do agree though, the show is certainly written from a viewpoint of "Us vs. Them" in pretty much every situation. I just finished The Supremes in my current rewatch. Wow, where have they been hiding that episode in the otherwise poor 5th season? I've been annoyed at how the characters seem to be serving the issues rather than the other way around, the actual issues themselves seem to be a bit too broad for this show, they seem to be after more stunts in this season than others (Although I could be wrong there but come one, shutting down the Fed?), and the show doesn't seem to know how to balance the light and heavy scenes anymore. The light stuff is really missing now that Sorkin isn't there, it is just out of character or straight up not funny. Particularly when a couple of episodes ago Leo said (About the fancy room in the Swiss embassy): "You can afford them when you don't have to pay for a national defense." Which was probably the worst/most factually incorrect thing I've heard in the whole show. Hell, Switzerland has conscription. Oh, and will that god drat intern (Pierce) gently caress off already?
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Oct 4, 2011 16:21
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Hoops posted:I think I've posted this before but the West Wing also has some xenophobic twinges now and again. Nearly every single foreign leader is portrayed in a negative light. They're always either slightly sinister, or for "friendly" countries they're always arrogant, or a blowhard, or a drunk, something like that. I loved the stoic Indonesian president, even though that episode contained a few mistakes about Indonesia that only an Indonesian would really care about. Plus, the Indonesian deputy totally put Toby in his place for his arrogance and callousness.
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Oct 4, 2011 19:07
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Also, the British Prime Minister in season 6 or 7 is a Margaret Thatcher caricature.
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Oct 4, 2011 19:44
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Whats the episode where Jed walks down the street, sits for a while, then turns around and walks back home?
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Oct 4, 2011 19:48
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spe posted:Whats the episode where Jed walks down the street, sits for a while, then turns around and walks back home?
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Oct 4, 2011 19:55
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I really don't like how Bartlet says "we've got a doctrine" *fist pump*. That scene just annoys me. I think it's when they make Will the deputy?
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Oct 6, 2011 03:26
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myron_cope posted:I really don't like how Bartlet says "we've got a doctrine" *fist pump*. That scene just annoys me. I think it's when they make Will the deputy? Yeah it was Inaguration: part two in the fourth season
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Oct 6, 2011 07:14
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spamman posted:Lord John Marbury is shown as very competent through most scenes he's in, it's just usually through a veneer of toffish and slightly alcoholic charm. Switzerland, despite having conscription and the highest rate of private gun ownership per capita in Europe, spends only 0.9% of its GDP on defence spending. Slightly less than that of Tanzania, Panama and Bangladesh. Also one of the core philosophies of the show, especially after season 3, is liberal intervention. This would be fairly difficult to justify to a, likely, fairly skeptical viewer if the Qumari politicians were generally pretty chill guys.
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Oct 6, 2011 09:28
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They are also 21st in the world for Military Spending per capita. Around $350. So I don't really count that as "don't have to pay for a national defence". I agree with you on the need to have extremely adversarial foreign dignitaries for the most part (Otherwise there would be no drama) it can come off as almost cartoon like sometimes.
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Oct 6, 2011 10:18
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spamman posted:Lord John Marbury is shown as very competent through most scenes he's in, it's just usually through a veneer of toffish and slightly alcoholic charm. Dude stopped a nuclear war, thats pretty awesome. That said, whenever he is required to do something very dramatic I've always thought he was awesome. In particular the quote from Revelations. But thats a combination of the music and how its said. I also like his arguements against the missile defense and I've always wanted to use "I am as you know exceedingly stupid" in converstation.
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Oct 6, 2011 18:07
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Josh Lyman posted:I like the pilot, but I can understand if that's not your cup of tea. The season 1 finale, where Bartlet is retelling a story at the town hall is good. In Excelsis Deo is very popular here, and Two Cathedrals may or may not have the aforementioned references. Two Cathedrals has the aforementioned references so that's out, but In Excelsis Deo is good, as is Mr. Willis of Ohio. The one I really wanted to show him was Bartlet for America but obviously the context of it also contains those aforementioned references. There are only like three possible things you could spoiler in this whole drat show but they run through multiple seasons and can make it hard if your trying to intro someone. Also, I don't want to use the pilot because they tend to be exposition heavy and slow, and much as I love Sorkin's writing, the pilot was exposition heavy. I didn't really get hooked into the show until Charlie got hired (hell, maybe I should use A Proportional Response).
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Oct 7, 2011 20:16
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Digressing a bit from The West Wing, I finally finished going through the entire run of Sports Night for the first time, today. What a fantastic show: obviously not as deep as The West Wing, but it had the perfect mix of light-heartedness with interesting takes on the typical sit-com romances, with some very dark moments occasionally that helped the whole thing remain interesting. All that with the added bonus of having a classic Sorkin polish on the dialogue. On another note, after binging through both TWW and Sports Night, it finally happened: I had a dream where everyone involved talked in Sorkin-speak, and there was even a walk-and-talk! Regular dreams are boring and slow now.
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Oct 9, 2011 20:32
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:On another note, after binging through both TWW and Sports Night, it finally happened: I had a dream where everyone involved talked in Sorkin-speak, and there was even a walk-and-talk! Regular dreams are boring and slow now. I always get told that I talk like a Sorkin character, and most of my dreams are Sorkinian, it's pretty fun.
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Oct 9, 2011 22:42
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tissue paper thin pastrami.
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Oct 9, 2011 22:56
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TheBigBad posted:tissue paper thin pastrami. Oh, I've cut slices so thin, I couldn't even see them. Wrong show, sorry.
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Oct 9, 2011 23:32
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TheBigBad posted:tissue paper thin pastrami. Is it from Krupen's? 
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Oct 10, 2011 18:41
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Venmoch posted:Dude stopped a nuclear war, thats pretty awesome. "John I am trying to think of a quote from the bible" "AND I LOOKED AND I BEHELD DEATH" Like, dude, the loving President is speaking, don't just go guessing Bible quotes. Hugely lucky that he picked the right quote.
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Oct 10, 2011 23:50
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:I always thought he came across as a lucky dick in that scene - interrupting the president and just blindly choosing a line from the Bible? He hasn't been privy to any conversation up to that point about the line, so all he knows is To be fair it's actually: 'John, theres a quote from Revelations...' Followed by: '...and I looked, and I beheld a pale horse, and the name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.' Revelations is full of some pretty depressing hell-based stuff, but thinking of nuclear war and the prospect of what could happen.. I'd have guessed at that line too, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
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Oct 11, 2011 02:32
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Yeah for anyone that went through the sixties' political movements nuclear weapons are pretty synonomous with the pale horse. I think it's more unrealistic that Jed couldn't think of the quote.
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Oct 11, 2011 03:53
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He knew the quote, Lord Marbury just finished his sentence for him. I don't agree that it was a fluke at all though, it seems obvious to me it was an exchange designed to show they had shared outlook on the situation and were on the same page. It was one of those moments that would seem cheesy and implausible in a different show, but that's why the West Wing is so great.
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Oct 11, 2011 04:02
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One of my favourite scenes is the end of in "The Crackpots and These Women" where Josh is freaking out about getting his magic NSA card and CJ's like "of course they're not going to give me one!". Maybe it's because I really like that piece of music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQsVBolPNs
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Oct 13, 2011 06:22
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I just watched the last 5 episodes of Season Two (17 People -> Two Cathedrals) and I swear to god that's about 5 perfect hours of television. At the end of Two Cathedrals, even though I've watched the series all the way through about 7 times by now, every hair on my head stood straight. loving amazing show.
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Oct 13, 2011 09:27
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spamman posted:I've been annoyed at how the characters seem to be serving the issues rather than the other way around, the actual issues themselves seem to be a bit too broad for this show, they seem to be after more stunts in this season than others (Although I could be wrong there but come one, shutting down the Fed?), and the show doesn't seem to know how to balance the light and heavy scenes anymore. quote:Oh, and will that god drat intern (Pierce) gently caress off already?
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Oct 13, 2011 09:33
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TinTower posted:One of my favourite scenes is the end of in "The Crackpots and These Women" where Josh is freaking out about getting his magic NSA card and CJ's like "of course they're not going to give me one!". Maybe it's because I really like that piece of music. Yes. Although it wasn't Schubert who went insane, it was Schumann  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann
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Oct 13, 2011 12:54
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Doctor Spaceman posted:Shutting down the government did happen in the 90s, and wasn't too far off happening recently. Wasn't the first time the show did an alternate version of the Clinton presidency. No, the worst character was that random assistant of Toby's during season 5. There was some sort of kerfuffle about her dressing too casual for the White House. That was pretty much all she did. And then she was gone. I finished the series yesterday; a good ending, even if NBC didn't give it the proper two-hour sendoff it deserved.
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Oct 13, 2011 17:00
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Chamberk posted:No, the worst character was that random assistant of Toby's during season 5. There was some sort of kerfuffle about her dressing too casual for the White House. That was pretty much all she did. And then she was gone. I think the worst character had to be the star trek pin girl. The character herself, I don't care about, but her only purpose was that one interaction where Sorkin wrote his TWOP beef into the script with Josh's rant, and it was entirely out of place, tone, and character. That would have been too blatant a self-insertion for Studio 60, much less West Wing. I always liked Pierce. Sure, he served little purpose in 90% of his episodes, but the way he irritated Josh with his mere presence was entertainment enough. He had a couple redeeming insights along the way, plus the time he gamed everyone to make Josh look like the hero while getting exactly what he wanted.
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Oct 13, 2011 18:11
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Doctor Spaceman posted:Shutting down the government did happen in the 90s, and wasn't too far off happening recently. Wasn't the first time the show did an alternate version of the Clinton presidency. And after the shutdown ended, Gingrich's remarks that Clinton had "snubbed" him on Air Force One effectively killed his political career and Bob Dole's bid for the presidency in '96.
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Oct 13, 2011 21:03
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"Well, I gotta hand it to you guys, you've pulled off a political first. Managed to win me the support of the Christian right and a Cheech and Chong fan club all in the same day."
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Oct 13, 2011 22:55
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Chamberk posted:No, the worst character was that random assistant of Toby's during season 5. There was some sort of kerfuffle about her dressing too casual for the White House. That was pretty much all she did. And then she was gone. In the episode where Toby goes to malls to mall test the state of the union, she comes with (and serves little to no purpose). Yet they still put her in the "Previously on the West Wing" opening.
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Oct 13, 2011 23:09
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FISHMANPET posted:In the episode where Toby goes to malls to mall test the state of the union, she comes with (and serves little to no purpose). Yet they still put her in the "Previously on the West Wing" opening. I think they tried to use her like they used Donna in the earlier seasons to be the person who was like "Why are you doing X?" or "How does Y work?". They had started transitioning Donna into someone who didn't ask those questions, and they sometimes needed a person to set up the main characters to explain the situation to the audience.
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Oct 13, 2011 23:20
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BklynBruzer posted:I just watched the last 5 episodes of Season Two (17 People -> Two Cathedrals) and I swear to god that's about 5 perfect hours of television. At the end of Two Cathedrals, even though I've watched the series all the way through about 7 times by now, every hair on my head stood straight. loving amazing show. You should re-watch The Stackhouse Filibuster too (episode before 17 people). Amazing episode that feels gimmicky at first due to the separate narrators (CJ then Sam then Josh then Donna/everyone). It's also the episode that really sets up the coming storm with Hoynes switching positions about the environment knowing something strange that causes Toby to be confused. e: it also has the hilarious minor subplot of CJ breaking an Egyptian holy relic by throwing it into her purse and super-gluing it back together and incurring a curse. Mandoira fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Oct 16, 2011 |
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Oct 16, 2011 16:27
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Worst gimmick in the show? "The Jackal". Hands down. What the gently caress is -that- all about?
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Oct 16, 2011 18:30
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Exi7wound posted:Worst gimmick in the show? Its about the sexiest thing you've ever seen. What are you? A quaker?
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Oct 16, 2011 18:34
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