|
My favorite part of that scene has always been (paraphrasing): Bartlett: Do you want to write my eulogy, or do you want to play some basketball? Toby: Can I be honest with you, sir?
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 00:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 17:17 |
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:Here's the scene A million thank yous.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 00:15
|
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:Here's the scene Did you just upload this? I searched "west wing basketball" not 2 hours ago and got nothing 
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 00:51
|
|
|
Yes I did
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 01:00
|
|
|
Does anyone know why season 5 is universally regarded as the worst? I am on a rewatch with my wife, and we're almost done with season 4, and looking at the one sentence synopsis of the season 5 episodes, I don't see anything there that offends me, so I can't put my finger on why it's considered so bad.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 05:33
|
|
|
I got a message from my girlfriend a couple days ago - "so when are we watching more West Wing?" She's a keeper... And we're only on episode 19 of season 1 - she hasn't even seen the best stuff.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 05:51
|
|
|
MC Fruit Stripe posted:Does anyone know why season 5 is universally regarded as the worst? Sorkin isn't writing them, for one. I think the end of season 4 puts the show in a really depressing place and 5 doesn't pull it out of that funk really. It also does some questionable things with the characters, especially Leo. It's not terrible, but almost every scene feels...incomplete. It's missing the polish that, for good or bad, Sorkin would bring to the table. It's still kind of evident in 6 and 7 too but I think 5 was a learning curve season.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 06:01
|
|
|
Both times I've watched the show it's been in a giant bender and I couldn't really tell you what episodes are in which season. I think five is the Israel stuff?
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 06:05
|
|
|
Season five also does a lot of things to Josh as well, including adding one of the worst characters in the show's history, Ryan Pierce. God I hate him.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 07:18
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:Both times I've watched the show it's been in a giant bender and I couldn't really tell you what episodes are in which season. I think five is the Israel stuff? The Israel episodes start with the season 5 finale, the Camp David episodes (which I'd say are amongs the show's worst together with 90 Miles Away) are at the start of season 6.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 07:47
|
|
|
spamman posted:Season five also does a lot of things to Josh as well, including adding one of the worst characters in the show's history, Ryan Pierce. God I hate him. In one of his earlier episodes, Josh can't Get Something Done, and there's a quick scene of Pierce calling one of his family connections, and then later on It is Miraculously Done. Does this ever get mentioned at any stage afterwards? Did the writers ever mention what he was all about / if he was a dropped plotline? I didn't find him terrible, just strange, watching this mostly inoffensive, self-assured rich kid breeze through without a care in the world, no drama or conflict whatsoever. He doesn't even get to pull a "seeya shitlords!" on the way out for all of Josh's abuse, just invites him to his awesome party and then commences being Secretary of State for Awesome Cars or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 11:17
|
|
|
I didn't understand Pierce the first time, then I had worked in politics before watching the show again. He reminded me of a lot of the douchebags that blow through the office. I don't know if that's what they were going for but it worked for me on the rewatch.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 11:24
|
|
|
I'm on my 5th watchthrough of this show, and I'm on 'In Excelsis Deo', and I know I'm beating a dead horse with this, but goddamn does Schiff do a fantastic job. His delivery of "I'm...I'm an influential person I'm a...powerful person" It's a crime against humanity that Schiff seems to have not gotten a ton of work because he really, really kills it in this show. Toby is one of TV's all time best characters imo
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 13:30
|
|
|
School Bully posted:In one of his earlier episodes, Josh can't Get Something Done, and there's a quick scene of Pierce calling one of his family connections, and then later on It is Miraculously Done. Does this ever get mentioned at any stage afterwards? I can't bring myself to rewatch Season 5, but on first viewing, it seemed like Pierce was doing all of this stuff behind Josh's back as a way to try to make himself useful. The problem being that because Josh had no clue what was going on, he thought it was his actions that were making things happen; at which point, why wouldn't you keep on doing the same stuff. Then when Josh did something without Pierce making a call, it went horribly wrong. Josh got blamed, but I couldn't really find fault with what he was doing - as far as he was concerned, he was on a pretty good streak. The plotline annoyed me and the character annoyed me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 13:51
|
|
|
As someone said, Ses 5 is depressing, and a complete tone shift. I think its examplified by the episode The Supremes, the one episode everyone likes in season 5: Donna makes a passing reference to something unrelated, and the senior staff solves a problem in an elegant manner. Its a bit formulaic (its basically the same way they solved the land use rider in Season 1 by using an obscure law), but hey, both episodes end on a high note and everyone feels good. In season 5, episodes ends with death and/or misery instead (Han in particular  )
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 14:35
|
|
|
But they put Donna's parents cats on the Supreme Court!
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 16:23
|
|
|
Yeah, that's why that's the one of the few good episodes. It feels much more like West Wing than most other episodes.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 16:31
|
|
|
The characters don't feel like themselves in Season 5. Everyone is just sad and angry the whole time, and it never really picks up. I have no problem with the subject matter, but it lost a lot of the joy that earlier seasons had.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 16:51
|
|
|
The only thing about Pierce I particularly enjoyed was in "The Supremes," after his introduces himself to the Judiciary Committee director, she's all like "Is he the one who flipped the car in Nice?"
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 18:16
|
|
|
kingturnip posted:I can't bring myself to rewatch Season 5, but on first viewing, it seemed like Pierce was doing all of this stuff behind Josh's back as a way to try to make himself useful. The problem being that because Josh had no clue what was going on, he thought it was his actions that were making things happen; at which point, why wouldn't you keep on doing the same stuff. Exactly, they never bother to round it off: Is he doing it to impress Josh? To spite him? Maybe he passionately believes in the Thing itself? Shits and giggles? He has absolutely nothing to prove so probably the latter. Thinking about it made me snort at something from the start of Clancy's Hunt for Red October which was vaguely "The President trusted Jack Ryan completely as he came from old money and was thus bribe proof and obviously doing the job out of sheer patriotism". Suspect now shits n giggles would probably be more apt.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2012 22:30
|
|
|
Watching the Newsroom just makes me long for the 30 second awesome WW intro. The Newsroom's titles, while a commendable effort, are just too boring. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 00:17
|
|
|
The SARS Volta posted:The only thing about Pierce I particularly enjoyed was in "The Supremes," after his introduces himself to the Judiciary Committee director, she's all like "Is he the one who flipped the car in Nice?" I've watched the West Wing a couple of times. Once on TV, Once on DVD and once again (where I skipped season five.) Who the gently caress is Pierce? Have I just deleted season five and "pierce" out of my memory? Are you guys making up some character? Is it a nickname perhaps?
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 10:24
|
|
|
LordPants posted:I've watched the West Wing a couple of times. Once on TV, Once on DVD and once again (where I skipped season five.) He was Josh's intern in Season 5. Josh hated having him around, but the kid was very well-connected (a relative of the former president Pierce, I believe) and thus impossible to get rid of. I think he left to work for that senator who resigned from the Democratic Party, which was one of the final phases of that season's "poo poo all over Josh" plan.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 10:31
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure his full name was Ryan Pierce, though I don't recall anyone really using his first name that often. He was played by Jesse Bradford if that helps.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 10:55
|
|
|
I've been burning through the series since it came up for free on Amazon Prime, which has meant a lot of very late and sometimes very drunk nights with the series. I've just finished season 5; I didn't find it all that bad, but definitely not as compelling as the first 4 seasons. Anyway, I just realized that I haven't seen, or don't remember seeing, Amy in like 20 episodes (if at all in season 5). Did she leave for some specific reason, or did she just kind of disappear? Can't say I'm disappointed since I never really liked her character, I just kind of realized that she was missing all the sudden.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 11:20
|
|
|
Amy gets fired from the White House in early season 5 for not being entirely sure when to shut the hell up, and makes like one appearance each in season 6 and 7. e: Oh yeah, she's not fired but then quits anyway. I remember it's in "Constituency of One", because I love that line when Josh is yelling at her, but also because it is probably the 2nd worst episode. e2: Same episode. CJ: "We are here to serve the country." Leo: "We are the country." Ooookay, so I guess for the purposes of these 43 minutes, Leo is a fascist? But for the tedium of 90 Miles Away, this would be the worst episode. It's loving close. e: Two more from Leo in that episode. "The report will reflect administration views, that's the line." "I'm not apologizing to you." Seriously, how hard do you have to work to make John Spencer seem like the biggest oval office on the planet. I have seen the episode probably 5 times and have never once understood why he is that monumentally useless all of a sudden. MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Aug 15, 2012 |
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 14:35
|
|
|
They do that to Josh in season five a lot as well. He's suddenly the least competent guy in the world for like half a season. Also, I don't remember anything about 90 Miles Away (Not rare for a S6/7 non-campaign episode). What's so bad about it?
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2012 16:13
|
|
|
I don't mind 90 Miles Away, it's just not that interesting. It's about Leo going to Cuba to try to reopen relations and also about his past with Kate Harper which he doesn't remember because he was drunk. Also there's a subplot about Charlie and termites, so yeah. I rewatch the series basically all the time, and the episodes I skip every time are Slow News Day, which is the one in which Toby tries to save social security but gets screwed by Josh and Will because it's a secret, and The Long Goodbye, which is the one where CJ goes home for her reunion and her dad is worse off than she realized. For anyone new, I wouldn't recommend skipping any episodes, but on multiple viewings, these really don't hold anything for me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2012 16:32
|
|
|
Asiina posted:I don't mind 90 Miles Away, it's just not that interesting. It's about Leo going to Cuba to try to reopen relations and also about his past with Kate Harper which he doesn't remember because he was drunk. Also there's a subplot about Charlie and termites, so yeah. I watch Slow News Day on my rewatches, but just because it's such a weird episode. But I skip Access, because I really hate that one. Maybe it's just because it comes right after The Supremes, which made me think that maybe season 5 would get back on track, and then Access ruins my hopes. But I really can't stand that one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2012 16:37
|
|
|
Access wouldn't be nearly so bad if they didn't show the footage of CJ trying to explain her job like 4 times throughout the episode. It's just repetitive.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2012 16:39
|
|
|
Maud Moonshine posted:I'm pretty sure his full name was Ryan Pierce, though I don't recall anyone really using his first name that often. He was played by Jesse Bradford if that helps. No I just have literally expunged season five from my brain. When I went back through it with my girlfriend I told her to skip it and I ran down the show as: "Everyone sucks, Leo has a heart-attack, Fitz dies, Donna is in a coma." Killing Fitz was one of the most  moments. Completely un-necessary and carries less weight than Bartlet's doctor dying in like the third episode. And we only knew the doctor for like five minutes. That's how far the show fell.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2012 01:58
|
|
|
Finally getting into this show, and yeah, it's right up my alley. People don't talk like this in real life, not with any consistency, but it's fun to watch. Also, I'm sure I'm not the first Friday Night Lights alum to catch Connie Britton as an assistant to Bruno Gianelli. Man, Mrs. Coach was a looker back in her day.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2012 20:57
|
|
|
isk posted:Finally getting into this show, and yeah, it's right up my alley. People don't talk like this in real life, not with any consistency, but it's fun to watch. The sun has yet to set on Mrs. Coach's day. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2012 22:01
|
|
|
"You know, if you don't want to run again, I respect that. But if you don't run because you think it's gonna be too hard, or you think you're gonna lose? Well, God, Jed, I don't even want to know you." Every single time, that destroys me. This show is the best.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2012 13:35
|
|
|
I started watching this series recently, nearing the end of season 4 right now. It's weird, I find much of the rhetoric pretty terrible and Aaron Sorkin such an rear end, but it has so many great moments it's hard to hate. Newsroom is loving garbage, but this show is worthy of its accolades. There are so many instances of Bartlet being so loving presidential that it hits this emotional center, where you take a snapshot of American history and you think "I wish things worked this way."
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2012 10:36
|
|
|
Holy poo poo, I wish every episode could be The Debate. All the same scenarios and circumstances that are presented in the show normally, but debated by opposing points of view. I would watch that. That said, I'm watching this and this show is awesome.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2012 11:06
|
|
|
Wow, today I learned that Sidney Portier was originally supposed to play the president 
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2012 01:44
|
|
|
Just watched Slow News Day. Wow, I know a few people said it was a skippable, but no sir, nothing wrong with that. That was a very season 1-ish episode. IE, you don't need back story or context, just a nice, all in one episode with no secondary plot of note. I really enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2012 06:31
|
|
|
az posted:Wow, today I learned that Sidney Portier was originally supposed to play the president That would have been really cool. Along the same lines, Allison Janney may in fact be my alternate universe wife, but CCH Pounder would have kicked all kinds of rear end as press secretary. But Eugene Levy as Toby? Somebody was smoking crack that day.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2012 00:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 17:17 |
|
|
Watching season 1 in HD and in widescreen on Amazon Prime is freaking me out This is awesome.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2012 02:31
|
|