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I didn't watch it all the way through. At the time I'm sure it was important to get out the message that not all Muslims are crazy terrorist assholes to a very racist American public but it's dated all to hell now. Not to mention I knew most of what they were saying already, which made it super boring to watch. Basically, good idea at the time, not worth watching in 2012. The main thing for me is that Leo is my favourite character and it causes me actual physical pain to see him doing those horrible things. 
JULIAN ASSANGE fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Dec 31, 2012 |
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Dec 31, 2012 00:21
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Looking back, the 9/11 episode is probably preaching to the choir a bit for the West Wing audience. But that was a very intense period in history with a lot of reactionary, hostile sentiment going round so it was probably a good thing to put that kind of message out there in the media. Now time has passed and things have calmed down it's the most skippable episode in the series though.
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Dec 31, 2012 00:28
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Hoops posted:Looking back, the 9/11 episode is probably preaching to the choir a bit for the West Wing audience. But that was a very intense period in history with a lot of reactionary, hostile sentiment going round so it was probably a good thing to put that kind of message out there in the media. Now time has passed and things have calmed down it's the most skippable episode in the series though. Honestly lots of liberals got horrible anti-Arab ideals out of 9/11, even dudes who didn't pull a full Dennis Miller and just go hardline right. Lots of people went from 'accept everyone' to 'accept everyone...except those Muslim dudes they're scary', so I imagine it was a valid message for even the typical audience.
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Dec 31, 2012 02:00
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I'm just about halfway through S3 on my Netflix-inspired rewatch, and this show always rekindles my gigantic crush on Mary-Louise Parker. 
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Dec 31, 2012 14:24
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Season 1 first watch completed in two days.
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Dec 31, 2012 17:30
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Xeno posted:Season 1 first watch completed in two days.
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Dec 31, 2012 19:38
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Hoops posted:I haven't rewatched season 1 in years. It's dated, it's pretty preachy, and it's lit in a very "90s" way. And it has Mandy. Yuck.
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Dec 31, 2012 19:50
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I'm watching the Season 6/7 campaign and man, I totally forgot how bad The Debate is. Strikes against: -It's a gimmick episode. I'll admit this is a personal issue as I hate the 9/11 episode and the CJ documentary episode. -It's one of the worst examples of West Wing political fantasies (long goofy speeches, rounds of applause for democracy, having a "real" debate). -The "live" televising is problematic because of dropped lines and awkward pauses (which is arguably intentional to give it a live debate feel, but Smits really struggled here). -Despite wanting to be a "real" debate, it suffers from the same issue of watching two candidates re-explain their platforms that the audience already knows. Clips of that is good. 40 minutes of is not.
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Jan 1, 2013 03:35
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I didnt like the Cj doc at first but then it grew on me because in all reality Alison Janey is a really fun person.
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Jan 1, 2013 03:41
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The only reason I don't like "Access" is because they repeat footage many times. She does her job description speech at least three times in the episode. Other than that, I don't mind the concept for the episode.
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Jan 1, 2013 04:01
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Hoops posted:I haven't rewatched season 1 in years. It's dated, it's pretty preachy, and it's lit in a very "90s" way. The tone and the dialogue isn't really so different, but season 2 is where my West Wing starts, with S3 being my favourite (because it's the best). Season 1 is great, though. It's more flawed than the others for sure but there's an energy to it that isn't there later on. I don't know quite what it is about it, I just find it a lot more charming than, say, s4.
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Jan 1, 2013 04:52
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It's the humor and energy. Watch the pilot episode and then anything from season 4. The offices are all dead and there seems to be only 10 people working. e: it's why I enjoy the seasons 6/7 campaign episodes so much. They have the energy back. And different shooting locations. Reminded me of my favorite WW episode, the double length season 4 opener. Mu Zeta fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Jan 1, 2013 |
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Jan 1, 2013 04:56
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Yeah that's exactly it. It just comes across as so much more alive, funny since the dialogue is so much less realistic.
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Jan 1, 2013 08:41
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Naet posted:I'm watching the Season 6/7 campaign and man, I totally forgot how bad The Debate is.
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Jan 1, 2013 17:50
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Vinick in his entirety is the West Wing's dream Republican.
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Jan 1, 2013 23:42
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TinTower posted:Vinick in his entirety is the West Wing's dream Republican. An atheist, pro-choice, pro-entitlements, realist California farmer/lawyer? He's pretty close to the dream Democrat, too.
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Jan 2, 2013 00:06
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Finally got the opportunity to start on s5. It's not bad but the difference is definitely noticeble. It's lost all the subtlety and it's not hitting me emotionally in the way the season 4 finale did. President Walken is way too thin of a character and it makes him a bit cartoonish. At least the acting is still fantastic. I was hoping for something else but it was exactly what people made it sound like. It's a little (God) boring. I'll say this, though: the season opener does a good job of really emphasizing the presidency is as a job. JULIAN ASSANGE fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 03:36
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I started watching this on Netflix over the holidays, and I just got to the start of season 3. This is some good poo poo. I've soured on some of Sorkin's go-to bits from having seen The Newsroom, but The West Wing holds up incredibly well and I can't wait for the campaign storyline to get going.
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Jan 8, 2013 08:45
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I got sick and watched all of Season 3 and 4 this weekend. Though for some reason I want to switch to Studio 60 and lament what could have been.
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Jan 8, 2013 08:52
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Just got the end of season 3 tonight. Figured after finally kissing CJ something was going to happen to the agent, but then they had to play Hallelujah.  Aaron Sorkin you son of a bitch
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Jan 10, 2013 03:28
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RedneckwithGuns posted:Just got the end of season 3 tonight. Figured after finally kissing CJ something was going to happen to the agent, but then they had to play Hallelujah. Yyyyyyyyyup. If that doesn't get to you, you're dead inside.
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Jan 10, 2013 03:34
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BrooklynBruiser posted:Yyyyyyyyyup. If that doesn't get to you, you're dead inside. Its most masterful when Tommy and Aaron beasicaly show you the strings, let you trace them to your heart. Wink and nod smugly at you and just tug firmly and abruptly at your heart and there is nothing you can do about it.
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Jan 10, 2013 08:13
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I'm on season 3 and Mary Louise Parker just showed up 
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Jan 10, 2013 09:45
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Argh. I'm currently on season 2 (this is like the 5th time in the last 12 months I've watched someone help please) and just found an inconsistency. In ep 4, In This White House, where Sam gets smacked around by Ainsley, they're talking about an education bill. The host asks Sam how this bill is different from the Republican bill that "the President vetoed last year." In a later episode that I forget (which you'd think wouldn't happen, given how many times I've seen them all) they make it seem like the president vetoing a bill is a big deal because he hadn't done it before. And there's even confusion on how it's actually done. It was one of the election episodes in S3 I suppose. Also the pacing of ep 3, The Midterms, is really weird. It covers like...months, but there doesn't seem to be any way for the viewer to know that time is passing. We see Sam recruit his buddy to run, we see his appearing racist, and then all of the sudden it's election day. It's fine that the episode covered a lot of time, just sort of strange in how it happened.
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Jan 10, 2013 11:43
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I never paid attention to the veto thing but maybe they just quietly retconned it. Vetoing something is a little bit of a deal and they probably wanted to make it more dramatic by being all about "the presidents first ever veto!" And yeah, TWW has some weird time jumps sometimes that can be somewhat disorienting if you miss a beat.
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Jan 10, 2013 11:49
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There are a few continuity mistakes throughout the series. In Season 1 in order to get one of the seat on the FEC to open up they fire the ambassador to Bulgaria (Ken Cochran) because he's having an affair with the daughter of the prime minister. Later, there's an episode where a woman pilot is going to be court-martialed for having an affair with another officer. During their discussion, Leo refers back to the ambassador by saying "somewhere in South America, I can't remember" and Bartlet corrects him by saying he was ambassador to Brazil. Another one is that during Debate Camp in Season 4 there's a flashback to the first few days they were in office, and a reporter tells CJ that his group will be praying for her on a specific day. Then about 8 episodes later when they're trying to pass the foreign ops bill, one of the senators wants a study conducted about remote prayer for his vote. When he brings up remote prayer Toby says "yeah, CJ got spammed with that a few months ago." It was a few months in TV time, but for them it would have been over 4 years ago.
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Jan 10, 2013 15:35
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The West Wing is pretty accurate on a lot of its little details, so it is pretty jarring when you catch something incorrect or inconsistent (although, given that the show is not particularly concerned with the continuity of its own plotlines, the latter are not all that uncommon). President Bartlet putting the Surgeon General into the line of presidential succession in season 1 before his first state of the union speech always makes me laugh. This Jed Bartlet! Come on!
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Jan 10, 2013 15:51
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Well Qumar and Equatorial Kundu are also fake countries. Why is Bartlett assasinating imaginary ambassadors?
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Jan 10, 2013 17:33
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Mu Zeta posted:Well Qumar and Equatorial Kundu are also fake countries. Why is Bartlett assasinating imaginary ambassadors? Defense Ministers.
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Jan 10, 2013 17:34
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Giodo! posted:The West Wing is pretty accurate on a lot of its little details, so it is pretty jarring when you catch something incorrect or inconsistent (although, given that the show is not particularly concerned with the continuity of its own plotlines, the latter are not all that uncommon). President Bartlet putting the Surgeon General into the line of presidential succession in season 1 before his first state of the union speech always makes me laugh. This Jed Bartlet! Come on! Huh, I always thought he said attorney general, but when I checked right now, you are right. That's really strange.
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Jan 10, 2013 17:44
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myron cope posted:Also the pacing of ep 3, The Midterms, is really weird. It covers like...months, but there doesn't seem to be any way for the viewer to know that time is passing. We see Sam recruit his buddy to run, we see his appearing racist, and then all of the sudden it's election day. It's fine that the episode covered a lot of time, just sort of strange in how it happened. Eh, it was probably either that or have Whitford sit out a bunch of episodes. I'll take it.
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Jan 10, 2013 21:19
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I’m watching the series for the first time. Should I pretend the Episode “Isaac and Ishmael” (9/11 special) was never made and not watch it?
Platystemon fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jan 13, 2013 |
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Jan 13, 2013 18:28
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Platystemon posted:I’m watching the series for the first time. Should I pretend the Episode “Isaac an Ishmael” (9/11 special) was never made and not watch it? Yes. It has no continuity with the rest of the series and is just bad. Not worth your time.
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Jan 13, 2013 18:30
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You should watch is just so you don't get to the end of the series still wanting more new episodes and watch it and have it be your last new The West Wing experience.
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Jan 13, 2013 18:37
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Just watch it. It's no worse than the season 5 episodes.
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Jan 13, 2013 18:50
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Watch it. It's not bad. However, keep in the back of your head that it's entirely non-canonical, and some people are out-of-character.
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Jan 13, 2013 19:40
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Just watch it in its correct context. It really doesnt warrant this kind of negative attention or reputation at all.
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Jan 13, 2013 19:41
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I enjoyed it for what it was, but it's definitely not an episode of The West Wing. It just happens to use the same actors.
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Jan 13, 2013 20:44
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It's more an episode of The West Wing than The Long Goodbye is.
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Jan 14, 2013 03:47
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Hansen85 posted:It's more an episode of The West Wing than The Long Goodbye is. Yeah, I just skipped The Long Goodbye on my rewatch. I didn't skip Isaac and Ishmael. (gonna skip 90 Miles Away when I get to it, too)
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Jan 14, 2013 03:48
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