S01E21: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

I really don't know what to say about this episode. It's a nothing episode, where nothing of any note takes place. The fact that the Federated States of Micronesia musical chair situation is the most interesting thing that takes place is a damning incitement of the episode. Fortunately, the fact that the actors really have a feel for the roles now means that even mundane everyday activities around the White House means the time passes reasonably pleasantly. I suppose it gives us the resolution to the campaign finance issue and validates the decision to really go for it politically but other than that there's not much of substance.

Random observations:

CJ's optimistic prediction turning out to be pessimistic is a prime example of the show getting sentimentality wrong. Everyone else feeling things would get worse or hold steady makes the denoument even more of a Cinderella story, but it just doesn't ring true. What's worse, is it's totally predictable.

Why are Sam and Toby even having the discussion about Laurie, and what gives Sam the unmitigated gall to prioritise his feelings over giving the President a mini-scandal to deal with? Has he heard of FedEx?

Is the thing Rodney does the same thing the marines are doing at the beginning of A Few Good Men?

Laurie's friend is better known as Michelle Dessler from 24.

Margaret's joke is awful, and I mean really awful.

Is ployglot really a 760 SAT word? It seems a little easy.

I have a pretty dreadful opinion of the UK tabloid press, but take it from me, even if a senior staffer to the President was engaged in an illicit affair with a call girl it wouldn't make the Mirror, much less someone giving someone else a briefcase.

Gail's bowl has a telephone in it, which relates to the polling being done during the episode.

I really love the "language of Shakespeare" speech.

Episode grade: C-

So what did you all think?

Spoilers for the future follow.

How wonderful that as soon as Laurie ceases her criminal activities Sam appears to break off all contact with her. That makes sense.

S01E20: Mandatory Minimums

Well thank goodness they didn't bottle out of the Let Bartlet Be Bartlet promise. As it turns out the finance reformers do get nominated, and causes exactly the storm that's expected.

While the episode is called Mandatory Minimums (and they do get a fair crack of the whip) it should really have been called Fallout. The whole point of getting the pollsters out is to examine how the legislative nightmare scenario will play out.

Probably the most interesting character development in the episode is the revelation that Toby was married, and to someone pretty hot (well, too hot for him anyway). Even more interesting, she's a Congresswoman (further comments in the spoilers section).

Random observations:

I don't believe the guy who gets asked back instead of Danny wouldn't jump at the opportunity to do so, let alone try to get Carol to change her mind.

Is it just me, or is the lunch at the restaurant one of the most bizarre West Wing scenes ever?

I think Sam and Toby have an idealistic view of the American public whereas Al Kiefer has a realistic one.

How on earth do Toby and Josh grasp the Laurie thing immediately? This is almost clairvoyant in its genius, and considering some of the rookie mistakes they've made in the past few episodes I'm not buying it.

Does anyone else feel sad that Kenny doesn't get a White House coffee mug?

Episode grade: B-

So what did you all think?

Spoilers for the future follow.

I always thought Andy was criminally underused. She wasn't my favourite character by any stretch, but considering how influential her position was the fact that she mainly appears as a result of a kooky will-they/won't-they sub-plot seems a waste to me.

S01E19: Let Bartlet Be Bartlet

If there's an episode that challenges Celestial Navigation for the season's best, it's this one, though it starts out oh so innocuously. Little do we know in the pre-credits sequence that a little piece of paper is going to throw the entire series a curveball, which will sow the seeds which produce the best ever season of The West Wing (season two).

While there are disparate elements in the episode they all tie into the main theme beautifully. The scene where Josh meets with the leadership guys is phenomenal, and the moment where he suddenly decides he's not playing anymore makes my hair stand on end. The equivalent plot strand for Toby and Sam involves gays in the military, and once again they know they're on a hiding to nothing. All this is just a preamble to the barnstorming final act.

Danny's confrontation with CJ is another exceptional scene, as it validates the memo and drives home the point that we've been gradually fed throughout the episode that Bartlet is indeed all bark and no bite, and the opening scene suddenly has us thinking that maybe Leo has been shepherding him to the centre. The rising sense of resignation in Leo's office as they all report back to him on their day's activities is enough to make you die a little inside.

And then we get "You drive me there." That sets up the jaw-dropping conclusion which changes everything. I'll sometimes be critical of the sentimentality the show occasionally drops into, and the "I serve at the pleasure of the President" scene is certainly laden with a heavy dose of the most syrupy kind of sentimentality, but here it just feels right, don't ask me why.

I guess the thing that floors me about this episode is that up to now I'd really liked PotUS, and thought he was doing a pretty good job under less than ideal circumstances, but this episode just shatters that illusion, while at the same time making us feel optimistic about what's to come.

Hand on heart, I'd have to say that I probably enjoy watching this episode even more than Celestial Navigation, but the thing that tips it in the latters favour is that I know just how devastatingly hard it is to nail comedy, and both Sorkin and the cast deliver in spades. However, you'll struggle to find 44 better minutes of drama anywhere than what we observe in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet.

Random observations:

Gail's bowl has a load of Easter eggs in it, which is pretty self-explanatory.

In a less densely plotted episode I'd wax lyrical about the raisin muffin fiasco, but this was just jam-packed with awesome.

Episode grade: A+

So what did you all think?

Spoilers for the future follow.

As much as we all may hate Mandy (and I think that's pretty much universal) and were thrilled that she vanished in season two, we have to concede that the foul-up which was the memo proves to be a catalyst for a real improvement in a show which was already great. We need to be grateful to her for that at least.

S01E18: Six Meetings Before Lunch

OK, I'm putting it out there - CJ's The Jackal really isn't very good. That would be OK if it weren't for the fact that they make such a huge thing of how fantastic it is.

Of all the meetings that take place in this episode by far the most interesting is the one Josh has with Breckenridge. Maybe it's just a high school civics lesson but the way the two actors deliver the lines is great, especially the increasingly tense reactions from Josh (you just know he wants to scream "what about the Jews in Nazi Germany?!" way before he actually raises it). The other meeting that I like is the one between Sam and Mallory about school vouchers. When you realise that Sam doesn't actually believe  anything he was saying it makes his argumentation even more impressive.

It was about this time during my first watch that I realised that I really didn't care much for the Zoe/Charlie plotlines at all. Zoe comes across as whiney and any time spent on her campus life is just stealing time from shenanigans in the West Wing.

On the whole I find this episode to be pretty lacklustre. Nothing of note really happens other than the potential white supremacist stuff being developed a little. I almost get the feeling that Sorkin has a bucket with all the ideas he had that weren't good enough to make into episodes, and once in a while he reaches into it, grabs three or four and says "if I put these all together it should fill a show". This is one of those episodes.

Random observations:

For the record, the six meetings are:
Mallory's meeting with Sam.
Josh's meeting with Breckenridge.
Mandy's meeting with Toby.
CJ's meeting with Zoe.
The meeting of secret service agents.
CJ's meeting with PotUS.

There are other random conversations between various characters, but these seem like the main six to me.

Episode grade: C+

So what did you all think?

Spoilers for the future follow.

Josh says in Noel that nobody shouts at the president in the Oval Office, but CJ has a good go at it here.

S01E17: The White House Pro-Am

First off, my apologies for the three week gap between recaps; what can I say, life gets in the way sometimes. I'll try to make up by doing a couple of episodes a week for the next two weeks.

The premise of this episode is quite interesting, and it makes me wonder how realistic the West Wing setup is. I can imagine that if the two staffs are as disconnected as portrayed here stuff like the snafu in this episode would be happening in real life all the time.

As an episode it strikes me as being an awful lot about nothing, and for the most part it's saved by a few really well-written little conversations I speak about in the next section. Of all of them the main highlight is the one between Jed and Abby towards the end of the episode in the oval office.

Random observations:

The conversations about CJ picking up on the "signs" the President gives off are really sweet.

Why are Donna and Zoe apparantly reading the same book (to mention nothing of Leo and Jed)?

I love the conversation between Danny and Charlie about "being the one guy in her life who is totally hassle-free", and it's advice that I've tried to apply in my relationships, with pretty good success.

The chat between Danny and Jed is another gem in a somewhat nondescript episode.

Episode grade: C-

So what did you all think?

S01E16: 20 Hours in L.A.

This is the rarest of episodes - one where Hoynes is right and Bartlet is wrong. Don't worry though, by the end Bartlet has come around (kind of), and even looks like the good guy.

The main plot, though, concerns the LA trip, which splits into two main sub-plots - flag-burning and gays in the military. The flag-burning issue is poorly done. John de Lancie makes the best of the material he's given, but the idea that anyone could fall for his argument is somewhat unrealistic, and Josh, Toby and Sam being concerned about it is laughable. Joey sleeping with Al made her plummet in my eyes. Then we have gays in the military. Once again, it's handled in a slightly hamfisted way, with people failing to display the common sense they were born with. My favourite part of the discussion between Bartlet and Marcus is when he asks if he enjoyed the party and they both admit they didn't; it seems like the one real moment between them.

All that probably makes it sound like I thought this was a poor episode, and in the hands of lesser writer that would be the case. I don't know if Sorkin just knows how to push my buttons, but the way he dresses up these flights of fancy really is remarkable. It helps when the acting talent is so good of course, but the writing is the main ingredient in the suspension of disbelief. I remember loving this episode when I first watched it, and it was only under repeated viewings and closer scrutiny that the rough edges become noticeable.

Random observations:

Zoe's new agent is better known from ER and CSI.

Ted Marcus (AKA Bob Balaban) has been in everything. You can IMDb his full crendentials, but if you're thinking "I know the face but can't place him" you've probably either seen him in Seinfeld or as Phoebe's dad in Friends.

Al Keifer is Q from various incarnations of Star Trek.

David Hasselhoff is... well, David Hasselhoff. And Jay Leno is... a really big chin.

Episode grade: B

So what did you all think?

Spoilers for the future follow.

I forgot that they started foreshadowing the shooting this far in advance. I know it's only six episodes in advance but at the time it felt like it came out of nowhere.

Wasn't the ethanol thing a big issue during the primaries that Santos and Vinick were involved in (I seem to remember some pledge that Vinick wouldn't take but Santos did (even though he didn't really agree with it))?

Why is CJ so clueless about movie development given the job she had immediately before working for Bartlet.

"Matt Perry, right there." Don't go rushing after him Donna - you'll see him again in a few years, he'll just be called Joe Quincy.

S01E15: Celestial Navigation

Once every year there is an episode of TV that is just so good that all other episodes of all other shows fall by the wayside in deference to that particular episode's brilliance. A couple of years ago it was Community's "Modern Warfare", but in the 1999/2000 season it was Celestial Navigation, and by a country mile.

This isn't a comedy show, but I defy anyone to find a funnier hour of TV than the one we get here. From Toby and Sam bickering in the car, to CJ's woot canal, to the secret plan to fight inflation, it's just brilliant. What's even more impressive is the amount of serious subject matter the episode squeezes in.

Yes, I know I've already mentioned it, but the sequence from where CJ comes back from the dentist to the end of the briefing is just televisual perfection. I swear that CJ is channelling Elmer Fudd when she warns Josh "be vewy vewy careful not to destwoy us." Then Josh steps into the press room and gets a polite warning from Danny that this isn't a good idea. Maybe up to this point we'd been thinking "how badly could it go", but the way Josh brushes off Danny's concerns in the most condescending way possible tells us that it's going to be a car crash. From the moment Josh says "Are you sure you want your one question to be that stupid" we're treated to the most symphonic display of humour I've ever heard. The way they cut to reactions from CJ and the manner in which Josh gradually digs himself into a deeper hole, culminating in the "secret plan to fight inflation" is just beautiful. Of course, it carries on beyond the briefing itself, as we get all the main character's reactions to Josh's calamitous performance which also overlaps with the Mendoza comments on O'Leary. The final cherry on top is Sam's display of geek bravado as he describes Mendoza's potential route from Nova Scotia to Washington via Connecticut (which makes his getting lost even funnier). Oh yeah, there's also the President's response to Josh's precis of the situation.

With all that Sorkin still manages to give us a bit of commentary on racial profiling. This is the one part that doesn't ring 100% true with me, as I don't imagine a 50 something year old man being pulled when they're in a car with their wife and nine year old child. Maybe that's just me being naive though.

So as I said at the outset, all in all, not only is this the best episode of this season of West Wing (and one of my all time top five episodes), it's the best episode of any show that season. Have you guessed what grade I'm awarding it yet?

Random observations:

Weird intro to this episode - basically it introduces all the characters with them saying what they do. US folk - was this the first episode after a break, or did they realise that this was such a good episode that they promoted it to death in an attempt to get new viewers?

Debbie O'Leary is better known as a surgeon from ER.

The watch commander was Archer's superior officer from Enterprise.

Episode grade: A+

So what did you all think?