Okay, it’s more circumstantial than “smoking gun” evidence, but it really stretches the continuity of the show. (But, I want to add, I love the show to death. Consider it a sign of my affection that I take it seriously enough to even notice this. Anyway…)
In yesterday’s 2-hour premiere episode, we get a load of background on the major characters – previous careers, how/why/when they joined Bartlet’s campaign, etc.
We learn, for example, that before joining the team, CJ used to be a $500,000+/yr. public relations handler for a high-powered L.A. PR firm whose client was an ego-centric Hollywood studio mogul.
Yet, last season, in the episode where the Prez attends a Hollywood fundraising party, CJ is shown as a flummuxed (sp?), uncomprehending greenhorn among all the Tinsletown jargon-slingers. She is even offered a studio job as something like a Director of Development, and claims not to have a clue what such a person does!
I ask you, does this scenario sound believable? She’s a former big-time Hollywood PR operative, yet she’s clueless when people talk to her in moviespeak?
One thing that struck me – in a time of federal crisis such as a presidential assassination attempt, I don’t think in the immediate aftermath so many key White House staffers would be hanging out in the hospital waiting room for hours.
Wouldn’t you suppose they would have more critical things to do?
(I too love the show, although its liberal politics and Republicans-are-evil undertones often make me snicker.)
Well, I’m becoming a recent addict, only cathcing the summers reruns (what do you expect, its on opposite Drew Carey!). In the show’s defense, you might recall that CJ specifically said that she “didn’t want to be doing this kind of work” and “that she didn’t know a damn thing about it” in regards to the PR job.
I never saw the previous episode, so it depends on the degree of ineptness she portrayed, but it could still be feasible (while they likely didn’t have last nights show in mind when they did the first one). One might also be able to argue that she was exaggerating her ignorance before to garner respect or sympathy from the biased politicians.
I was confused when I saw that, too. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.
I thought I noticed another continuity problem, too, but I can’t remember what it was. I knew I should’ve taken notes.
You weren’t the only one who read it that way, cantara. I had to reread the thread subject – I was sure I wouldn’t have missed a giraffe in last night’s episode.
Yeah, I would have to disagree. Last night’s show showed CJ as an excellent PR agent, but one that knows extremely little about the show-biz biz (didn’t really know the Golden Globes were on last night, how to talk to the big exec., wearing that outfit to work in LA…).
Also, in the above mentioned last season episode at the fund raiser, it was apparent that even the Hollywooder didn’t know what a Director of Development was. He said the position was one in which the person “develops things”.
But the big question in my mind was, how in the world did they catch that guy in the diner?!? I’m glad we didn’t find out, because it really was an un-interesting story line compared to the rest of it. I really wish there was more on the primaries and Jeb’s bullrun.
“MY NAME IS JEBADIAH BARTLETT, AND I ACCEPT YOUR NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT!!”
During one of the flashbacks (from 3-4 years ago), Josh uses a payphone with “Verizon” written on the side.
Verizon is a relatively new company, made by combining Bell Atlantic and some other smaller companies, only about a year old. The pay phone from 3-4 years ago should have said “Bell Atlantic”.
I thought maybe this thread was going to mention Bartlet’s mispronunciation of New England place names. In two separate “flashback” scenes he mispronounced the names of Concord, NH and Concord, Mass. Both times he sounded like he was saying “Concorde,” pronouncing it like the famed aircraft, when it is really pronounced more like the word “conquered.” As a former governor of NH, Bartlet should have known better.
I remember spotting another little mistake where a similar-sounding word was incorrectly used in place of the correct word, but I can’t remember the context. I’ll have to noodle on that for a while.
I wasn’t a regular viewer of TWW last year but I really liked yesterday’s premier, continuity errors notwithstanding. The arrest of the skinhead was a great scene-- guy’s all alone in a parking lot, then two seconds later he has a hundred weapons pointed at him! Being left wondering how the hell they found the guy gave it a “Tom Clancy novel” kind of feeling (like finding the bomber in The Sum of All Fears.) But Clancy, of course, would have spent a hundred pages explaining how they did it.
Good show, but I agree w/ Milossarian about the show’s excessive political bias.
Three quick comments, one of which I made on another thread.
The University of Wisconsin offers no minors, despite the claim that Donna went through two of them.
In the pilot and at least one other episode, Jeb makes references to his grandchildren. Pilots are often done months in advance and the plot points are changed when they go into regular production, so I can forgive it the first time. But not in the regular season. Or maybe his daughter just looks really good even after giving birth…
Startrek777, I love Star Trek. But come on, you’ve got to admit that MANY writers seemed to have gotten zapped by that Pulalski mind erasing procedure right before writing a new episode.
I really like the show but I wanted the young black guy (I can’t think of his name right now) to have a different reaction when he was told that he was the target. I wanted him to say something like it wasn’t the first time someone shot at him or something giving him a ‘getto’/pull yourself from your bootstraps type background.
My problem with CJ is simple – you don’t get to be a $500,000+ PR-type unless you’re bringing in a WHOLE lot of business to the company. You don’t fire an employee like that on the basis of one fight with a client unless you’re ready to watch her flip through her rolodex and take all the business she brought in back out with her.
To be fair, it was never explained exactly what CJ did at that PR firm. She did state she didn’t know anything about the tv and movie stuff, which would explain why she didn’t know what the hell a director of development does. Besides, doing PR stuff and working at a movie studio are pretty different.
As for catching the guy at the diner, do you really think the concerted effort of the Secret Service, the FBI, local and state police agencies, and probably the CIA and possibly the NSA couldn’t find someone if they really wanted to? Considering he was involved in a plot to assasinate the President, I think the REALLY wanted to find him. Even if the President wasn’t the main target, he was still hit.
I’m not surprised by Martin Sheen’s mis-pronunciation of places. When he played the Chief od Staff in The American President, he pronounced the name of my home state Wes-consin
I had to reread the thread subject – I was sure I wouldn’t have missed a giraffe in last night’s episode.