I also liked how Sam had her back when those twits sent her a wilted bouquet with “BITCH” on the card. She had just come back from gently chastising them (as she was ordered to do) and when Sam jumps on her for something else she spits right back at him.
“Sam, do you think you could possibly be rude to me tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday, I will be in the office, you can come down and be rude to me all day.” She then walks off, he follow her after a minute, sees the “bouquet,” figures out what happened, and without another word goes to bat for her.
I also disagreed with CJ’s little rant about gun control. How many more people would have been hurt/killed if the Secret Service *didn’t * have guns?
This series had me from the opening scene - “He’s not my friend, he’s my boss. And that’s not his name, it’s his title.” The only clip I could find cuts out right before the theme swells (unfortunatly). Starting with the pilot and every episode after, I got goosebumps when they finally got to the theme.
My favorite is the carving knife scene. “I’m proud of you, Charlie.”
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
But that line came at the end of a scene that showed one of Sorkin’s weaknesses. The religious conservatives in that scene were ridiculous caricatures (and I say this as someone who has very little use for religious conservatives). Sorkin can’t write a realistic conservative just like Tom Clancy can’t write a realistic liberal.
[/QUOTE]
I agree with this, and I think Sorkin realized it too. He tried to address this problem by having genuine conservatives serve as story consultants - I think Peggy Noonan did this for a time.
Still, I think results in this area were very mixed.
[QUOTE=Pashnish Ewing]
This series had me from the opening scene - “He’s not my friend, he’s my boss. And that’s not his name, it’s his title.” The only clip I could find cuts out right before the theme swells (unfortunatly). Starting with the pilot and every episode after, I got goosebumps when they finally got to the theme.
[/QUOTE]
I always found the pager thing too telegraphed and the POTUS line a bit, eh. I mean, yes, she’s a hooker, but she’s a high class hooker who works the Washington political scene. The chance that she doesn’t know who POTUS is is approximately nil.
I agree with the general heaping-of-praise (although I think the best American TV drama ever is The Wire), and will add that Ainsley Hayes is my favorite guest character on any TV show ever. I so wish she had stayed around more. AND, she was a great answer to one of the weaknesses of the show, which was the fact that all the main characters were liberals.
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
I agree with the general heaping-of-praise (although I think the best American TV drama ever is The Wire), and will add that Ainsley Hayes is my favorite guest character on any TV show ever. I so wish she had stayed around more. AND, she was a great answer to one of the weaknesses of the show, which was the fact that all the main characters were liberals.
[/QUOTE]
And not to lower the level of discourse or anything, but she was also quite easy on the eyes.
Also the scenes where she met then remet the president were golden. And while I can’t find it on YouTube, this exchange of hers is one of the finest pieces of dialog, both writing and delivery, that I’ve ever seen.
I’ll add to the praise. I loved the show, although it was best when Aaron Sorkin was still writing it. But can you imagine how the pitch meeting went when the show was proposed? It’s a miracle that it got made, considering how nerdy it was.
I loved a whole subplot showing the details around how the president vetoed a bill. And there was a scene when Josh and Toby met a man in a bar who was worried about paying for college for his children. On the basis of that, they went back and came up with a way to make college tuition tax deductible. It just summarized how much influence White House staffers have.
I also loved the exchange with Josh and Toby right after Josh met Amy. You have to love a writer who can work the word “ensorceled” into a sentence.
I think Sorkin had a nod during one of Bartlet’s scenes…one of the politicos wanted him to dumb down a word, and the president said if people didn’t know what it was, they could look it up. It’s like Sorkin was saying, “I assume you have some intelligence to appreciate this show, and I’m going to use words that will either meet or exceed your intelligence.”
If I have one main gripe, it’s how CJ’s bodyguard was killed…Dear Og, Secret Service men are not that stupid!
[QUOTE=ivylass]
If I have one main gripe, it’s how CJ’s bodyguard was killed…Dear Og, Secret Service men are not that stupid!
[/QUOTE]
I heard he got a job down in Washington NCIS doing forensics.
I really liked Noël; Adam Arkin’s role was well written and well played.
[QUOTE=ivylass]
I think Sorkin had a nod during one of Bartlet’s scenes…one of the politicos wanted him to dumb down a word, and the president said if people didn’t know what it was, they could look it up. It’s like Sorkin was saying, “I assume you have some intelligence to appreciate this show, and I’m going to use words that will either meet or exceed your intelligence.”
[/quote]
Cal: “Torpor” isn’t a word a lot of people know.
CJ: “It means apathy.”
Cal: “I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS! I’m saying other people don’t…”
POTUS: “THEN THEY CAN LOOK IT UP!”
And with all the bashing of the conservative characters on the show…NO LOVE FOR CLIFF CALLEY?!?!?!?!
[QUOTE=Ways and Means] DONNA: Why are you a Republican?
CLIFF CALLEY: Because I hate poor people. I hate them, Donna. They’re all so…poor. And many of them talk funny, and don’t have proper table manners. My father slaved away at the Fortune 500 company he inherited so I could go to Choate, Brown, and Harvard, and see that this country isn’t overrun by poor people and lesbians.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=jacquilynne]
…I loved that show. I even wrote my one and only ever fanfic about it, when ‘write a fanfic’ was the monthly assignment for my writer’s group. The 500 word assignment clocked in at 6500 or so words, just because it was so damned entertaining to write in that style.
[/QUOTE]
A favorite show of mine, too, despite some nitpicks. A brilliant ensemble cast, snappy dialogue, big issues, laughs and tears in equal measure. As for fanfic, I liked it so much I wrote an entire WW script. Sent it into the studio with a waiver of rights on top, but they didn’t bite. =Sigh= Not that I really expected them to, but I thought it was worth a try.
Didn’t Ainsley Hayes become White House Counsel to President Santos?
You’re more dedicated, or more confident than me. Mine probably wasn’t quite long enough to be a full script, plus I know zilch about screenwriting, so it probably wasn’t properly formatted or inclusive of enough non-dialogue things or really very good at all. But it was damned fun to write!
Didn’t Ainsley Hayes become White House Counsel to President Santos?
[/QUOTE]
She was looking for a job in the Santos Administration. In the last episode, there’s a scane with her and CJ, and Ainsley is trying to get CJ to get her a job. Ainsley, it was revealed in that episode, left the White House to go work for some conservative think-tank, but was very disillusioned with that work.
