Well, I looked last night and didn’t see one. Now I paid my subscription and feel obligated to post something so I guess this will work.
I thought it was… interesting. I enjoy the show normally much more but I like the idea of a different view. It’s not like it’s an original way to shoot an episode. I know that MASH did it and probably some shows before that.
I wondered if a real documentary crew would ever be allowed to get that close to some of the meetings. Whether they’d be allowed to see some of the things that really go on in the WH.
I liked it in the sense that it focused on C.J.
However, a documentary crew isn’t going to be allowed to see an FBI agent apologizing to the Press Secretary. I’m surprised that any parts of the conversations with the FBI director were filmed.
It was a nice touch to have Will Lyman, who narrates all those Frontline specials, do the narration for this one.
I watched it last night (first time in a while) and the first thing that I thought (aside from the lighting was that weird washed out shot direct on video look) was “hey, this isn’t bad”. I liked the focus on CJ and the different perspective. And I liked Ricky from the Wonder Years as the Gay Assistant to the Press Secretary. But the story line still seemed forced and the ending contrived. I liked the film of the young CJ and Cedar Point or wherever that was, but didn’t think she was believable as the inept new Press Secretary. If she’d done that badly early on she’d have been fired, at least in a normal administration. I assume that was created for this episode and is not continuity from an earlier show.
On The West Wing it takes a lot for a staffer to get fired. Either that or President Bartlet engenders a lot of loyalty. Nobody seems to get bored or makes a horffic blunder, except for the former VP.
The absence of Moira Kelly’s character was never explained and at least Rob Lowe got a nice sendoff.
Fire C.J.? You don’t seem to realize what this episode implied.
Since the episode claimed to be airing after the end of the Bartlet presidency, and since they said that C.J. was the first press secretary to serve two terms, that means…
C. J. will never be fired! Or quit! Or die! Even if she dies in real life!
Somehow I feel this news is less than gobsmacking. Ain’t no way the series will last three more years in any case.
Yes, My So Called Life and not The Wonder Years. I’ve never even watched an episode of the The Wonder Years so I wonder how I managed to confuse the two shows. Must be old age.
I wasn’t saying that CJ would get fired for this episode, just that she would have been fired for her inept handling of the Casey(?) Creek, KY incident referred to in the press footage. I know that folks take a while to get their footing in new jobs, but that was bungling of an unexpected order. One gaffe could be overlooked, but a press secretary that just loses her composure would be totally unacceptable, regardless of how loyal or nice Bartlet is supposed to be.
I missed the first couple of minutes so the detail about this airing after the Bartlet era had ended, etc., was not something of which I was aware.
Eh. I thought it was just OK. Call me a cynic, but it seemed remarkably similar to last season’s wasted episode where CJ went home for her high school reunion and dealt with her dad’s creeping Alzheimer’s. Every year there seems to be a “let’s do one for Alison’s Emmy nomination” episode, and Wednesday night was this year’s.
It’s ironic that you’re a quasi-Techie, since you definitely are a dawg! I’m guessing you’ve even got great seats. Good luck, I’ll have to cheer for your team since X is out.
I liked it, but I would have liked it better if Casey Creek had actually been an earlier episode. It’s like suddenly giving someone a best friend only to have them die in a car accident so you can have a show about the death.
Wasn’t there something where CJ offered to resign shortly before Bartlet’s campaign for a second term? Surely that could have been used as the “credibility issue?”
Anyone else feel cheated by this episode? I thought it was implied, by lingering on a shot of CJ’s messy desk at the beginning as the v.o. was intoning something about “this footage was withheld for two {?} years by the White House” that they had happened upon some info that the White House needed to be kept from the public while the Bartlet Admin was still in office.
Yeah, when asked about some current crisis in the midst of the MS scandal, she said something like, “If anything, The President is relieved to have something of substance to deal with.” Which of course caused great problems.
There may be some reluctance to take clips from Sorkin shows for the new ones.
In any case, the Casey Creek story was clearly meant to be set up in parallel with the current one, to create dramatic tension by contrasting the tragic ending of the first ending with the successful ending of the current one.
Minor quibble regarding the standoff on Shaw Island in Washington’s San Juan Islands. They got most of it right. You can only get there by ferry, and they seemed to find a relatively close approximation for filming the news channel scenes. But when the news channel shows an outline of Shaw Island on a graphic, that ain’t Shaw.
It’s on a par with the fictional island that the publishers of “Snow Falling on Cedars” plopped into the middle of the San Juans. They had the scale of the islands all f’d up.
Eh. I kind of enjoyed the change of pace this episode represented, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I do most WW episodes. I’m wondering if they’ll do similar eps on other characters in coming months? Josh would be interesting, as would Toby.
One thing I noticed when CJ was watching the News of the standoff on TV. The TV (I think) said something to the effect of “Video from W*** TV”
Now, I know that most (probably all) TV stations west of the Miss have call letters that start with K. Did I catch something, or was it just showing the call letters of a fictional D.C. news station.
As I recall, there was an implication that the FBI Director is a publicity hound, was aware that CJ was being followed around by the documentary crew, and in fact was pleased to have the cameras on him.
Not a bad episode by this season’s standards, but its getting to the point that I’m watching mostly w a fleeting hope that we’ll get to see Donna walking around in a push-up bra, thigh-highs and four inch f-me pumps. But I’m not holding my breath :mad:
