for the third week in a row? What is going on here? I mean, Buffy has been good and all, but not to the neglect of the West Wing.
C’mon, we have Rob Lowe’s departure around the corner, the Prez winning the primary (ok, not a surprise, really), and all kinds of political posturing going on.
Thoughts? Comments? Anything at all?
Best line of the night I thought was Donna’s line to Josh about term limits. The look on Josh’s face as he tried to come up with a witty come back was great.
Oh dear, I missed it last night. 
Can you tell me what Donna’s groovy line was?
My favorite episodes are with Hoynes. I liked his line to Josh about “You’d have been good at Leo’s job”
Um, the president didn’t win the primary, he won the whole ball of wax.
:smack:
Yeah, I guess I knew that, what with the debate and all a few weeks ago.
I found last night’s ep frustrating - thought the overly rapid and mumbled dialogue was worse than usual.
Played back Toby’s Secretary’s remark about her job not being Senate confirmable, and never could get it.
Didn’t bother to try to follow the check bouncing story that came flying out of nowhere.
Didn’t quite follow the final interchange between Prez and Leo, where Leo sort of called the pres to task for politicking.
I thought this one had a little too much thrown together. Probably a lot of elements that will be important in future story lines.
And Jane, the whole ball of wax is not to be confused with the big ball of cheese. Which I can’t wait for this season.
Dinsdale, the Senate-confirmable comment was because Toby was looking for a non-confirmable position to put the woman into (can’t remember her name), because the DNR position became Senate confirmable. Because of her bad rep. with the Senate, there would be no way that she would get it. Toby’s secretary made that comment in jest, basically saying “She can have my job.”
Oh, andfriedo Donna was making her case to get Josh to help her out with some dead beats who had bounced a check and Josh gave her some flip, Josh-like remark and Donna looked at him and said “You are why there are term limits” and Josh started with “You are why there are…nothing, just nothing” It was the only line in the ep where I laughed out loud.
Dinsdale we close caption when we WW. It helps. Even CC misses some stuff, but they get much more that ya get just by listening.
And Munch did they do a big block of cheese episode last year? Isn’t about Nov/Dec that the cheese episode is?
Munch thanks. I got the gist of it, anwhich was confirmed later when Leo used the same joke. But it bothered me that I rewound the damn tape 3 times and still couldn’t make out her exact words.
Jane - generally I don’t miss too much - if anything. That is why I noticed last night’s ep as especially lacking in that category. The fast talk is distinct from the mumble. Usually I can follow the fast talk by listening closely, but when it comes out of nowhere like that business with the checks?
Anyone else think poor casting for the minority leader? I kept waiting for him to start talking to a Bobcat Goldthwaite-voiced bunny. Or for Nikki Cox to show up. Rowr!
Several times on the show people tried to be loyal to people who helped them; Toby to the ex-Senator, Sam to his promise, and Bartlett to Hoines.
Sam is accepting his choice now, but the others are still facing the realities of their promises. Toby is off the hook because the ex-Senator is willing to accept it as what happens in politics, you fight the good fight. Bartlett feels like he owes Hoines because Hoines was a good Bartlett loyalist, sucked it up, and did what was right for the ticket. But Leo and Josh are bringing him back to reality and showing that being loyal to people will screw you up in politics, and there will be hell to pay for calling all those caucus leaders. Either he’ll piss of the Minority Leader or Hoines, neither of which is gonna be good for the President. Kind of echoed in the Dr storyline, you are loyal to the patient in front of you, everything else be damned.
The bounced check was bizarre, not tied into anything else in the episode. The note from Leo’s sec’ty was great, especially how the president and him must keep a running joke of her dry notes. And I hope Will Bailey ends up as his campaign manager.
What dd the note say, again? I also miss details on that show. Plus I was flipping over occasionally to the Victoria Secrets infomercial.
What was the controversy over the phone calls and Hoines, or Hoynes? I missed the first half hour but love scenes with the VP.
Will Bailey isn’t going to be a campaign manager. They’ve been grooming his character to take Sam’s spot from day one.
I hadn’t even thought of Will Bailey and his gal Friday moving to the West Wing. You’re right, that’s exactly what it feels like!
The note was something like “They’re rioting in the streets in Tehran” but even dryer. Just one line, very droll.
Bartlett called the caucus leaders in NH and Iowa to thank them and while not saying it outright, asked them to stay committed to Hoines for his run for Pres in 2006. This is going to cause all sorts of problems in Congress because lots of other Dems want to run for Pres in 2006 and they will have a much harder time if the Dem machine is locked up behind Hoines. Bartlett did it out of loyalty to his VP who hid his ambitions because it wasn’t his time. Now the Prez feels obligated to support him, even though it might cost him legislatively. Josh and Leo think the Pres screwed up, he let loyalty take precedence over practicality. Same as with Toby and the ex-Senator.
After the past two episodes of breakneck plot developments, this week’s ep felt like it was just stalled out completely. I mean… nothing happened. Not really. No real plot development, no character advancement, and not too much of general interest going on. I’m betting next week’s will have a lot more happening.
Did Josh think that Hoines made the call? What were they talking about Hawaii and White water rafting for? Did they just assume that it was Hoines and then realize that it was Bartlet who made them?
Telemark, I think Oblong is right. Josh thought that Hoynes had made the calls, and that’s why he approached him. It was too bad, because it seemed that Josh did it out of good faith, and not as the president’s whipping boy (which is how Hoynes viewed it). The odd thing is that Hoynes didn’t deny making the calls when it was actually Bartlet.
Looks like iMDB.com has it spelled “Hoynes”.
After the mundane opening sequence, I watched the opening credits and noted that Aaron Sorkin didn’t have a hand in the story or script. Is this usual? I thought Aaron usually participated to some degree.
I thought what I watched was fairly substandard…before I fell asleep.
:smack: I totally missed that. But I hope so. I love Josh Malina.
I’m going to miss Sam - I thought he wasn’t leaving until February sweeps, not this early.
I have a strange question. I thought the prez’s first name was Jedediah. Yet, at the press conference at the beginning in the show, the ribbon on the screen was saying Josiah. What gives ?