[The West Wing] 1.05 "The Crackpots and These Women"

[hermionesviolin]

When we first started watching the series, Mary Alice said that she had wanted to start with the pilot (duh) but that the show doesn't get REALLY good until episode 5. Seeing the title of course had me again thinking of "Daughters of Jerusalem (Canticle for These Women)."

The actual episode? ::shrug:: I really think that "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" / "A Proportional Response" is/are the strongest so far.

The basketball opening reminded me of the opening of "Bushwhacked" (Firefly) which was happifying.

I find it interesting that Leo who is often such a jackass is the one doing the Andrew Jackson thing.

They are so dismissive to people. This feels unrealistic. I mean, even if you're a crackpot, you can probably garner a number of people who will be pissed that the Presidential staff totally blew you off.

CJ got sold on the wildlife thing? I have difficulty believing this. I heart her vending machine statistic, though, and am curious as to whether it's actually a f'real stat. (tv.com actually doesn't help me out.)

When CJ's turning to the door and says to Josh, "You're very sweet sometimes," Eric said, "Ew. Sexual tension I wasn't expecting." I got as far as mentioning that my friend Ari really liked the banter relationship between them [see here] and did later say "That's why you're Josh" (in reaction to him calling Josh obnoxious about something). But yeah, I was totally feeling the "omg, that's me and Eric." (Though damned if Eric gets to be in the nuclear bunker and I don't :) )

Wow, Josh's survivor guilt.

Yes, the speechifying at the end just feels too much. (I thought Bartlet's conversation with Toby¹ -- as well as Josh's speech about his friends, of course² -- was much more moving.)

¹ "thank God... I couldn't live without you Toby. I mean it. "

² "I want to be a comfort to my friends in tragedy. And I want to be able to celebrate with them in triumph. And for all the times in between, I just want to be able to look them in the eye. Leo, it's not for me. I want to be with my friends, my family, and these women."

[cites from westwingtranscripts.com]

Toby: It’s “Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could Care Less About... Day”
Er, that should be "Couldn't Care Less." I would think Toby would know that.

Comments

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I definitely do not have a clear articulation of how much of a descriptivist/prescriptivist I am.

Me either, I must admit. I keep correcting my brother on the who/whom thing, and he's bristling, and I can't quite defend myself, but damn it, I like the word "whom" and I don't want to see it die!

Although part of me fully recognizes that I sound like a pompous ass whenever I use "whom" in spoken speech when the rest of the world uses "who," and just doesn't care.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I try to use "whom" when appropriate but probably misuse "who" more often than not -- in large part because I was never really taught how to use it, so I'm just doing the mental trick of replacing it with "him/them," which is not always an easy way to figure out which should be used.