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BartlettNet - The West Wing Appreciation Society - May Contain Spoilers!

442 replies

CaveMum · 19/05/2011 13:28

A thread for the discussion of West Wing - the best tv show ever made!

If you haven't seen all 7 Seasons be aware that this thread may contain spoilers!

OP posts:
Paschaelina · 21/05/2011 10:31

Does anyone else start humming the theme tune to Mash when Alan Alda appears, or LA Law when Jimmy Smits turns up?

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CaveMum · 21/05/2011 16:43

Just seen another favourite scene:

The President has just got onboard Airforce One, he turns to Toby and Josh while picking up a phone and says "Do you want to see how much power I have?" He speaks into the phone and says "Colonel this is the President. I'm ready to go."
He hangs up the phone and the jet engines start to roar.

Very cool!

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beachholiday · 21/05/2011 18:30

Thanks Tribpot. It may not differ much then. It would have been a fairly depressing way to go out, with Leo's death, Santos losing, Toby's life still such a mess and presumably Sam not returning.

Sorkin said that if he had been writing for season 5, he was going to resolve the kidnapping very differently, and that Sam would have returned at that point - so Rob Lowe would not have been involved in Brothers and Sisters I guess. I did find the way the kidnapping was resolved very messy, and unfinished, but I appreciate it would have been hard for any writer to continue someone else's plot.

Hassled · 21/05/2011 21:16

Last night we watched the Chief Justice/Joe Quincey episode, followed by the walk to the Hill - brilliant stuff. Haffley is just so obnoxious. Matthew Perry very good too.

Lorelai · 22/05/2011 08:36

Yeah, it makes you realise that Matthew Perry is such a good actor - so much more than just 'Chandler' - shame he hasn't really had a good breakthrough role. Studio 60 could have been that for him if it hadn't been cancelled - has anyone else watched this? I loooooove it.

twoislookingonthebrightside · 22/05/2011 08:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OhmeoOhmyo · 22/05/2011 09:09

I've started watching Season 1 again. Love the start of the CJ/Danny sparkle.

And Stockard Channing - wow, she's great. Great chemistry with Martin Sheen. "You've got a big brain and a good heart and an ego the size of Montana."

I know some say the show only got into its stride in Season 2 but I think that it was brilliant from the start.
Only thing that jars is Mandy. She was the "outsider" as a consultant but even so, meh.

Sam to the children when Mallory's class visits: "It's not the DNC but your tax dollars that pay my salary."

Sam to Toby writing the toast for the State Dinner for the Indonesian president: "You can't invite people to dinner and then tell them what they're doing wrong with their lives."
Toby: "Yes you can, otherwise it's just a waste of food."

CJ before the State Dinner answering at great length the details of what the 'First Ladies' will be wearing, then looking over her glasses and asking, "Anyone got a question about the nuclear test ban treaty?"

tribpot · 22/05/2011 12:41

beach - I wonder how Sorkin would have resolved the kidnapping. The explanation of how they found her made no sense (even with the subtitles on) and then there appeared to be no prosecution (or indeed investigation) of anyone, even though I don't think all the kidnappers were dead?

OhmeoOhmyo · 22/05/2011 13:43

I wondered about the alternative resolution to the kidnapping as well.
They shot the men in the house - so I think all the kidnappers were dead but there was never any hint of who else might have been involved. 65 ambulances and 140 police cars there though.

When they found her the FBI (?) man said something like, "...there was a DV report from a woman who dialled 911, got lost in the woods...." but how that all made sense, dunno.

Never knew they may have been an alternative ending, or that Sam (wee gasp) may have come back earlier.

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CaveMum · 22/05/2011 15:41

OhmeoOhmyo I think the DV report meant that Zoey had been found by accident- a woman got lost in the woods and heard Zoey screaming/shouting. She thought it was a DV incident so called the police who realised what was actually going on and called the FBI.

I agree it was a very hurried resolution.

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changeforthebetter · 22/05/2011 18:03

Damn you lot! I have just cracked open season 1 .... again Blush. Though I have a longstanding crush on Matt Santos, I adore the whole thing and love seasons 1-3 (except Mandy and Amy - the world's worst feminist? Hmm) It's all your fault if my kids live on sos and fish fingers for the next 2 weeks while I WW instead of meal-plan Grin

changeforthebetter · 22/05/2011 18:03

Ok inability to use strikethrough correctly is apparently now on my list of non-attributes Blush

BananaGio · 22/05/2011 19:23

can someone resolve something for me. Despite watching WW time after time I still dont know if we ever find out what happened to the fleet of ships caught in the hurricane at the end of The State Dinner??

Bumperlicioso · 22/05/2011 19:35

I think we are to assume it wasn't good. Bartlett was talking to the guy because basically they were sailing to their death, on his orders iirc?

beachholiday · 22/05/2011 19:43

I'm glad it wasnt just me who couldnt make much sense out of the whole kidnapping ending. Ive also tried repeated watching and it doesnt help.

Sorkin said she would have been found at the "back of a muffler shop" tribpot, but that he had it planned to play out totally differently than it did. Sam coming back at that point wouldve been great - but would have deprived us of that great moment when he is pulled out of another meeting at the end of the series. Also loved Sam showing Josh exactly what an ass he was being at that point and dispatching him on holiday.

beachholiday · 22/05/2011 19:47

Banana, Bartlett tells us it was lost in 2 Cathedrals - he tells God there is a tropical storm coming, the worst since "you took out that tender ship of mine" last year, with 68 lives lost. Something like that. It is shortly before he calls him a Feckless Thug...Martin Sheen is awesome in that scene. I read he was qite anxious doing it, as he is a staunch Catholic, but perhaps that makes him give an even better performance IYSWIM. Great episode.

tribpot · 22/05/2011 20:29

I just rewatched the end-of-kidnap scene. The FBI guy says:

"Virginia state trooper responded to a domestic disturbance call. A couple got drunk, he let her out by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere ? so she dialled 911 on her cell. Trooper couldn't find her, she'd wandered off somewhere to get out of the rain. Guy checked an old barn across from where she said she'd be."

... and then no explanation as to what some old barn has to do with the house where she is found Ho hum.

beachholiday · 22/05/2011 20:36

Thats quite a letdown after all the great scenes around the kidnapping - the stand-in president, the vigil scene etc. I appreciate they needed to find Zoe alive or the President may never have returned, and they didnt want to take the kidnapping in the direction of a terrorist plot but that's really rather weak. The WW was usually so consistent.

They should perhaps have gotten Sorkin to tell them how that story ended before he left!

tribpot · 22/05/2011 20:59

Or not allowed him to leave in the first place!

The speech Bartlet gives at the end of the ep is unbearably weak compared to what it would have been if Sorkin had been writing as well.

Still, on the plus side, at least it meant we never had to see that tosser Jean-Paul again!

Grandhighpoohba · 22/05/2011 21:00

What annoys me is that Sam's departure was never properly explained. He resigns as a temporary thing, assuming that he will come back when he loses, and when they give Will his job, they say that they will promote Sam. Then you see Sam just before the election, where Toby tells him he is going to lose, and then, bamm, he disappears, never to be mentioned again until series 7.

Like the incredible disappearing Mandy. And they do the same thing with Joe Quincy.

tribpot · 22/05/2011 22:02

I quite like them not trying to explain where everyone has gone, it keeps things a bit more fluid. I'm sure Sam does get one mention in between, I think when Josh is having that budget crisis? But I take what you mean.

In terms of the kidnapping, it was a terrorist plot, wasn't it? They demanded POTUS admit to the killing of Sharrif.

BananaGio · 23/05/2011 06:11

thanks re boat explanation. I thought that might have been what Bartlett referred to in 2 Cathedrals but then watching The State Dinner again it said there was a fleet of ships with 1000's of men so I wondered what happened to the rest of them. I'm thinking about this too much arent I....
Agree re kidnapping. Thought the kidnapping scenes were fantastically done and the end of it a bit meh.

tribpot · 23/05/2011 07:32

Banana, I think most of the other ships were much bigger and able to withstand the hurricane. Aircraft carriers and the like.

OhmeoOhmyo · 23/05/2011 07:48

Thanks tribpot.
That scene in Two Cathedrals is so powerful. Can't imagine the WW with Martin Sheen as a peripheral character, great though Sam is.

Rob Lowe wanted to leave though, didn't he? So he was never going to return earlier. Clunky though, that he went back to a law firm after "serving at the pleasure of the president" and being part of that amazing team.

One of the pleasures of DVDs is that sometimes, when you're familiar with a storyline, you can focus more on the acting or dialogue. Other times I'm still working out the storyline.

Which brings me back to my question about Amy - sorry that I posted on the other thread without thinking of it being a spoiler.
Why does she lose her job as a result of Josh's strategy re that Bill and the Marriage Incentives?

MmeLindor. · 23/05/2011 07:52

Marking place to come back later.

I used a CJ clip on my blog last week and decided that I have to go and watch some WW again.