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So it turns out it takes cancellation and the untimely death of one of their stars in order for the team of writers responsible for never being anywhere near as good as that one guy virtually on his own actually to raise their game and write a few decent episodes.
Yes. I've actually been enjoying The West Wing of late. For sure, it still looks like it was shot on a cold afternoon in Norway, but it's almost been possible to overlook that. And occasionally I also manage to forget that this election should be taking place next year. In fact, since it came back from Christmas hiatus following John Spencer's death, it's been totally gripping. And I'm not just talking about Josh and Donna.
Those two were always symptomatic of the loss in quality of this show. Clearly utterly devoted to one another, if unable or unwilling to admit it, the genius of their scenes together was in the unresolved sexual tension they injected into Aaron Sorkin's beautifully rhythmical banter. Not until his penultimate episode, Commencement, did Sorkin even come close to making explicit the dynamic between the two of them (and even then it was only an unanswered question Amy asked of Donna: "Are you in love with Josh?"). But it was all there from day one.
John Wells, on the other hand, clearly wasn't so into the whole suggestion thing. Following Donna's experience as collateral damage in the Season Five finalé explosion that killed Fitzwallace (a mindless aping of 18th and Potomac in terms of being a meaningless death to get Bartlet to a certain space, and not done as well), Josh spends a fraught couple of days in a German hospital trying to figure out what went on between Donna and the Evil British Photographer. Then, in Season Six, he quits, ostensibly to go and help Santos get elected but really so that he's no longer Donna's boss and they can fuck like minks. Now, as any self-respecting X-Files fan will tell you, it's not as good once they fuck. So they didn't: their attraction was just made lots more obvious, and consequently less delightful. But now, with cancellation looming, finally, on Sunday night, Josh and Donna went to bed.
Fair enough, I suppose. In the end it was handled pretty well. I like the idea that Josh is still totally unsure of how to handle a woman he just slept with, like we saw with Amy. I like the idea that Donna understands this - after all, if she doesn't, having worked with him for nine years at this point, who would? Looking at the wider picture I've enjoyed the Santos/Vinick rivalry, their debates, their intrigue (the briefcase scene in Two Weeks Out was great). I still don't understand what the hell Bruno is doing campaigning for the Republicans, and I understand even less how we're supposed to buy the idea of a man with hair like his being attractive to hot Yale graduates, but these are carps. It's been good. And when Annabeth went into Leo's hotel room at the end of this week's episode I, knowing what she was going to find, had something no Wells episode has given me before: a lump in the throat.
Yes. I've actually been enjoying The West Wing of late. For sure, it still looks like it was shot on a cold afternoon in Norway, but it's almost been possible to overlook that. And occasionally I also manage to forget that this election should be taking place next year. In fact, since it came back from Christmas hiatus following John Spencer's death, it's been totally gripping. And I'm not just talking about Josh and Donna.
Those two were always symptomatic of the loss in quality of this show. Clearly utterly devoted to one another, if unable or unwilling to admit it, the genius of their scenes together was in the unresolved sexual tension they injected into Aaron Sorkin's beautifully rhythmical banter. Not until his penultimate episode, Commencement, did Sorkin even come close to making explicit the dynamic between the two of them (and even then it was only an unanswered question Amy asked of Donna: "Are you in love with Josh?"). But it was all there from day one.
John Wells, on the other hand, clearly wasn't so into the whole suggestion thing. Following Donna's experience as collateral damage in the Season Five finalé explosion that killed Fitzwallace (a mindless aping of 18th and Potomac in terms of being a meaningless death to get Bartlet to a certain space, and not done as well), Josh spends a fraught couple of days in a German hospital trying to figure out what went on between Donna and the Evil British Photographer. Then, in Season Six, he quits, ostensibly to go and help Santos get elected but really so that he's no longer Donna's boss and they can fuck like minks. Now, as any self-respecting X-Files fan will tell you, it's not as good once they fuck. So they didn't: their attraction was just made lots more obvious, and consequently less delightful. But now, with cancellation looming, finally, on Sunday night, Josh and Donna went to bed.
Fair enough, I suppose. In the end it was handled pretty well. I like the idea that Josh is still totally unsure of how to handle a woman he just slept with, like we saw with Amy. I like the idea that Donna understands this - after all, if she doesn't, having worked with him for nine years at this point, who would? Looking at the wider picture I've enjoyed the Santos/Vinick rivalry, their debates, their intrigue (the briefcase scene in Two Weeks Out was great). I still don't understand what the hell Bruno is doing campaigning for the Republicans, and I understand even less how we're supposed to buy the idea of a man with hair like his being attractive to hot Yale graduates, but these are carps. It's been good. And when Annabeth went into Leo's hotel room at the end of this week's episode I, knowing what she was going to find, had something no Wells episode has given me before: a lump in the throat.
posted by Novus at 10:50
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