TWW Rewatch: This is a lot like DuPont Circle

[BizBuzz]

Ok, I think we have enough interest on at least getting some traction out of this ... but we need to discuss. 

 

Like we need to know when do you want to start?  How do you want to configure it?  Do you want season long threads, or individual threads? 

 

Let's get this set up!

 

ETA on 09.16.15:  Rewatch is officially closed.

[eyebleach]

Clearly many of us have watched the whole series repeatedly so it is very easy to discuss things that happen in episodes other than the one of topic.  What about splitting it up like it is in the Mad Men thread by seasons/episodes.

 

I can start whenever, I just got laid off so I have *ahem* a bit of time on my hands ;)
 

[Deputy Deputy CoS]

We can start with a season 1 thread and go from there. Individual episodes threads will be too scattered IMO. 

 

It'll be nice if Previously tweet about the rematch with a link when it is up.

 

I can start whenever, I just got laid off so I have *ahem* a bit of time on my hands ;)

 

So sorry to hear.  Good luck!

[BizBuzz]

I can start whenever, I just got laid off so I have *ahem* a bit of time on my hands ;)

 

Well that sucks, sorry.

 

I can ask about a subforum like Mad Men, but knowing how things work around here, I think I will be told that this is too old of a show ... but you never know.  Let me find out and get back to you.

[marriedaniac]

I have started watching the show properly for the second time from beginning after a long break. Some episodes I didn't see the first time around. But I'm hooked, more hooked than ever. Also, my mother started watching them with me, so now I've got her hooked too. She never really watched it in its initial run.

Finished season 3 tonight..

[theredhead77]

I just started my own rewatch but I'd love to watch and discuss. I wasn't really venturing into these corners of the internet when TWW aired the first time.

Edited January 9, 2015 by theredhead77

[Deputy Deputy CoS]

I have started watching the show properly for the second time from beginning after a long break. Some episodes I didn't see the first time around. But I'm hooked, more hooked than ever. Also, my mother started watching them with me, so now I've got her hooked too. She never really watched it in its initial run.

Finished season 3 tonight..

 

Send your mother our way. I'd love to hear first watcher's opinions too.

[Mom2twoNonna2-3]

I tried to quit TWW, but, I can't. Hi, I'm Mom2Two and I'm addicted to The West Wing.

 

eta: I have 2 kids, not one. Whoops.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Mom2twoNonna2one

[marriedaniac]

Send your mother our way. I'd love to hear first watcher's opinions too.

 

Indeed! Well, she had heard good things about the show when it was originally on, and in particular Allison Janney... but I got her hooked and she didn't *quite* expect it to be so well acted, well written, etc. She likes intellectual shows. :)

[aenea]

Send your mother our way. I'd love to hear first watcher's opinions too.

I'm mostly a first watcher- I'd watched Season 1 when it was first airing, and a few episodes in Season 2.  I think that was the time when I just stopped watching TV completely for quite a few years, and the West Wing got caught in that. 

 

I've been thinking about starting it up again for a while, mainly when my girl crush on Alison Janney bloomed again because of Masters of Sex.  I tried to watch Mom, but I'm not a sitcom person :-)  Then we got talking about the West Wing over New Years, and here I am- I just finished Manchester 2. 

 

Watching the first season again was a lot of fun, although I did like some characters less.  I'm more in love with CJ, Toby, Leo, Charlie, and Abby.  Still a fan of Josh and Jed, although not as much as I used to be (from what I remember).  It's a real pleasure to watch Rob Lowe, but I remember Sam being smarter, and not being as much comic relief as he seems to be this go round.  I'm incredibly glad that Mandy's gone- I didn't remember disliking her quite that much.  Donna is still nails on chalkboard to me, but I knew going back into it that she's the price I pay for everyone else :-)  

 

Season 2 for me was even better than Season 1- it just hit on every level.  I particularly liked The Stackhouse Filibuster- I've got autistic kids, and I was just cringing about how they were going to handle that.  And I loved the new cast additions- Ainsley, Tribbey, Oliver Babish.  I may have annoyed my family because I watched 40 some episodes in a week or so, so I'll be slowing down a bit now.  I am very much looking forward to the rest of Season 3. 

[BizBuzz]

My apologies for not setting this up earlier ... I was dealing with a medical emergency concerning my Mom (92) ... all is well for the moment, so will be officially setting up the rewatch today.

 

No subforums, and we will be doing this by season threads ... now the last question will be ... how many per week do you want to try?  I can watch a whole season in a week, but I have been watching TWW for years so I can leave it on in the background and know what's happening.  There seems to be some here that are coming back to it from a long hiatus, so what do you think a good rewatch number is?  2 a week, 3 a week?

 

Let me know and I will set this up today!  Let's get this party started!

[Mom2twoNonna2-3]

I will start over again myself once we decide. I'm in Season 3 already after swearing as a New Years resolution to hubby to take a break. 

[Bastet]

My vote shouldn't carry much weight, because the odds of me participating in an organized re-watch are slim (although I will chime in from memory), but one of the reasons I generally skip them is the schedule -- I know I'll never take the time to watch and comment on 2-3 episodes per week, so I don't even bother starting.  Especially for an hour-long drama, my vote is one episode per week.

[Deputy Deputy CoS]

My vote shouldn't carry much weight, because the odds of me participating in an organized re-watch are slim (although I will chime in from memory), but one of the reasons I generally skip them is the schedule -- I know I'll never take the time to watch and comment on 2-3 episodes per week, so I don't even bother starting.  Especially for an hour-long drama, my vote is one episode per week.

 

  I was going to say 5 for every day of the work week but I could do 1, or 2 or 3. 

 

I

[eyebleach]

Any number is fine for me  - I'm another who can just have them on in the background - I've seen them so often so set a schedule and I'll play!

[BizBuzz]

Ok ... we are starting the rewatch!  I set up an episode thread for season one here.  If you can think of a better subtitle than Stuck in Neutral, by all means, let me know and I will change it.

 

Let's do 3 episodes a week ... and we can officially start on Monday, January 19, 2015.  So by the 26th, the first 3 episodes are due:

 

1 Pilot

 

In the series premiere, the White House staff is being called into work in the early hours of the morning to the news that the President of the United States has crashed his bicycle into a tree, much to the enjoyment of the press. The staff must run damage control on this and a gaffe by Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman who, after provocation by Christian activist Mary Marsh on a televised debate, quips "Lady, the God you pray to is too busy being indicted for tax fraud." Also, Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn meets and spends an evening with Laurie (Lisa Edelstein), not knowing she is a call girl, and then accidentally tells White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry's daughter, Mallory O'Brien, about it.

 

2 Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

 

The Vice President refuses to fall in line with Bartlet; Sam discusses the problem of Laurie with Josh and Toby; the plane carrying President Bartlet's doctor, a naval officer, is shot down en route to Jordan; Bartlet hires Mandy as his consultant.

 

3 A Proportional Response

 

Still enraged at Morris's death, Bartlet makes a show of deadly force; C.J. is upset about being kept out of the loop about Laurie; Josh hires Charlie to be Bartlet's new personal assistant.

[Mom2twoNonna2-3]

My husband is going to kill me on this rewatch. My 4 year old grandson can now hum the theme music while it's playing.

[Diane]

So which ep should we be on now?

[DebbieW]

Now that I'm on my 4th or 5th rewatch, I find myself becoming very annoyed by some really insignificant details that I can now notice.  For example, I just finished the episode in the 2nd season where Josh and Sam almost start a fire in the mural room by trying to use the fireplace.  Turns out that the flue was welded shut back in the 1800's sometime.  But in the 1st season episode where Mendoza gets confirmed, there's a roaring fire going on in that very same fireplace while the staff celebrates.  I need a life.

[kassygreene]

Since the interior of the White House was gutted to the walls, ceiling, and sub-basements during the Truman Administration, there definitely wasn't a flue left in the building that had been sealed all that time.  Also, the fireplace was in the West Wing, not the residence, so it didn't exist that far back (IIRC, the plaque said it was sealed during the Van Buren administration).  It was aggravating to me the first time I watched it, especially when you realize it was entirely a set-up for Charlie telling a just-awakened President "Sir, you know you told me only to wake you up if the building was on fire?"  A typical level of Hollywood disdain for historical accuracy, but Sorkin generally implied he was better than that.

 

I'd say it was based on a real incident, but the incident I am remembering happened during the early Bush years, I think.  A new appointee decided to light up a fire in his cozy fireplace in the OEOB, never considering to check if it was a working fireplace.  The smoke came out in a different room, perhaps a different floor...  Fireplaces are like cursive writing, a dying art.  In those houses that have them, the flue pretty much goes straight to the roof, and after the first one or seven times you screw up checking it (3 times in my house), it becomes Pavlovian.  In multi-story buildings, especially the large ones, it can take a complicated path.  Checking that the flue is open over the fire doesn't really mean as much; you need to check with building maintenance, who should be able to tell you if it works.

Edited February 14, 2015 by kassygreene

[Crs97]

A little nitpick after watching In the Shadow of Two Gunmen again:  Josh knows Leo because he was a friend of Josh's father.  Why is it Jed, not Leo, offering to fly back with Josh?  Why doesn't Leo even look a little sad that his friend just died?

[SingleMaltBlonde]

A little nitpick after watching In the Shadow of Two Gunmen again:  Josh knows Leo because he was a friend of Josh's father.  Why is it Jed, not Leo, offering to fly back with Josh?  Why doesn't Leo even look a little sad that his friend just died?

 

He's in the middle of getting Jed elected....Jed offers (knowing it will be declined) to connect with his staff.  Josh's father also wouldn't want him to Josh got his love of politics somewhere.

 

Leo is the brain, Jed is the heart.

[PeterPirate]

A little nitpick after watching In the Shadow of Two Gunmen again:  Josh knows Leo because he was a friend of Josh's father.  Why is it Jed, not Leo, offering to fly back with Josh?  Why doesn't Leo even look a little sad that his friend just died?

 

He's in the middle of getting Jed elected....Jed offers (knowing it will be declined) to connect with his staff.  Josh's father also wouldn't want him to Josh got his love of politics somewhere.

 

Leo is the brain, Jed is the heart.

 

This is true.  In the commentary for this scene, misters Sorkin and Schlamme talk about how Jed became Josh's father at that point.  

 

I actually popped in the DVD for ITSOTG and turned on the commentary track to make sure I was accurate about this.  Just like old times.  

Edited June 7, 2015 by PeterPirate

[HyacinthBucket]

I wish I'd watched this show "live" when the old TWoP forum was around.  I would have loved reading and participating in the weekly discussions.  I appreciate all of you who have added comments to this forum, and I'm looking forward to participating on the rewatch threads.  I just started this series on Netflix a week or two ago and absolutely love it.  I'm only beginning Season 3, and while half of me can't wait to tear into a new episode as soon as the previous one is finished, the other half wants to savor them. 

[BizBuzz]

Looks like the official re-watch was a bit of a bust.  ::giggle::

 

I am going to un-stick this thread and add threads for each season.  Watch and comment as you see fit!