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The West Wing Season Six: Lame Duck


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Even Leo had considerable reservations when Josh told him Vinick going for the Presidential nomination. It's not often I see Leo become overly concerned about anything, but the following conversation really hit home

Quote

Josh - "Russell or Hoynes gets our nomination. Who gets the Republican nomination?" 
Leo - "It's wide open. Probably why Vinick figures he has a shot. Ever see Arnie Vinick campaign up close? He'll go into those high school gymnasiums in Iowa and New Hampshire and blow them all away; and sound smarter and more honest than any Republican they've ever seen. Because he is!" 
Josh - "Republican who wins California wipes us out in the Electorial College.... He's not getting the nomination." 
Leo - "If he does, we've got no one who can beat him." 

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Ok, also? I know I'm supposed to find it romantic that Josh stays in Germany with Donna while everything is going wrong, but I'm just annnoyed. Do your job. She has parents; she has family. Yes, you're pining for each other or some nonsense, but time and place!

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My heart just can't handle knowing Leo's CoS days ended the way they did- shut out, ignored, etc.

And watching him act a heart attack is just painful. :(

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I hate early S6 Jed, and he's usually my second favorite character after CJ. I do think Jed was acting in character, though. S5's going-nowhere doldrums of the administration just losing and moping actually sets up S6 pretty well. I could see how Jed was hungry for a legacy that would make all of his personal sacrifices worthwhile and he was hell bent on doing it all over American envoys', Israelis, and ultimately Leo's bodies. It was also set up that Josh was getting tired of his job and looking for his next chapter in life. 

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It's interesting that I do think he was acting in character, and I typically love his character, and I still hated his actions. I think he was a great character, but at times he was a bit (or a lot) pompous. At times, it made him a good leader; other times, it was frustrating and hard to watch.

This is the latter.

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Impact Winter is a really great episode. So, so well done. I love that Josh knows to call Leo in a crisis and Leo immediately jumps in to help. The Jed plot makes me really sad, but it is also well done.

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Watching this season a second time, I like Will Bailey a lot less.  Like, I want to redo the character elimination game just to vote against him at times.  The only time this season I've liked him (I'm on King Corn) is when he talked to Leo about how the reason he supports the VP is Jed and Leo must have seen something special in him worth supporting. 

I absolutely love Annabeth.  She's a highlight of the season for me.  

Abby continues to grate.  I get that she is concerned about Jed's health, but the reality is, CJ is not his keeper. When there is an international crisis that requires the president's involvement, he needs to be involved and if he can't, to step aside.

I was really disappointed that they didn't show Jed and Josh's conversation when Josh resigned.  It would have been a nice moment. I think at times, the show has relied on this "trick" so to speak where instead of writing an emotionally charged scene, showing us parts of the scene while panning away and playing music.  

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2 hours ago, deaja said:

Watching this season a second time, I like Will Bailey a lot less.  Like, I want to redo the character elimination game just to vote against him at times.  The only time this season I've liked him (I'm on King Corn) is when he talked to Leo about how the reason he supports the VP is Jed and Leo must have seen something special in him worth supporting. 

I absolutely love Annabeth.  She's a highlight of the season for me.  

Abby continues to grate.  I get that she is concerned about Jed's health, but the reality is, CJ is not his keeper. When there is an international crisis that requires the president's involvement, he needs to be involved and if he can't, to step aside.

I was really disappointed that they didn't show Jed and Josh's conversation when Josh resigned.  It would have been a nice moment. I think at times, the show has relied on this "trick" so to speak where instead of writing an emotionally charged scene, showing us parts of the scene while panning away and playing music.  

I was a little miffed about that particular scene too, but then again they did something very similar when Leo ran into the Oval Office to inform Jed of Mrs Landingham's RTA and subsequent death. Instead, it was spoken about behind closed doors before fading to black. Which for me was a kicker because I too wanted to share the "grief" with Jed and Leo.

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Just now, Only Zola said:

I was a little miffed about that particular scene too, but then again they did something very similar when Leo ran into the Oval Office to inform Jed of Mrs Landingham's RTA and subsequent death. Instead, it was spoken about behind closed doors before fading to black. Which for me was a kicker because I too wanted to share the "grief" with Jed and Leo.

They also did it when Zoe was kidnapped. That's why I feel they use it as a "trick" to avoid writing a tricky scene.  

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2 hours ago, deaja said:

They also did it when Zoe was kidnapped. That's why I feel they use it as a "trick" to avoid writing a tricky scene.  

And I think they did it when CJ was told about Simon Donovan (the Secret Service agent she was assigned--& fell in love with, in spite of herself--after receiving a death threat because she spoke out for women's rights in Qumar/the Middle East after reading the Press Corps a news item about a number of female factory workers in Qumar/the Middle East who were allowed to burn to death because they somehow were deemed to be inappropriately dressed to be seen in public). I remember there was a fairly long montage of CJ being told Simon had been killed (he stumbled into a robbery at a NYC bodega while trying to buy a Milky Way candy bar when CJ was with POTUS, & under the protection of his agents at a Broadway show; Simon caught 1 perp but was ambushed by another hiding in the back of the store), followed by CJ kinda wandering aimlessly around NYC to Jeff Buckley's song Hallelujah.

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5 hours ago, deaja said:

Watching this season a second time, I like Will Bailey a lot less.  Like, I want to redo the character elimination game just to vote against him at times.  The only time this season I've liked him (I'm on King Corn) is when he talked to Leo about how the reason he supports the VP is Jed and Leo must have seen something special in him worth supporting. 

I absolutely love Annabeth.  She's a highlight of the season for me.  

Abby continues to grate.  I get that she is concerned about Jed's health, but the reality is, CJ is not his keeper. When there is an international crisis that requires the president's involvement, he needs to be involved and if he can't, to step aside.

I was really disappointed that they didn't show Jed and Josh's conversation when Josh resigned.  It would have been a nice moment. I think at times, the show has relied on this "trick" so to speak where instead of writing an emotionally charged scene, showing us parts of the scene while panning away and playing music.  

I also love Annabeth. Kristen Chenowith is a national treasure. 

Abbey was wrong in The Wake Up Call. But I dunno, I can't say that she grates for it. It's a really understandable emotional flaw in a wife/doctor. CJ was completely right to stand up for herself and call Abbey out and the ep presents this. Honestly, this is all mostly Jed's fault. MS doesn't impair Jed's ability to make responsible choices about his health. He should willingly be unbelievably careful about taking care of himself since the country put its trust in him to manage his health so it doesn't affect his faculties in crises. 

Lol, I think Will was disingenuous in that scene even though it's a good argument that Jed/Leo vouched for and really made Bingo Bob. Right up until Bingo Bob offered Will a COS stature, he was right with Toby writing an insult-laden speech to announce his nomination as VP. I think Will is funny and interesting but I regard him as corrupted by power. I think there's a true moral stain to working for incompetent or terrible or corrupt politicians. In private enterprise, I'm far more forgiving of "everybody's gotta make a living somehow" to a point. On manipulating the public to put their civic trust to elevate an asshole to tremendous power, I'm not forgiving. On that level, I think Will and Donna are both corrupt. Even if they didn't count on a Santos, Hoynes, to a start, was a perfectly ok politician to work for. They were both whores for power even though they were knowingly elevating a petty, provincial, opportunist, mental m***** to the Presidency. Will was more palatable to me because he was more punished by the show. 

Edited by Melancholy
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I really loved this season. Let's just say the campaign stuff is a familiar world for me, without giving away too much, and so seeing all that spoke to me, including seeing them in Council Bluffs. I've been there and I loved it.

Annabeth is SO cute and adorable, OMG I love her.

Bobby Simone is alive and running for President! LOL.

And I like imagining Jill Taylor from Home Improvement getting the chance to work on a presidential campaign.  :)

Only one season left! I promise I'll be more active here once I'm finally done!

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Glad you loved the campaign stuff just as much as me. I completely immersed myself in any of those episodes in seasons 6&7 that involved the Democratic & Presidential campaigns, probably because I love politics generally, and American politics in particular as I am quite curious how things work getting people elected over your side of the Pond. 

I must admit and say I have never watched "Home Improvement", but I do adore Patricia Richardson as Sheila Brooks, Vinick's campaign adviser. Such a pleasant level headed person compared to the hot-headed Josh's and Bruno's of this world. 

I think you'll be in for a big treat with S7 :)

Edited by Zola
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On 7/9/2017 at 7:37 PM, deaja said:

My heart just can't handle knowing Leo's CoS days ended the way they did- shut out, ignored, etc.

And watching him act a heart attack is just painful. :(

I think they set up that divide very well toward the end of S5, and the heart attack foreshadowing was strong. Those eps are some of the best acting done on the show by John Spencer, IMHO.

For the record, I enjoyed the Josh/Donna scenes in Germany and the openness on Josh's face - acting without speaking is some of the best work this cast does. But I don't think I'd be friends with Josh -or- Donna in reality. I'm perfectly happy to root on their ship, though. And I miss Danny Concannon.

This is my first ever show watch...and I'm about to start A Change is Gonna Come.

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5 hours ago, TheGourmez said:

I think they set up that divide very well toward the end of S5, and the heart attack foreshadowing was strong. Those eps are some of the best acting done on the show by John Spencer, IMHO.

For the record, I enjoyed the Josh/Donna scenes in Germany and the openness on Josh's face - acting without speaking is some of the best work this cast does. But I don't think I'd be friends with Josh -or- Donna in reality. I'm perfectly happy to root on their ship, though. And I miss Danny Concannon.

This is my first ever show watch...and I'm about to start A Change is Gonna Come.

Glad you're enjoying the show.

The Josh/Donna story-arc in Germany, could have been done a little better, especially if done without the Irish photo-journalist muddying the waters and turning the show into a "ER"-like soap. But there were times when Josh showed us a more sincere side to his chameleon-like personality, which was quite touching for the most part. But the writing wasn't very good and that particular storyline felt rather detached from TWW as a whole. 

At least you're over the big bumpy ride that was the much maligned season 5. Enjoy the rest of the journey :)  

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