West Wing Elimination Game

[Bastet]

Life on Mars - I don't like the way they wrote Hoynes out, and, in my continuing dislike for the Andi being pregnant with twins storyline, I don't like Toby reduced to eating a salad he hates because that somehow will persuade his ex-wife to remarry him

[Kohola3]

3

[Guest]

College Kids is gone.

Please vote against 1!  (Also, please rank the remaining episodes in case we need to break a tie.)

4. The Red Mass

6. Game On

20.  Evidence of Things Not Seen

21.  Life on Mars

22.  Commencement

23.  Twenty Five

[Guest]

Life on Mars - I don't like the way they write Hoynes out and the episode feels so slow.

1) Game On - I love his feisty debate performance

2) Twenty Five - absolutely gripping hour of television.  It's rare that a show with a predictable ending manages to capture this level of tension, but West Wing does for me - over and over. This episode is a great example.  I also love Toby in this episode. His realization that the President needs to step aside, his dash to the WH to let them know, finding this was already set in motion.  It's so great.

3) Evidence of Things Not Seen - I love this episode a lot. The interview stuff drags it down a little, but I love the poker game. My favorite scene is Charlie bursting into the Oval Office right after Jed predicted it.

4) Commencement - the ending gets exciting, but there is a lot of slow build-up to it. The Amy/Donna stuff is irritating to me.  

5) The Red Mass - I really like this episode, but not as much as the others left in the game.

[AriAu]

Bye bye Life on Mars, altho Chanandler Bong does a nice bit of acting.

Twenty Five is one of the best episodes of all time, but Game On is a personal favorite for its quirkiness and the fact that I quote it just about the most of any episode. "Can we have it back please" ...... "I think it does matter who you vote for...." "I can't watch this anymore...no, wait, I can, I can".... "Excuse me, but I have a meeting with Godless infidels in the next room". Why don't they make Schwepps Bitter Lemon any more....I am asking for my friend Albie Duncan.

Ranking is 

1. Twenty Five

2. Game On

3. Commencement

4 Red Mass

5. Evidence of Things Not Seen 

[Zola]

Voting out: Mars

 

1. Twenty Five
2. Commencement
3. Game On
4. Evidence
5. Red Mass

(will give a more detailed reasoning when I get home)

[Melancholy]

Evidence of Things Not Seen: Great ep but the interview is dull and weird (Matt Perry is not the male Ainsley Hayes. He's cute and all but really. How does Joe know about Josh's PTSD and how does he have the stones to speak so directly about it in an interview?)

1. 25. Exciting, heart rendering ep. 

2.  Commencement: I love this whole thing too. Even the Amy/Donna stuff feels juicy and like stuff is finally being laid out. 

3. Game On. These eps are so  good I'm downgrading for one bad line. Here, it's CJ pimpimg out Carol to Albie Duncan.

4. Life on Mars: As another poster said, love the tone switch from screwball comedy to whodunnit to Greek tragedy. But Matt Perry's performance was smug. The Lauren's (and Cassie) are funnier here but still not necessary. 

[Guest]

Life On Mars is out!

 

Please vote against 1! This round determines our final 4 for the season! (Also, please rank the remaining episodes in case we need to break a tie.)

4. The Red Mass

6. Game On

20.  Evidence of Things Not Seen

22.  Commencement

23.  Twenty Five

[Zola]

Voting out Red Mass

 

1. Twenty Five
2. Commencement
3. Game On
4. Evidence

[Kohola3]

Voting out Red Mass

1. Twenty Five

2.  Game On

3.  Evidence

4. Commencement

[Guest]

Voting out Red Mass

Rank:

1) Game On

2) 25

3) Evidence

4) Commencement

[Guest]

The Red Mass is out!

Our four finalists moving on for the season are

6. Game On

20.  Evidence of Things Not Seen

22.  Commencement

23.  Twenty Five

Please rank them favorite to least to determine winner for the season!

[Kohola3]

1. Twenty Five

2.  Game On

3.  Evidence

4. Commencement

[PeterPirate]

1. 25

2. Evidence.   I like the guy talk between Josh and Joe

3. Commencement

4. Game On

[Zola]

1. Twenty Five
2. Game On
3. Evidence
4. Commencement 

[Guest]

1. Game On

2. Twenty Five

3. Evidence

4. Commencement

[Melancholy]

1. 25

2. Commencement 

3. Game On

4. Evidence 

[AriAu]

Commencement

25

Game On

Evidence

[Guest]

The winner of Season 4 is.......

Twenty-Five!

Second Place - Game On

Third Place - Evidence of Things Not Seen

Fourth Place - Commencement

I'll put Season 5 up in just a few minutes so that I can begin voting against Gaza we can place out votes for that round. 

[Guest]

1) 7A WF 83429

2) The Dogs of War

3) Jefferson Lives

4) Han

5) Constituency of One

6) Disaster Relief

7) Separation of Powers

8) Shutdown

9) Abu El Banat

10) The Stormy Present

11) The Benign Prerogative

12) Slow News Day

13) The Warfare of Genghis Khan

14) An Khe

15) Full Disclosure

16) Eppur Si Muove

17) The Supremes

18) Access

19) Talking Points

20) No Exit

21) Gaza

22) Memorial Day

[Guest]

Gaza, Access, Memorial Day

[Zola]

• Gaza
• Access
• Jefferson Lives

Pity we're limited to just 3 votes - season 5 is just bad on so many levels: quicker we're through the better.

[AriAu]

cant we just declare The Supremes the winner and not carry over any other episodes?

If no, then 18, 21 and 22. Leon having a heart attack in the woods, by himself..nope gotta go and fast

Edited because I meant 18, not 1

Edited August 28, 2017 by AriAu

[Bastet]

I don't remember season five well enough to vote, didn't see all of six, and didn't see any of seven, so I'll be back for the all-stars round.

[Guest]

I don't even know if The Supremes is my favorite Season 5 episode. There are several I like (as well as several that I hate).

[Kohola3]

I"m with Bastet. I just couldn't watch all of S5 and beyond. I'll sit out until the end.

[Zola]

I'm a big fan of Season 7 and the latter parts of 6. But as for 5, I'd cut straight to the chase with The Supremes way ahead, then Wafare, Separation and Shutdown.

 

Everything else in 5 is a complete and utter aberration / abomination 

[Melancholy]

7 hours ago, deaja said:

I'll put Season 5 up in just a few minutes so that I can begin voting against Gaza we can place out votes for that round. 

LOL. 

3 hours ago, Zola said:

I'm a big fan of Season 7 and the latter parts of 6. But as for 5, I'd cut straight to the chase with The Supremes way ahead, then Wafare, Separation and Shutdown.

 

Everything else in 5 is a complete and utter aberration / abomination 

Yeah, I like The Supremes, Eppur Si Mueve, Shutdown, Memorial Day, Warfare, Constituency of One, and actually Full Disclosure weirdly and Slow News Day was serviceable. I like the first half of S6. I feel like that's more than most on this board but it's not a great record. 

Gaza: The Jed v. Leo conflict over Israel is interesting and some of the diplomacy gets higher grade in Memorial Day. But in Gaza, it's all just reducing the Middle East, poster child of complex issues, into a soap opera. 

Access: Very dull and continuity destroying. And you know, I LOVE CJ. One of my favorite characters. However, it's actually in spite of how she's such a stereotypical Feminist Icon, Perfect Lady. I usually like more flawed, disaster-zone characters but there's a lot of earthy unconventional charm to CJ, mainly through Allison Janney's performance, but also through the honesty of her dramatic scenes and crazy-fun of the comedic scenes. So, I can hard-core adore her even though she's not the type of character that I usually end up falling for. However, eps like Access or The Long Goodbye that seem too self-consciously aware of her Strong Female CharacterTM role ruin that magic for me. 

7A: I don't care- Sorkin didn't screw the new writers with the storylines that he left behind. As Sam said to Debbie, he made them a corner. It was so exciting and left so many opportunities to write twists and turns in the Walken presidency or Zoey's kidnapping. Even if the new writers weren't Sorkin-twins who could even make congressional procedures exciting or sports-TV exciting to me because they're so gifted with dialogue or quirky story building, you'd think they could make a presidential-child kidnapping story or a rival presidency story fascinating. However, the new writers just wrote a straight forward hamfisted melodrama. I don't think I have words for the disappointment of starting S5 back then. I was entering the 9th grade when S5 aired. TWW was easily my favorite show. Most of my week was spent figuring how I could persuade my parents to let me stay up to see it on Wednesday, a school night. I adored the end of S4 and I eagerly waited the whole summer for the new season.

....And then, I got 7A. The disappointment! It was painful. 

Edited August 28, 2017 by Melancholy

[Guest]

Gaza, Access, and Memorial Day are gone.  

Since people seem to want to move through this season at a fast pace, let's eliminate 5 for the next round. (Possibly more if there are ties.)

1) 7A WF 83429

2) The Dogs of War

3) Jefferson Lives

4) Han

5) Constituency of One

6) Disaster Relief

7) Separation of Powers

8) Shutdown

9) Abu El Banat

10) The Stormy Present

11) The Benign Prerogative

12) Slow News Day

13) The Warfare of Genghis Khan

14) An Khe

15) Full Disclosure

16) Eppur Si Muove

17) The Supremes

19) Talking Points

20) No Exit

[Guest]

Abu el Banat - if for no other reason than I hate the story about people in other countries feeling so sorry for Jed for having three daughters that they call him Abu el Banat. But no, there are more reasons!

Jefferson Lives - I hate the choice they make to let the Republicans pick the VP and it has ramifications for the rest of the show.

Separation of Powers- Such an overstep, and a large focus on Joe Quincy, a character I liked but never really went anywhere. He was prominently featured and then just... gone.

No Exit - I still don't understand the ending.

Full Disclosure - I hate the CJ / Hoynes plot

[Melancholy]

1) 7A WF 83429

2) The Dogs of War

3) Jefferson Lives

4) Han

5) The Benign Perogative 

[AriAu]

1.2 4,5, 14

[Zola]

I'd like to sit this one out if that's okay: I just don't have the will to think about this season

[Guest]

Based on ties, we'll eliminate all the ones that were tied for 4th/5th place.  Gone are Abu El Banat, Jefferson Lives, Separation of Powers, No Exit, Full Disclosure, 7A WF 83429, Dogs of War, Han, The Benign Perogative, Constituency of One, and An Khe.

Vote to eliminate 2.

6) Disaster Relief

8) Shutdown

10) The Stormy Present

12) Slow News Day

13) The Warfare of Genghis Khan

16) Eppur Si Muove

17) The Supremes

19) Talking Points

[Guest]

Disaster Relief

The Stormy Present

[Melancholy]

Even though it's apropos now, Disaster Relief. 

The Stormy Present. Man, I'd hear about how Sorkin's TWW was too pretentious to enjoy but I basically always disagreed. Word on the street was that Sorkin was pushed out because his work was pretentious and inaccessible to average folks. Then came S5. I actually felt the distaste for pretentious TV and nowhere more with The Stormy Present and its OTT calligraphy images, meandering conversations about the Mideast that never got to a point, and esoteric Civil War trivia that I would never imagine a real Deputy COS would handle. 

[AriAu]

Shutdown and Stormy Present

[Guest]

Goodbye to Disaster Relief and The Stormy Present!

We'll eliminate 2 this round and then be down to our final four to move on to the finals.

8) Shutdown

12) Slow News Day

13) The Warfare of Genghis Khan

16) Eppur Si Muove

17) The Supremes

19) Talking Points

[Guest]

The Warfare of Genghis Khan

Eppur Si Muove

[AriAu]

Shutdown and Genghis Kahn

Like I said earlier, just include the Supremes in finals and move on-the other 3 will be the first ones eliminated in that game!

[Melancholy]

Slow News Day

Talking Points

[PeterPirate]

Slow News Day

Talking Points

[Guest]

The Warfare of Genghis Khan and Slow News Day are gone. (I personally love Slow News Day, but have been outvoted.)

Here are our 4 finalists for the season. Please rank them best to worst to determine the winner for the season.

8) Shutdown

16) Eppur Si Muove

17) The Supremes

19) Talking Points

[Guest]

1) Shutdown

2) The Supremes

19) Talking Points

20) Eppur Si Muove

[Melancholy]

1. The Supremes

2. Shutdown

3. Eppur Si Mueve

4. Talking Points 

[Bastet]

I don't remember the others by title and don't care enough to look them up, but I liked The Supremes, so I'm going to briefly jump back in to cast another vote ranking it number one.  If me not ranking the rest causes tabulation problems, here you go (ranking based on the order in which I like the titles):

2. Eppur Si Muove

3. Shutdown

4. Talking Points

[Guest]

The Supremes won!

Second place: Shutdown 

Third: Eppur Si Muove

Fourth: Talking Points

[Guest]

Season 6 kicks off now. Vote against 3!

 

NSF Thurmont

The Birnam Wood

Third-Day Story

Liftoff

The Hubbert Peak

The Dover Test

A Change is Gonna Come

In the Room

Impact Winter

Faith Based Initiative

Opposition Research

365 Days

King Corn

The Wake Up Call

Freedonia

Drought Conditions

A Good Day

La Palabra

Ninety Miles Away

In God We Trust

Things Fall Apart

2162 Votes

[Guest]

NSF Thurmont 

The Birnam Wood

Third Day Story

Why yes, I did hate the end of Season 5/beginning of Season 6; why do you ask?

[Zola]

• NSF Thurmont
• The Birnam Wood
• Third-Day Story

No love for the first 7 or 8 episodes of S6.