In the third season of The West Wing, the President makes a bold suggestion for a promise to include in his fourth State of the Union address. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
There are some neat things here, and then there are some things that are not.
The Neat Things!
- Every second of Joey Lucas. Her ability to stand up to the people haranguing her, her amazing hair, Marlee Matlin’s undeniable energy, her perfect existence. I need a show where she is the lead in it, and I need it now, because it would be perfect by virtue of her being on it. She is an astounding actress, and I’m impressed by her performance every time she’s on the show.
- The format of this episode. I’ve always been a sucker for flashbacks, and this show only brings them out when it works.
- Seeing Bartlet give part of his speech. Martin Sheen is such a convincing orator, I swear.
- The fact that this episode still gives us the moments after Bartlet has agreed to the censure despite that it’s technically set weeks after it happens.
- I like the idea of bringing Sam’s ex-fiancée into the story, and I like the idea of getting to know her a bit. (I’ll elaborate on the rest of this later.)
- Toby’s insistence that pie will help him. Pie solves all things. We already know this. Please tell me someone wrote crossover fic in which Toby visits the Pie Hole. Thank you.
- The tonal shift during Bartlet’s dinner with Abbey’s friends. God, it’s such a rad moment in the story because… well, look. It’s impractical. As soon as these people spend five seconds talking about it, it’s clear that it’s not something they can actually promise without causing a shitstorm of bad press. At the same time, it represents an optimism we don’t see much of in this season, and I adore that. I love that Sam indulges the President anyway, writing a fantastic segment of the speech knowing that it won’t be used.
- A GOOD THING HAPPENED. A REALLY GOOD THING HAPPENED THAT NO ONE TOOK AWAY AND IS STILL A GOOD THING. Bartlet’s perception increased after the State of the Union to numbers no one expected. They were better than they hoped for. Oh god, THAT’S SO WONDERFUL. That means the President was right: America would largely forget the censure.
- Lisa and Sam getting a brief moment of honesty with one another. I have some issues with how Lisa is portrayed, but they’re mostly subtle. I’m glad that she got the chance to get out of this assignment because Sam was… well, he was frustrating to work with at best. But Lisa doesn’t let Sam get away with blaming her for the dissolution of their relationship either. I’m glad the script didn’t keep painting Sam as the victim, you know?
The Not-So-Neat Things
- I couldn’t quite put my finger on what rubbed me about Amy’s plot wrong until the episode ended. I mean, I did mention in the video that I didn’t know how I felt about everything. I think the way in which the writing in this episode revolved around the potential that Josh and Toby were right about John Tandy made me uncomfortable. The idea itself is not bad, nor unbelievable. I’m absolutely certain that many men in this world paint themselves as feminist allies just to get closer to women for their own sexist ulterior motives. (Ahem, Hugo Schwyzer, good riddance.)
- And I’m really happy that Amy immediately rejects Josh for even implying that she hasn’t noticed a man using her for his own gain. That’s good! Because what are you doing? Except then there’s that moment where John wants Amy to be in a photo-op, and it just made me mad because are you SERIOUSLY going down this route? Josh is going to be right, Amy will appreciate that he’s right, and then romance and then BLEH. Can we not? Give me something interesting and not based on having women characters validate all the men in the office.
- Sam is, unsurprisingly, a jerk to Lisa in this episode. Well, he’s actually been condescending to quite a few women over the course of this show. (Connie is one of them from season three.) And it just feels really gross and unfair because… look, if you’re upset or uncomfortable, say something. Don’t take it out on Lisa! I don’t know, I don’t feel like Lisa is going to appear on the show again, which means her sole purpose for being here was to drive character development for Sam. I take issue with roles that are ultimately meaningless for the character, and I don’t learn anything of note about Lisa in “100,000 Airplanes” except that Sam thinks less of her because she likes entertainment and brand name clothing and is interested in a different industry from him.
- I don’t think this is the strongest episode of season three, though I suppose it’s hard to come off the past two episodes regardless.
An unrelated point! Where have I heard that line in Bartlet’s State of the Union that seemed familiar to me? Bush said something like that, yes?
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Mark Links Stuff
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