In the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of The West Wing, a TV crew follows C.J. to document a day in her life as Press Secretary. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Well, that was certainly the strangest episode of The West Wing. Allow me to sort out my VERY COMPLEX FEELINGS for all of you:
The Good
This wasn’t a terrible episode for me, but I won’t be surprised to see mostly negative reviews in the comments. It’s horribly jarring, does increasingly strange things with characterization and continuity that made my brain hurt, and ultimately doesn’t shed any light on anything we’ve not seen before. That being said, I didn’t hate this at all, and I think the fact that this focused entirely on my favorite The West Wing character is a large part of that. It’s no secret that I love C.J. the most (with Donna close behind), so it was a treat to be able to explore what it means to be C.J. Cregg. (Incidentally, this is also why I have problems with “Access,” but I’ll get to that in the second half of this piece.)
The writers chose to show us the actual Access episode itself instead of simply adding the camera crew to the story, much like the writers of “X-Cops” did for The X-Files. (Obligatory shoutout to that incredible episode, which pulled off what this show tried to do and did so much more effectively.) Over the course of “Access,” our perspective is shifted, and I found this fascinating. I think it was a brilliant choice in that sense because we were able to experience the Shaw Island story through C.J.’s eyes. Until the end, we’re just as much in the dark as she is, and it becomes increasingly frustrating that C.J. is being shut out of what’s happening in the Oval Office. The snippets of history – both fictional and real – provide some context for the present chaos that C.J.’s dealing with, too, and as jarring as it was to experience this, I thought that the mockumentary-style of “Access” was pulled off flawlessly. I mean, it’s hard to suddenly write an entire episode that’s purposely unlike the rest of the series, and I think Lauren Schmidt managed to capture the style with grace.
I’m also thankful that the documentary included the rest of the staff. A part of me just loved that this was a chance for Donna and Carol to talk about how much they adore and respect C.J. because then I developed all these instantaneous headcanons about how they all go out for drinks after work and hang out and talk about boys and are the best of friends and can I have this? Yes? Thanks! But that perspective was necessary in terms of the characterization on this show. To know that Carol views C.J. as her mentor is an important part of her character’s growth. It was fitting that Josh was the one to talk about C.J.’s need to know certain things in relation to national security or the White House’s best interest, especially since he’s often the one to know things before others.
And in terms of the format, the mockumentary – which was apparently released after the Bartlet administration left office – really conveyed the utter chaos of life in the White House for the Press Secretary. It was fulfilling to see the physical aspect of C.J.’s job, about how she often has to literally push through reporters to get out of the room, and to detail how that affects her. These details are a form of worldbuilding for the show, you know?
But it’s some of those same details that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
The Bad
Let’s just get the most obvious and grating part out of the way: HOW THE HELL DO YOU INTRODUCE ALL OF C.J.’S MASSIVE STAFF IN THIS EPISODE AND TRY TO SAY THAT HER MEETINGS WITH THEM ARE PART OF HER DAILY ROUTINE? I am willing to suspend a lot of disbelief for this show; I often admit it is a liberal fantasy, for heaven’s sake! But it was absolutely distracting that we’re presented with a “typical” day for the Press Secretary, and this involved interactions with three assistant staff members we have never once heard of or seen before. I have no doubt that we’ll never see Todd, Jack, or Andrew ever again. (AND MY HEART BREAKS FOR THAT BECAUSE WILSON CRUZ. HOW COULD YOU NOT WANT HIM ON SCREEN AT ALL TIMES???) There is no attempt on the show’s part to even bother explaining how this is possible, and it’s one of the more irritating things The West Wing does. There is way too much happening offscreen that ends up being important! I understand that they can’t hire every actor ever, but y’all. I’m watching Veronica Mars, which believably casts a diverse and large group of folks who actually show up regularly and don’t just appear once, never to be seen again. GAH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING. It’s even more jarring when you realize that the show does the complete opposite with the reporters. We see familiar faces who have been around for years, and it is totally believable!
In terms of focus, though, this episode suffers from any sort of development of C.J. herself. Again, I’m happy that we get an entire episode dedicated to C.J., but what did we learn about her? What did “Access” provide to the audience that we didn’t already know? Why frame this episode in this way if you’re just going to give us a very surface-level examination of her character? Oh, this was a great analysis of the role of a White House Press Secretary in general, but if you made it a different press secretary other than C.J., does it change “Access” at all?
The only real personal moment we get here is the references to C.J.’s father, which all felt a bit heavy-handed. In one sense, I think it’s possible that the show Access chose to portray Donald’s Alzheimer’s as a conflict for C.J. and did so in a very crude manner. But why? C.J. hadn’t spoken about her father in a while in the show, and now, we’re getting an interview with Josh that highly suggests that C.J. is willingly ignoring her father’s needs to work? I don’t know, the whole scene rubbed me the wrong way because it felt like emotional manipulation more than an honest look at the difficult C.J. was going through.
I think that’s the ultimate problem I had with “Access.” I didn’t learn anything new. The show used another character of color for a terrorism plot. The story is promptly resolved by the episode’s end. The format was entertaining at times, but it didn’t illuminate anything we hadn’t seen before. Hadn’t we already spent entire seasons focused on C.J.’s moral duty versus her loyalty to the White House? There’s nothing new presented in “Access” aside from mysterious characters who have apparently been invisible for over 100 episodes.
I didn’t hate it. But this wasn’t that good either.
The video commission for “Access” can be downloaded right here for just $0.99.
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