Thursday, January 15, 2004

An Honor

Last night's episode of West Wing was pleasing for many reasons. Charlie had lines again, and so did Donna; they hadn't been used as much lately. Stockard Channing's return was welcome, as was her character's vow to be more involved--it's always fun to watch the First Couple bicker. The parenthetical storytelling showed that the writers are still trying to do clever and interesting things. And I always like it when Jed decides to think about history when it seems like bad politics and it turns out his instincts are also the best thing for him politicially.

Unfortunately, the snap of the writing still isn't quite back. A lot of the dialogue between Charlie and Michelle wasn't very engaging, and I don't think she really understood what he meant when he said Bartlet isn't just the president to him. Unless she comes back, I don't know if we'll ever get to hear him clarify it. I'm sure what he has to say would involve a father figure, not a feeling of power as Michelle seemed to suspect.

And the meeting of CJ, Leo, Josh, Angela, and Toby to discuss how to handle the pardons was filled with dialogue that I've already purged from my memory. Even Sorkin would have made that moment corny, but the "let's get to work" thing was kind of silly.

I did love the moment when Josh sees Joey Lucas, after saying to Donna that he thinks the time is right to make a move with her, and discovers she's quite pregnant. Even better, from my Donna-and-Josh-belong-together perspective, was the moment when Donna said she needed to stop taking things to heart and Josh said he hopes she doesn't. Did anyone else hear "I love you just the way you are" playing in the background? Must have been my imagination.

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