Tww 7.14 - Two Weeks Out
Mar. 25th, 2006 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963I'm a bit late with this, because I've been so busy this week that I've only just managed to see the episode in full (and because, let's face it, I kept getting distracted by the fact that you-know-who was looking totally hot in those unbuttoned and untucked shirts!)
So, anyway, after I'd stopped being a fangirly puddle of mush on the carpet I managed to watch the whole thing. Well, anything after last week's smack high was going to be a bit of a disappointment (because it was a dead cert they weren't going to resolve anything on the Josh & Donna front in this ep), but I have to say that I hadn't expected Donna to be entirely absent from the proceedings. Her name didn't even come up. Mind you, Ronna wasn't around either - but in her case, I guess she was being punished for her part in the "keytus interruptus" saga from last week! Maybe she'd been hung up by the thumbs and beaten with a pogo stick somewhere...
Anyway, the best parts of the episode, causing a minor squee, were the parts where Josh and Toby were on the phone (and Toby with the toy truck! love it!). I'm so pleased that the rift between these two wonderful characters has been mended - even if, as with many things on this show, it seems to have taken place mostly off screen. Toby's attitude towards Josh in "Undecideds" was distinctly unfriendly (to say the least), although their chat in "Running Mates" was decidedly warmer, and now we've progressed to this - where Toby's actually helping Josh with the campaign. So Josh at least has someone else around that he can trust implicitly - someone who can get him off the ceiling and get him to focus. As Toby tells him, "You're getting 3 hours sleep a night, you have 300 messages to return..." (hm - can't help wondering about the 3 hours sleep comment *g*!) and he's trying to do everything at once, so he needs someone to ground him - and in an episode with no Donna, Toby's doing that. And "Bob"! Hee!![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coloneljack is absolutely right - it's really funny that these two incredibly intelligent men, the best political minds of their age can only come up with "Bob" as a cover! What a scream!
I loved how Josh finally listened to Toby, then totally bought into his idea about going to California. Also, we see Santos FINALLY trusting in Josh absolutely - he's not wild about the idea but trusts Josh to make the right call and agrees to it. At last! After all that crap in The Wedding...
Love how Josh is totally not phased by Lou's comment about the heroin and porn - "that's all mine!" (Yes, I did connect it with last week's "smack high" - but given this ep was written by L O'D, I doubt that he was joining those particular dots!)
So... Vinick. I love Alan Alda, and he's doing an absolutely fantastic job here. I've said all along that tptb made the character a bit too likeable at the beginning, and at the start of S7 they seemed to have realised that they need to tarnish him a bit, otherwise there was no way a Santos win would be believeable. Here we're seeing his descent into the political quagmire... and Alda's playing it brilliantly. His campaign manager, Sheila fell on her sword last week, and now he's hired Jane, the uber-bitch like everybody wanted, but he seems terribly alone now, and aware that the dream is slipping away. Oh sure, the impromptu fillibuster press conference stole some of Santos' thunder, but it's clear that the tide has turned. OK a lot of that is due to the nuclear accident back in 7.12, but then I guess that's the way these things go sometimes - luck! And it was Josh's decision to (for the most part) leave it alone to take its course. And the thing with Santos' briefcase... well, I doubt that that plotline was meant to go any further, because this is one of the episodes that was shot before John Spencer died, so I doubt there would have been any fallout from this 'scandal'. I have to say, that I originally remembered the conversation between Josh and Santos in Opposition Research back in S6, where Josh said that he needed to know everything about Santos, including whether he'd ever cheated on his wife. Santos didn't answer. I couldn't help remember that conversation when the existence of the illegitimate child came to light. But then I remembered the dead-beat brother, so it wasn't a huge surprise when that came up at the end.
But Vinick - sanctimonious bastard or what?! That scene at the end where he gives the briefcase back... I mean, he could just have sent it back anonymously, or via the secret service or something, but no, he had to let Santos know who had it, and then patronise him. Made my skin crawl... but AA was fantastic... I can't think of another actor who could have pulled that off in quite the same way. Because whilst I felt... repulsed... I was also feeling sorry for Vinick. (Daft, I know!) But for such a long time, he was the front-runner - he was going to walk the election etc. etc, but now, it's all falling apart, the person he trusted most (Sheila) isn't around any more and although he's surrounded by people, he's alone. And that's coming out in the performance, which is superb.
The next episode is the last one completed before JS's death, I think - I don't know if he's in it or not - some people said that last week's was his final appearance, but then I read somewhere that it wasn't, so I'll have to wait and see. We do know from spoliers that Donna's in the episode, so hopefully we'll get some more J&D interaction. I think that they'll be together before the election - because even THEY won't be able to leave the issues between them just hanging out there for much longer! Half of me thinks that we'll find out next week that Josh went to her room anyway and they've been at it like bunnies every chance they get! Because many of the important things on the show happen off screen, like I said before.
So all in all, not a bad episode, but definitely a transitional one, as we're shifting into gear heading towards the home straight.
And those pics up at NBC from Requiem are killers... kleenex at the ready!
So, anyway, after I'd stopped being a fangirly puddle of mush on the carpet I managed to watch the whole thing. Well, anything after last week's smack high was going to be a bit of a disappointment (because it was a dead cert they weren't going to resolve anything on the Josh & Donna front in this ep), but I have to say that I hadn't expected Donna to be entirely absent from the proceedings. Her name didn't even come up. Mind you, Ronna wasn't around either - but in her case, I guess she was being punished for her part in the "keytus interruptus" saga from last week! Maybe she'd been hung up by the thumbs and beaten with a pogo stick somewhere...
Anyway, the best parts of the episode, causing a minor squee, were the parts where Josh and Toby were on the phone (and Toby with the toy truck! love it!). I'm so pleased that the rift between these two wonderful characters has been mended - even if, as with many things on this show, it seems to have taken place mostly off screen. Toby's attitude towards Josh in "Undecideds" was distinctly unfriendly (to say the least), although their chat in "Running Mates" was decidedly warmer, and now we've progressed to this - where Toby's actually helping Josh with the campaign. So Josh at least has someone else around that he can trust implicitly - someone who can get him off the ceiling and get him to focus. As Toby tells him, "You're getting 3 hours sleep a night, you have 300 messages to return..." (hm - can't help wondering about the 3 hours sleep comment *g*!) and he's trying to do everything at once, so he needs someone to ground him - and in an episode with no Donna, Toby's doing that. And "Bob"! Hee!
coloneljack is absolutely right - it's really funny that these two incredibly intelligent men, the best political minds of their age can only come up with "Bob" as a cover! What a scream!I loved how Josh finally listened to Toby, then totally bought into his idea about going to California. Also, we see Santos FINALLY trusting in Josh absolutely - he's not wild about the idea but trusts Josh to make the right call and agrees to it. At last! After all that crap in The Wedding...
Love how Josh is totally not phased by Lou's comment about the heroin and porn - "that's all mine!" (Yes, I did connect it with last week's "smack high" - but given this ep was written by L O'D, I doubt that he was joining those particular dots!)
So... Vinick. I love Alan Alda, and he's doing an absolutely fantastic job here. I've said all along that tptb made the character a bit too likeable at the beginning, and at the start of S7 they seemed to have realised that they need to tarnish him a bit, otherwise there was no way a Santos win would be believeable. Here we're seeing his descent into the political quagmire... and Alda's playing it brilliantly. His campaign manager, Sheila fell on her sword last week, and now he's hired Jane, the uber-bitch like everybody wanted, but he seems terribly alone now, and aware that the dream is slipping away. Oh sure, the impromptu fillibuster press conference stole some of Santos' thunder, but it's clear that the tide has turned. OK a lot of that is due to the nuclear accident back in 7.12, but then I guess that's the way these things go sometimes - luck! And it was Josh's decision to (for the most part) leave it alone to take its course. And the thing with Santos' briefcase... well, I doubt that that plotline was meant to go any further, because this is one of the episodes that was shot before John Spencer died, so I doubt there would have been any fallout from this 'scandal'. I have to say, that I originally remembered the conversation between Josh and Santos in Opposition Research back in S6, where Josh said that he needed to know everything about Santos, including whether he'd ever cheated on his wife. Santos didn't answer. I couldn't help remember that conversation when the existence of the illegitimate child came to light. But then I remembered the dead-beat brother, so it wasn't a huge surprise when that came up at the end.
But Vinick - sanctimonious bastard or what?! That scene at the end where he gives the briefcase back... I mean, he could just have sent it back anonymously, or via the secret service or something, but no, he had to let Santos know who had it, and then patronise him. Made my skin crawl... but AA was fantastic... I can't think of another actor who could have pulled that off in quite the same way. Because whilst I felt... repulsed... I was also feeling sorry for Vinick. (Daft, I know!) But for such a long time, he was the front-runner - he was going to walk the election etc. etc, but now, it's all falling apart, the person he trusted most (Sheila) isn't around any more and although he's surrounded by people, he's alone. And that's coming out in the performance, which is superb.
The next episode is the last one completed before JS's death, I think - I don't know if he's in it or not - some people said that last week's was his final appearance, but then I read somewhere that it wasn't, so I'll have to wait and see. We do know from spoliers that Donna's in the episode, so hopefully we'll get some more J&D interaction. I think that they'll be together before the election - because even THEY won't be able to leave the issues between them just hanging out there for much longer! Half of me thinks that we'll find out next week that Josh went to her room anyway and they've been at it like bunnies every chance they get! Because many of the important things on the show happen off screen, like I said before.
So all in all, not a bad episode, but definitely a transitional one, as we're shifting into gear heading towards the home straight.
And those pics up at NBC from Requiem are killers... kleenex at the ready!
