The West Wing 2.0.....I liked it alot!! Your thoughts? SPOILERS!

I wanted to HATE the Sorkin-less West Wing this season..I really did but tonights show was some very good televison I thought..Yes true the Wells scripted dialoge did not crackel like Sorkin but the acting was very good from the cast. And the plot was very tight and kept me on the edge of my seat...From Sheen's grief to the look on Leos face when he could not tell Bartlet whats going on..And the slow burn of leo of being slowly being pushed out of the loop..All and all I think that if they keep up the fine drama of this seasons opener that we really dont have anything to worry about..Yes there is a bit missing from Sorkin leaveing but tonights show was very good I thought. I know ill keep watching for now
On edit sorry for the dupe west wing thread

Actually, I was somewhat concerned when I read reports here on du that West Wing was going to be more conservative, but I thought they did a great job of portraying neo-cons as the war wongers they really are.

One other point ... the last few minutes of the show made a strong statement ... Dem's are religious too!

I think the Pro-republican hype is just that..Hype..The show tonight was still very pro democratic..Although I really like the guy who played goodmans aide..He played the warden in OZ..I hope he stays on beacuse even though he plays a republican hes a very good actor,,Would make a good foil for Josh, Toby ect..

I liked Joshs like when looking at the republicans waiting to meet goodman.." He hates me..He REALLY hates me.."

what happened to the Presidents daughter. Thank you :)
I missed it.

Zoey's situation is not resolved in tonight's show. It gets worse as the new Prez figures they will kill her anyway, so he decides to bomb Qumar after a terrorist truck-bombs a theatre in Turkey with American GI's in it.

The staff begins to be concerned that the sub-Prez's advisers are working their way into extending their stay; the sub-Prez states he wants a new VP asap, and he'll pick one out himself if they don't hurry;

Danny the print journalist presses CJ for an answer as to whether the kidnapping and the assassination by Bartlett of the Qumar head of state are related. He gives her two hours to answer or get the sub-Prez to respond or he prints anyway. CJ and staff tell sub-Prez and his "cabinet" about the assassination; sub-prez says to pre-empt Danny and release the info first to diffuse it. CJ tips off Danny to print ASAP; Danny thanks her and beats them to it.

Dr. Bartlett is furious with her husband over the assassination and the problems it has created;

there is tension in the war room over policy. That's all I can remember right now. I have it on tape if you want me to mail it to you.

Thanks Ilsa, you're a real sweetheart. Now I can catch up next week. Stupid recall thru me off sked. ;)

:toast:

I was looking forward to it earlier.

I realy liked when Leo was talking to Bartlett before he left for church. Leo was this dark blue color and Bartlett was sort of red purple, the contrast was great. It gave Leo such a sad defeated look, and Bartlett an angry look. When they showed the "Zoey memorial," oh that was so sad.

I just walked in from the bedroom where I was telling my wife that very same thing. (Now I'm hearing Twilight Zone music in my head.)

Overall, TWW is still my favorite show. These are just little nitpicks.

Toby sez: : "If we close the markets the terrorists win". C'mon, is Ari Fleisher now a screenwriter?

Walken has a pug that sheds all over the Oval Office and needs to be taken for a crap during staff meetings? C'mon, even Shrub might not be that unprofessional.

The camera work seemed noticeably worse.

Slower paced, but I kind of expected that since I read some advance reviews.

Walken didn't look presidential. No matter what anyone said. Bully one second, bullsh*tter the next, clueless the next. Come to think of it, not too unlike the current resident in real life. :)

I couldn't get the "King Ralph" picture out of my head. I like John Goodman but I think he was miscast in this.

Too little plot movement IMO. I didn't expect everything to be resolved right away, but I expected more movement than that.

Sorkin always had a significant amount of contrived dialogue and sub-chatter in each episode. Sometimes it drove me to distraction. CJ would say something like "Did you see the thing?" and Josh would say "There's a thing?" and then Josh would say to Toby "There's a thing" and on and on and on and they would talk about it through the show. There was none of that tonight except for the shtick about the dog pawing at the window.

A couple of weird things tonight. The family quarters were so weirdly lit. One scene looked like it was out of Star Wars. And I didn't see why Mrs. Bartlet thought the POTUS should have asked her about the decision to assassinate the foreign guy. Surely that whole matter was top secret. It was odd for her to think he would have discussed iwth her.

It appears from the scenes from next week that Zoey will be recovered somehow.

John Goodman manages to look like a big doofus who is also somehow a *menacing* big doofus--exactly what that character is. He's smarmy and unprofessional and crude and mercenary, all at once, which is a brilliant piece of acting.

I do think the dialogue has suffered without Sorkin--the rapid-fire quip-pacing just can't happen without him, and that was something I always loved about West Wing.

I fear I may have to stop watching it this season, though, lest it give my roommates ideas to become politically ambitious... :scared:

Tucker

If they Zoe Bartlett turns up dead I'm gonna blow the hell outta something, and then God knows what happens next!"

Goodman gave an Emmy performance! Hell, I thought they ALL did!

Bake

congratulations Mr Wells...seeya in church.

I, too, was prepared to hate the non-Sorkin dialogue, and the proposed pandering to the repukes. Well, the dialogue was all right. Not up to AS's' level, but all right. The portrayal of the repubs as trigger-happy warmongers was spot-on. Even my step-son, who lives and breaths the right-wing slant he gets from his father, thought Goodman's character was 'scary'.

Others have mentioned the camera work. All this time I was preparing to miss Aaron Sorkin, I had forgotten what Tommy Schlamme had brought to the table with his superior photography. A lot of the shots last night were muddy and hurriedly done. There was a lot of low-angle shots and annoying NYPD Blue 'moving camera' nonsense. I appreciate that some thought the single-color shots of Jed (red) and Leo (blue) were well done pieces of symbolism. I thought they were clumsily done and melodramatic.

My wife and I both went bananas over the fight between Jed and Abbie over the fact that he hadn't 'discussed' the decision to assassinate the Qumari Defense Minister with her. That was idiotic. It was the type of stupid, melodramatic writing that 'ER' has overused for the last three years or so. My wife, once an 'ER' fanatic, no longer watches the show. Good writing is essential to good television.

All things considered, I'm happy that it was as good as it was. I'm hoping that it will get better, and not worse. But I'm convinced that this is the show's last season. That's okay. In the real world, things are looking up for the Dems. B*sh is more vulnerable than ever. He's likely to lose any 'bounce' from good news as a result of his lack of credibility, now. And we have, on deck, two potential candidates who can blow the whole ship of fools right out of the water. Soon, we may be able to expect democracy again in real life, and not just at 9pm on Wednesday nights.