Cleaning up some leftover Sunday stuff, I didn't see "Grey's Anatomy" yet and I'm a few weeks behind on "Big Love," but I did get to Springfield and the White House.Very odd "Simpsons," what with the five years behind the times "Lion King" Broadway musical parody at the beginning and the gender-bender storyline, which I would peg as funnier than "She's the Man" and not as funny as "Just One of the Guys." Some good bits here and there, notably the girls' school math classes. ("What does a plus sign smell like?")
Decent "West Wing." I liked most of the Vinick stuff, though the scene at Starbucks was a bit much, since "Ernie" had been, you know, running for president for the last year and might be recognizable even to a slack-jawed barista. (Maybe he should send Patsy Parisi to intimdate the guy.) Also glad that Wells' dream of bipartisanship gave Arnie the Sec. of State job, and not the VP's office. From the way they kept talking about how the Baker confirmation will play out, I'm guessing the series will end before it's resolved (and before they would need to shell out for a guest appearance by Ed O'Neill.)
On the downside, how annoying is Helen Santos? She's been the wife of a congressman for six years, the wife of the Mayor of Houston before that; surely she can't be this ignorant about the pomp and circumstance associated with a job like this? Maybe it was an attempt to position her as Everywoman, but it just made her look like a twit. It's one thing to be uncomfortable with this stuff, and quite another to seem completely surprised by all of it.
4 comments:
Boy, this series just keeps getting worse and worse. It's starting to look like cancellation was a mercy killing. Because if the show hadn't been canceled, this episode was a preview of what next season would be like: no Toby, no C.J., no Josh, no Leo, no Bartlet, no Charlie, not even a return cameo from Sam -- nothing from any of the characters who were interesting enough to draw us into the show in the first place.
Instead, we get Tweedle-dull and Tweedle-duller. Sorry, but I just can't get excited about Vinick or Santos or any of their entourages. When they're not annoying me, they simply bore me.
I was actually (for the very first time) interested in what one of these white houses would be. Although not enough to want the show to continue. So, so, so, so, SO very glad that Vinick won't be VP!!! Would have thrown something at the tv if that had come through.
To be fair, if the show was going to continue, they would presumably do a better job of fleshing out the incoming administration's characters. Since the show is ending, they have to leave them paper thin to have time to wrap up the other plot lines--though, let's face it, the show jumped the shark when Sorkin left and the new crew decided to ignore four-fifths of the pending plot lines.
Where this episode failed me was the obvious budget-cutting. It makes no sense to have the chief of staff be the one to show Mrs. Santos around. Of course, it makes no sense for CJ to be chief of staff, when just a few years earlier she was "Everywoman" for whom basic political concepts had to be explained, but.
I really thought they would make Vinick the VP to complete the liberal 2000-election fantasy of "co-presidents." Baker is anticlimactic.
Actually, I think the musical sequence on the show was a take off on "Spamalot" since the title of the I&S musical was "Stabalot." Still, it did have some serious "Lion King" issues.
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