7.6/10. This one gets by on the strength of the Leo story. The episode went a different direction with it than I was anticipating. When it started, I thought this was going to be a story about Leo being left behind. He’s out for a few weeks or months, and the world goes on without him. There’s an interesting story to be told about someone who used to be one person removed from running this place, and now not being able to get the time of day with the people who used to answer to him. There still is, and I’m curious if the episode will explore it at all (though Leo seemed oddly calm about it all, perhaps taking his nurse’s admonitions to heart, no pun intended.)
Instead, the show used Leo’s presence to make a point and refocus the folks who aren’t on the campaign trail as the administration, and the show, starts running it last laps. I often talk about The West Wing in terms of its crisis of the week. It’s a way to make the show something like a procedural and give it some predictability and familiarity when it’s something that dips into so many topics and subjects and characters. But “365 days” makes a great point about how just taking on the crisis of the week can hold you back from looking at your big picture goals. Making Leo the big picture guy, the one who doesn’t have to be squarely addressing whatever the latest fire that needs to be put out is, and instead can keep his eye on the prize, is an interesting choice that gives him a worthy role going forward
There’s also interesting commentary about the end of an administration (and metatextually, a show). Time is running short for both The West Wing and Bartlet’s presidency, and there’s two ways it can go. Either each can fade away as they play out the string, or they can use the gifts and the opportunities given to them (the power of the presidency and a year to use it in one case, and the great world and cast at the show’s disposal and a season and a half’s worth of episodes in which to deploy them) to do something great.
It’s a rebuke of the idea of diminished expectations. Filtering that idea through the lens of Toby’s usual grumpiness, revealing that he’s frustrated with the complacency of the place, with half the staff out the door and the President having to take naps, and the inability to pursue a more ambitious agenda that forces him to aim lower with the well-received state of the union address. As I’ve noted before, the idealism of the show occasionally rankles me as unrealistic, but I like it at a small scale here, used to bolster the idea that this doesn’t have to be a lame duck run, but that there is a great deal that can still be accomplished if the people assembled in the room at the end of the episode can roll up their sleeves and make a run at it rather than be pulled away by the daily issues like they were in the beginning of it.
That idea is bolstered by the minor crises of the day that pop up in the rest of the episode. Anna Beth hasn’t proven to be my favorite character, but Mrs. (Dr.) Bartlet makes their scenes charming as she gets prepped for a NASCAR event. The whole Bolivian issue has some interesting beats for Kate to play about what it is to be a soldier vs. a contractor. Charlie getting to be a real policy wonk is fun, even if it means he’s just trying to figure out what to call the EITC. And Will gets a good moment too, where he explains why he’s hitched his wagon to Bob Russell, chalking it up to a certain amount of faith in The President and Leo for picking him as VP, and still waiting and hoping to see what they saw in him.
But on the whole, it’s Leo’s story, and the idea of making the remaining of the adminstration’s (and the show’s) run meaningful that adds shading to the rest of these events and makes this a good episode. It’s an encouraging mission statement for both the series and its characters.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-09-29T22:49:49Z
7.6/10. This one gets by on the strength of the Leo story. The episode went a different direction with it than I was anticipating. When it started, I thought this was going to be a story about Leo being left behind. He’s out for a few weeks or months, and the world goes on without him. There’s an interesting story to be told about someone who used to be one person removed from running this place, and now not being able to get the time of day with the people who used to answer to him. There still is, and I’m curious if the episode will explore it at all (though Leo seemed oddly calm about it all, perhaps taking his nurse’s admonitions to heart, no pun intended.)
Instead, the show used Leo’s presence to make a point and refocus the folks who aren’t on the campaign trail as the administration, and the show, starts running it last laps. I often talk about The West Wing in terms of its crisis of the week. It’s a way to make the show something like a procedural and give it some predictability and familiarity when it’s something that dips into so many topics and subjects and characters. But “365 days” makes a great point about how just taking on the crisis of the week can hold you back from looking at your big picture goals. Making Leo the big picture guy, the one who doesn’t have to be squarely addressing whatever the latest fire that needs to be put out is, and instead can keep his eye on the prize, is an interesting choice that gives him a worthy role going forward
There’s also interesting commentary about the end of an administration (and metatextually, a show). Time is running short for both The West Wing and Bartlet’s presidency, and there’s two ways it can go. Either each can fade away as they play out the string, or they can use the gifts and the opportunities given to them (the power of the presidency and a year to use it in one case, and the great world and cast at the show’s disposal and a season and a half’s worth of episodes in which to deploy them) to do something great.
It’s a rebuke of the idea of diminished expectations. Filtering that idea through the lens of Toby’s usual grumpiness, revealing that he’s frustrated with the complacency of the place, with half the staff out the door and the President having to take naps, and the inability to pursue a more ambitious agenda that forces him to aim lower with the well-received state of the union address. As I’ve noted before, the idealism of the show occasionally rankles me as unrealistic, but I like it at a small scale here, used to bolster the idea that this doesn’t have to be a lame duck run, but that there is a great deal that can still be accomplished if the people assembled in the room at the end of the episode can roll up their sleeves and make a run at it rather than be pulled away by the daily issues like they were in the beginning of it.
That idea is bolstered by the minor crises of the day that pop up in the rest of the episode. Anna Beth hasn’t proven to be my favorite character, but Mrs. (Dr.) Bartlet makes their scenes charming as she gets prepped for a NASCAR event. The whole Bolivian issue has some interesting beats for Kate to play about what it is to be a soldier vs. a contractor. Charlie getting to be a real policy wonk is fun, even if it means he’s just trying to figure out what to call the EITC. And Will gets a good moment too, where he explains why he’s hitched his wagon to Bob Russell, chalking it up to a certain amount of faith in The President and Leo for picking him as VP, and still waiting and hoping to see what they saw in him.
But on the whole, it’s Leo’s story, and the idea of making the remaining of the adminstration’s (and the show’s) run meaningful that adds shading to the rest of these events and makes this a good episode. It’s an encouraging mission statement for both the series and its characters.