8.2/10. Josh is, as a friend of mine succinctly put it, an asshole. That’s not necessarily a completely terrible thing, at least in his line of work. There’s a sense of a chicken-and-egg to his personality as explored in this episode. Surely only someone with a devotion to perfectionism and workaholism would try to do things as crazy and taxing as Josh does, but then again, the job he’s in reinforces these qualities, demanding that people devote their lives to this type of effort.
There’s a goodness within Josh, even when he can be oblivious or harsh or dismissive or self-centered. He has good intentions, however much his methods leave plenty to be desired. He cares about people. He mourns Leo. He visits Toby while he’s radioactive. He feels guilt for what happened to his family and others close to him. That’s part of what makes it so frustrating when he’s short with those people, when we see him pushing himself to the limit and lashing out at those around him.
In some ways, this version of Josh, the one who’s a little rougher around the edges and whose flaws the show is more willing to confront than during the Sorkin years (when Josh was often an author avatar), is the type of character who bridges the gap between the era of aspirational heroes on television, and the ear of difficult men like Tony Soprano, Don Draper, and Walter White. It’s too far to call Josh an antihero. The ethos of The West Wing is too steeped in optimism for almost any major character on the show not to be trying to do their best for a good cause. But he is flawed, sometimes obnoxious despite his talents, and in episodes like “Transition,” The West Wing isn’t afraid to confront the way Josh can push himself to the limit and lean into those flaws.
But the catch is that having someone call him out on this makes it much more palatable. There’s different ways to do it, and the protagonist need not always take the dressing down to heart, but having someone else in the show, someone who knows the protagonist and can see through their B.S., tell them that what they’re doing is wrong can be, in the right hands, powerful stuff.
Which is why it was so delightful to see Rob Lowe’s Sam Seaborn brought back not just as a pleasant 11th hour surprise on a show taking its victory lap, but as someone who, despite technically become Josh’s subordinate, is someone who has a relationship with him, and the chutzpah to give him an ultimatum. (And, in the process, leave me with some egg on my face after complaining a little about his absence in the prior episode.) As in “Welcome to Wherever You Are” The West Wing uses a number of great cinematographic and editing techniques to help convey the tumult of Josh in sleep-deprived, taking on too much state, culminating in him chewing out Otto for trying to follow his confusing and conflicting directives.
It’s then that Sam steps in, and gives one of those speeches that feels like classic The West Wing. He talks about how being Chief of Staff, even and perhaps especially to a guy he truly believes in like Santos, is an incredibly difficult job at one’s best, and it’s the kind of thing that’s going to crush Josh, and everyone around him if he keeps up this toxic atmosphere, if he doesn’t take some time to recharge and reevaluate. And if that’s the case, Sam won’t be around for it. It’s something Josh needs to hear, and having it come from Sam, someone who has the gravitas that comes from being on the original team and someone who hasn’t seen Josh for a while, making him able to evaluate his old friend in snapshot differences rather than gradual changes. It’s a big return that’s used for substance, not just flash.
But one of the great things about this episode is that Donna, while not exactly passive, doesn’t bother trying to effect a change in Josh. She knows him better than Sam does, but she’s also already spent enough time and energy on him at the expense of herself to make his flaws her life’s work. She knows who he is, and is willing to accept him, flaws and all, but only if he’s willing to live up to his end of the bargain.
What I love about that part of the episode is that Donna seems okay with either outcome. She clearly cares about Josh, and all else being equal, she’d like for him to be someone who’s worthy of her love, someone who will make time for her and for them in the busy life of White House Chief of Staff. But she has no illusions about who Josh is or what he’s like. She sets some basic terms, something as simple as taking time to talk about whatever it is they’re doing, and if he can meet them, great; if he can’t, well that’s too bad, but she has her own life to worry about, and isn’t going to sit around waiting for Josh to, if you’ll pardon the expression, figure his shit out.
We get a bit of that independence with Donna in the rest of the episode, as the plot of “Transition,” apart from Josh’s much-needed vacation, is filling the various jobs in the Santos administration with the likes of Sam, Lou, etc., and we get a hint at Donna’s fate. I have to admit, Chief of Staff to the First Lady is a bit of a letdown. As with the “getting the band together” episode of The West Wing that Josh references for “style points” when he goes to shanghai Sam again (a lovely little touch, and a nice handwave), it seemed like there were natural slots for the Santos campaign team in the Santos administration. Josh was going to be the new Leo. Lou would be the new Toby. And Donna, as spokesperson for the campaign, seemed poised to be the new C.J. The fact that she’s not genuinely a part of the administration is disappointing.
But there’s good reasons for it, the most important being that, as she points out, she can’t work for Josh anymore, whether or not their “thing” works out. That’s an important step (made particularly justified with the semi-galling reveal that he basically wants to give her Annabeth’s old job, presumably with Annabeth tabbed to be the new Press Secretary?). And though it didn’t exactly work out, Amy showed that being the First Lady’s Chief of Staff can be a position with legislative heft behind it. It’s not quite the culmination of Donna’s professional journey that I might have hoped for, but it’s probably more realistic than a lot of career trajectories The West Wing has gone with over the years.
That goes for the three-term Congressman who becomes President too. President-elect Santos’s and President Bartlet’s clash on what to do with Kazakhstan turning out to be a game of good cop/bad cop, without even their own chiefs of staff knowing it’s a ruse, is a cute twist, but also kind of a letdown. There’s real hay to be made with a conflict between an incoming administration that wants to be able to set the terms of the foreign policy slate it’s about to inherit, and an outgoing one that doesn’t want to be treated like a lame duck just yet. But the series is approaching its end quickly, and I suppose I can see the show not wanting to have to resolve an issue of that magnitude with so little runway left, even if the whole thing feels a little too convenient a method of commenting on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were ongoing at the time.
Maybe it’s better that Josh didn’t know though, if only because in his current state of mind, he might have blown his top at the soon-to-be leader of the free world and found himself on a plane to the private sector rather than to some tropical island. It’s an ending that’s probably happier than Josh deserves, but one that shows he can recognize his own faults to a degree, and through the grace of his friends, make a small step toward being better, toward not letting himself get to that place. Flaws make characters interesting; meaningful growth, those same people seeing their flaws and trying to improve on them, makes them worth rooting for.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-10-24T22:38:10Z
8.2/10. Josh is, as a friend of mine succinctly put it, an asshole. That’s not necessarily a completely terrible thing, at least in his line of work. There’s a sense of a chicken-and-egg to his personality as explored in this episode. Surely only someone with a devotion to perfectionism and workaholism would try to do things as crazy and taxing as Josh does, but then again, the job he’s in reinforces these qualities, demanding that people devote their lives to this type of effort.
There’s a goodness within Josh, even when he can be oblivious or harsh or dismissive or self-centered. He has good intentions, however much his methods leave plenty to be desired. He cares about people. He mourns Leo. He visits Toby while he’s radioactive. He feels guilt for what happened to his family and others close to him. That’s part of what makes it so frustrating when he’s short with those people, when we see him pushing himself to the limit and lashing out at those around him.
In some ways, this version of Josh, the one who’s a little rougher around the edges and whose flaws the show is more willing to confront than during the Sorkin years (when Josh was often an author avatar), is the type of character who bridges the gap between the era of aspirational heroes on television, and the ear of difficult men like Tony Soprano, Don Draper, and Walter White. It’s too far to call Josh an antihero. The ethos of The West Wing is too steeped in optimism for almost any major character on the show not to be trying to do their best for a good cause. But he is flawed, sometimes obnoxious despite his talents, and in episodes like “Transition,” The West Wing isn’t afraid to confront the way Josh can push himself to the limit and lean into those flaws.
But the catch is that having someone call him out on this makes it much more palatable. There’s different ways to do it, and the protagonist need not always take the dressing down to heart, but having someone else in the show, someone who knows the protagonist and can see through their B.S., tell them that what they’re doing is wrong can be, in the right hands, powerful stuff.
Which is why it was so delightful to see Rob Lowe’s Sam Seaborn brought back not just as a pleasant 11th hour surprise on a show taking its victory lap, but as someone who, despite technically become Josh’s subordinate, is someone who has a relationship with him, and the chutzpah to give him an ultimatum. (And, in the process, leave me with some egg on my face after complaining a little about his absence in the prior episode.) As in “Welcome to Wherever You Are” The West Wing uses a number of great cinematographic and editing techniques to help convey the tumult of Josh in sleep-deprived, taking on too much state, culminating in him chewing out Otto for trying to follow his confusing and conflicting directives.
It’s then that Sam steps in, and gives one of those speeches that feels like classic The West Wing. He talks about how being Chief of Staff, even and perhaps especially to a guy he truly believes in like Santos, is an incredibly difficult job at one’s best, and it’s the kind of thing that’s going to crush Josh, and everyone around him if he keeps up this toxic atmosphere, if he doesn’t take some time to recharge and reevaluate. And if that’s the case, Sam won’t be around for it. It’s something Josh needs to hear, and having it come from Sam, someone who has the gravitas that comes from being on the original team and someone who hasn’t seen Josh for a while, making him able to evaluate his old friend in snapshot differences rather than gradual changes. It’s a big return that’s used for substance, not just flash.
But one of the great things about this episode is that Donna, while not exactly passive, doesn’t bother trying to effect a change in Josh. She knows him better than Sam does, but she’s also already spent enough time and energy on him at the expense of herself to make his flaws her life’s work. She knows who he is, and is willing to accept him, flaws and all, but only if he’s willing to live up to his end of the bargain.
What I love about that part of the episode is that Donna seems okay with either outcome. She clearly cares about Josh, and all else being equal, she’d like for him to be someone who’s worthy of her love, someone who will make time for her and for them in the busy life of White House Chief of Staff. But she has no illusions about who Josh is or what he’s like. She sets some basic terms, something as simple as taking time to talk about whatever it is they’re doing, and if he can meet them, great; if he can’t, well that’s too bad, but she has her own life to worry about, and isn’t going to sit around waiting for Josh to, if you’ll pardon the expression, figure his shit out.
We get a bit of that independence with Donna in the rest of the episode, as the plot of “Transition,” apart from Josh’s much-needed vacation, is filling the various jobs in the Santos administration with the likes of Sam, Lou, etc., and we get a hint at Donna’s fate. I have to admit, Chief of Staff to the First Lady is a bit of a letdown. As with the “getting the band together” episode of The West Wing that Josh references for “style points” when he goes to shanghai Sam again (a lovely little touch, and a nice handwave), it seemed like there were natural slots for the Santos campaign team in the Santos administration. Josh was going to be the new Leo. Lou would be the new Toby. And Donna, as spokesperson for the campaign, seemed poised to be the new C.J. The fact that she’s not genuinely a part of the administration is disappointing.
But there’s good reasons for it, the most important being that, as she points out, she can’t work for Josh anymore, whether or not their “thing” works out. That’s an important step (made particularly justified with the semi-galling reveal that he basically wants to give her Annabeth’s old job, presumably with Annabeth tabbed to be the new Press Secretary?). And though it didn’t exactly work out, Amy showed that being the First Lady’s Chief of Staff can be a position with legislative heft behind it. It’s not quite the culmination of Donna’s professional journey that I might have hoped for, but it’s probably more realistic than a lot of career trajectories The West Wing has gone with over the years.
That goes for the three-term Congressman who becomes President too. President-elect Santos’s and President Bartlet’s clash on what to do with Kazakhstan turning out to be a game of good cop/bad cop, without even their own chiefs of staff knowing it’s a ruse, is a cute twist, but also kind of a letdown. There’s real hay to be made with a conflict between an incoming administration that wants to be able to set the terms of the foreign policy slate it’s about to inherit, and an outgoing one that doesn’t want to be treated like a lame duck just yet. But the series is approaching its end quickly, and I suppose I can see the show not wanting to have to resolve an issue of that magnitude with so little runway left, even if the whole thing feels a little too convenient a method of commenting on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were ongoing at the time.
Maybe it’s better that Josh didn’t know though, if only because in his current state of mind, he might have blown his top at the soon-to-be leader of the free world and found himself on a plane to the private sector rather than to some tropical island. It’s an ending that’s probably happier than Josh deserves, but one that shows he can recognize his own faults to a degree, and through the grace of his friends, make a small step toward being better, toward not letting himself get to that place. Flaws make characters interesting; meaningful growth, those same people seeing their flaws and trying to improve on them, makes them worth rooting for.