7.2/10. This one felt like something of a breather episode after the all-killer, no-filler events of the opening four episodes of the season. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just felt a little more slight and run of the mill than the rest of Season 6's opening salvo.
My favorite storyline in the episode was the bit with CJ, Leo, and The President with regard to playing chess. As I mentioned in my review of the last episode, I like the idea of CJ finding her footing as Chief of Staff (the press corp hounding her en masse about Toby's performance as a fill-in was great), and learning the subtle details of what Leo did to keep the trains running on time. But I also appreciated the canny turn of the storyline -- where a seeming frivolity like playing chess with Bartlet is unexpectedly given real significance as an informal check on whether his MS is compromising his ability to govern. It has nice beats for all involved and adds a wrinkle to Leo's relationship with the President and his eternal pragmatism.
My least favorite storyline was Toby learning to be a better Press Secretary thanks to Kirstin Chenowith. Toby's always fun, especially when he's at peak grumpiness doing something he doesn't want to do, and his little arc here, learning how to find his inner "smart and funny" character and put it on display to win over the press corps. is nice enough. But I just don't really need Chenowith playing a lowgrade version of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to spur Toby to greatness (and if they start dating, so help me god.) It's a pretty standard pygmalion type story, and while it had some fun exchanges between Josh and Toby about "that boyish thing," it mostly felt trite.
In the middle were Charlie's storyline and Josh's storyline. The former comes off a little better, if only because there's an inherent sweetness and loyalty to Charlie that always helps win the day, and his little graduation ceremony and attempt to hand out resumes for a "real job" to the senior staff while asking them to ignore it so that he can stay to help The President works well enough. (His comment that he think it's especially important to be around right after Leo's left, while immediately showing humility by disclaiming that he's anywhere near as important as Leo, even though he's a vital part of the Bartlet machine, was particularly nice). But CJ giving him a nominal promotion while allowing him to stick around feels like a bit of a cheat on the part of the show to keep the (admittedly great) character around. There's nothing wrong with that -- Charlie is one of my favorite characters on the show -- but then making such a big deal out of the fact that he's going to graduate from Georgetown and that Bartlet was going to make him leap out of the nest feels misaimed when the resolution is such a cheap, if mildly endearing covenience for the character.
(As an aside, it's really interesting seeing Elizabeth Moss as Zoe after now having seen here soar as Peggy Olson on Mad Men. They're very different characters, and while I've always been pretty lukewarm on Zoe, it speaks to Moss's range that she plays these two people with quite distinct personalities so convincingly on both counts.)
Lastly, Josh's little incident of crashing a hummer into a prius is a garden variety West Wing plot. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's also not much to it, and it has a certain paint-by-numbers effect. It provides an opportunity for the rest of the cast to do some nice comedic riffs with Josh about such an embarrassing public incident. It provides the show a chance to do one of its little issue primers with his impromptu forum on alternative energy sources. And it provides Bartlet the opportunity to do one of his usual Father Knows Best comments on the topic at the end of the episode. It's all done well enough, but comes off a bit rote this late in the series's run.
Overall, it's a perfectly enjoyable, serviceable episode, with only one story that really feels great or particularly novel.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-09-26T23:06:23Z
7.2/10. This one felt like something of a breather episode after the all-killer, no-filler events of the opening four episodes of the season. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just felt a little more slight and run of the mill than the rest of Season 6's opening salvo.
My favorite storyline in the episode was the bit with CJ, Leo, and The President with regard to playing chess. As I mentioned in my review of the last episode, I like the idea of CJ finding her footing as Chief of Staff (the press corp hounding her en masse about Toby's performance as a fill-in was great), and learning the subtle details of what Leo did to keep the trains running on time. But I also appreciated the canny turn of the storyline -- where a seeming frivolity like playing chess with Bartlet is unexpectedly given real significance as an informal check on whether his MS is compromising his ability to govern. It has nice beats for all involved and adds a wrinkle to Leo's relationship with the President and his eternal pragmatism.
My least favorite storyline was Toby learning to be a better Press Secretary thanks to Kirstin Chenowith. Toby's always fun, especially when he's at peak grumpiness doing something he doesn't want to do, and his little arc here, learning how to find his inner "smart and funny" character and put it on display to win over the press corps. is nice enough. But I just don't really need Chenowith playing a lowgrade version of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to spur Toby to greatness (and if they start dating, so help me god.) It's a pretty standard pygmalion type story, and while it had some fun exchanges between Josh and Toby about "that boyish thing," it mostly felt trite.
In the middle were Charlie's storyline and Josh's storyline. The former comes off a little better, if only because there's an inherent sweetness and loyalty to Charlie that always helps win the day, and his little graduation ceremony and attempt to hand out resumes for a "real job" to the senior staff while asking them to ignore it so that he can stay to help The President works well enough. (His comment that he think it's especially important to be around right after Leo's left, while immediately showing humility by disclaiming that he's anywhere near as important as Leo, even though he's a vital part of the Bartlet machine, was particularly nice). But CJ giving him a nominal promotion while allowing him to stick around feels like a bit of a cheat on the part of the show to keep the (admittedly great) character around. There's nothing wrong with that -- Charlie is one of my favorite characters on the show -- but then making such a big deal out of the fact that he's going to graduate from Georgetown and that Bartlet was going to make him leap out of the nest feels misaimed when the resolution is such a cheap, if mildly endearing covenience for the character.
(As an aside, it's really interesting seeing Elizabeth Moss as Zoe after now having seen here soar as Peggy Olson on Mad Men. They're very different characters, and while I've always been pretty lukewarm on Zoe, it speaks to Moss's range that she plays these two people with quite distinct personalities so convincingly on both counts.)
Lastly, Josh's little incident of crashing a hummer into a prius is a garden variety West Wing plot. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's also not much to it, and it has a certain paint-by-numbers effect. It provides an opportunity for the rest of the cast to do some nice comedic riffs with Josh about such an embarrassing public incident. It provides the show a chance to do one of its little issue primers with his impromptu forum on alternative energy sources. And it provides Bartlet the opportunity to do one of his usual Father Knows Best comments on the topic at the end of the episode. It's all done well enough, but comes off a bit rote this late in the series's run.
Overall, it's a perfectly enjoyable, serviceable episode, with only one story that really feels great or particularly novel.