7.8/10. First things first, I loved the way that CJ was caught in a tug of war between the Barlets here. On the one hand, she has a responsibility to the President and is his subordinate, which means she can’t exactly force him to go to bed or drag him out of a meeting. On the other hand, she has a responsibility to Jed Bartlet, and also his wife, to look after his health as his friend and confidante. Trying to do right by each of these things leaves her tied in knots.
I’m a sucker for stories where characters have to make difficult choices where they’re trying be fair and do the right thing, whilst serving different masters in a way that means one of them is going to be upset. If she rouses the President whenever there’s something major going on, he’s mollified but his health is at risk and she’ll get the third degree from Abigail. If she pressure him to take breaks and sleep through the night, she gets the third degree from her boss for not letting him use his long-built relationships to solve these crises.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that CJ is my favorite character on the show, and I like how, in the midst of this, she still tries to do her job and stands up for herself. She tells Mrs. (Dr.) Bartlet that she’s going to rouse the President if she thinks it’s necessary, and that it’s up to him if he wants to get up or not. And she tells the President (as does Leo) that he needs to let her do her job and not micromanage, and has to trust her to handle some of these things.
The Valentine’s Day shouting match between the Bartlets isn’t pleasant, but it reveals a truth at the core of this one – that the President and the First Lady were basically using CJ, or at least putting her in the middle, of a dispute between the two of them, where Jed wants to push himself and “leave it all on the field” and resents his wife’s efforts to make him slow down and Abigail is frustrated at her husband’s unwillingness to take his health concerns seriously and delegate when he needs to. That final scene feels like the little kid listening to her parents fight, but it still shows a canniness on the part of CJ by realizing the fight isn’t about her and she has to stand her ground with both parties.
The other highlight of the episode is Toby’s interactions with Professor Lessig (Christopher Lloyd) as he helps an Eastern Bloc nation write its new constitution. When the storyline starts out it feels like a usual West Wing primer on the merits of the American system versus parliamentary systems, with some entertaining back and forth and commentary on the difficulties of forming new democracies. But I loved where the story ended up, with Lessig using a Supreme Court case as an example of the idea that it’s more important to instill the values of democracy, because as important as a constitution is, it’s only the beginning, and the document will be interpreted and extrapolated for years, hopefully decades and centuries to come. And that maybe, by engaging in spirited speech and debate and discussion with the great and honorable figures in a country, you can achieve that better than you can by typing out the most rigorous of first principles.
The rest of the episode was kind of a wash. I’ve always found Lord John Marbury far more annoying than amusingly irksome, so his presence here, acting like a cad toward Kate did little for me. Similarly, assorted folks around the office gawking at Miss World was too sexist and, beyond that, corny for my tastes. And Iranians shooting down an American plane with British citizens sufficed for a crisis of the week to provide fodder for the bigger storylines in the episode, even if it didn’t blow me way.
But overall, CJ as the surrogate child of the Bartlets, figuring out how to do her job and not get caught between them, was a very well done story, and coupled with a B-story about what constitutions mean that’s idealistic in a way that lands with me made this a quality ep.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-09-30T02:52:43Z
7.8/10. First things first, I loved the way that CJ was caught in a tug of war between the Barlets here. On the one hand, she has a responsibility to the President and is his subordinate, which means she can’t exactly force him to go to bed or drag him out of a meeting. On the other hand, she has a responsibility to Jed Bartlet, and also his wife, to look after his health as his friend and confidante. Trying to do right by each of these things leaves her tied in knots.
I’m a sucker for stories where characters have to make difficult choices where they’re trying be fair and do the right thing, whilst serving different masters in a way that means one of them is going to be upset. If she rouses the President whenever there’s something major going on, he’s mollified but his health is at risk and she’ll get the third degree from Abigail. If she pressure him to take breaks and sleep through the night, she gets the third degree from her boss for not letting him use his long-built relationships to solve these crises.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that CJ is my favorite character on the show, and I like how, in the midst of this, she still tries to do her job and stands up for herself. She tells Mrs. (Dr.) Bartlet that she’s going to rouse the President if she thinks it’s necessary, and that it’s up to him if he wants to get up or not. And she tells the President (as does Leo) that he needs to let her do her job and not micromanage, and has to trust her to handle some of these things.
The Valentine’s Day shouting match between the Bartlets isn’t pleasant, but it reveals a truth at the core of this one – that the President and the First Lady were basically using CJ, or at least putting her in the middle, of a dispute between the two of them, where Jed wants to push himself and “leave it all on the field” and resents his wife’s efforts to make him slow down and Abigail is frustrated at her husband’s unwillingness to take his health concerns seriously and delegate when he needs to. That final scene feels like the little kid listening to her parents fight, but it still shows a canniness on the part of CJ by realizing the fight isn’t about her and she has to stand her ground with both parties.
The other highlight of the episode is Toby’s interactions with Professor Lessig (Christopher Lloyd) as he helps an Eastern Bloc nation write its new constitution. When the storyline starts out it feels like a usual West Wing primer on the merits of the American system versus parliamentary systems, with some entertaining back and forth and commentary on the difficulties of forming new democracies. But I loved where the story ended up, with Lessig using a Supreme Court case as an example of the idea that it’s more important to instill the values of democracy, because as important as a constitution is, it’s only the beginning, and the document will be interpreted and extrapolated for years, hopefully decades and centuries to come. And that maybe, by engaging in spirited speech and debate and discussion with the great and honorable figures in a country, you can achieve that better than you can by typing out the most rigorous of first principles.
The rest of the episode was kind of a wash. I’ve always found Lord John Marbury far more annoying than amusingly irksome, so his presence here, acting like a cad toward Kate did little for me. Similarly, assorted folks around the office gawking at Miss World was too sexist and, beyond that, corny for my tastes. And Iranians shooting down an American plane with British citizens sufficed for a crisis of the week to provide fodder for the bigger storylines in the episode, even if it didn’t blow me way.
But overall, CJ as the surrogate child of the Bartlets, figuring out how to do her job and not get caught between them, was a very well done story, and coupled with a B-story about what constitutions mean that’s idealistic in a way that lands with me made this a quality ep.