I am incredibly grateful to Game of Thrones for this adventure I have found myself sucked into for some years now. I am grateful for all the emotions it brought me since day one, bitter and sweet alike. I am grateful for all the laughs, all the tears, all the jokes and gags, every single bit of it, I really am grateful and appreciative of it all. It's been just... wonderful.
That said, I am feeling robbed and betrayed right about now. This ending is arguably one of the worst series finales in the history of television and trust me I realize how bold of a statement that is. The terrible violations the characters have suffered this season, the lack of proper resolution to many of the plots and narratives developed over seasons worth of buildup, the seeking of shock value at the expense of quality writing... that and much much more solidified this as an absolute disappointment of a finale, as opposed to the marvel wrap it could've given this cultural phenomenon.
This episode does have its positives, as always the score, acting and cinematography are perfectly performed but I just do not think it's nearly enough to compensate for how lackluster the writing has been, as much as I wish they did. Oh well, sad as it may be, I'll just hold on to the good stuff and hope that GRRM's book, once finished, will tackle the ending in a more coherent, more respectful and more meaningful way. It's been real y'all...
P.S: I'll leave this here lest some people jump me again. This comment is a representation of my own personal opinion, I am entitled to one just as all of you are. If you enjoyed this season and felt this finale delivered what you were looking for then more power to you mate, but that doesn't nullify my opinion nor does it make yours any valid. If you want to discuss or challenge my views, I'd be more than happy to engage you on that basis but if all you have to offer are petty remarks then please keep them to yourself.
What in the actual f*ck.
I'm a reasonable man, I realize I've been crapping on D&D even more than usual this season but I really do have to give them props for doing exactly what they set out to do. They hoped to subvert our expectations and they did just wonderfully in that regards.
We expected all of that buildup over the years to actually amount to something that at the very least passes for a presentable series finale but instead, we got an incoherent, steaming pile of shit. Expectations subverted!
We expected all of that character development to actually result in a beautiful pay-off that respects the journey of self-discovery each and every one of our beloved characters went through to get to where they are now but instead, we got a painful, disrespectful cycle of character regression. Expectations subverted!
We expected the final season of this show to keep us at the edge of our seats with thrilling writing that didn't subvert our expectations for the sake of subverting our expectations via low-quality shock value-seeking writing, but to introduce plot twists that make sense within the overall narrative of the story but instead, we got CW-level predictable, cringe material. Expectations subverted!
I get it. I really do. GRRM let them down by not getting the books ready in time and so they had to improvise away from his influence, but this? This? For a long while, Game of Thrones lived up to the slogan of its parent network, it wasn't just TV, it was something different, something unique and now to have to see it come to this... it's nothing short of disappointing.
On the bright side though, at least this episode didn't suck completely. The acting, score and cinematography were all on point, so I guess it's nice that I didn't walk out of it having appreciated absolutely nothing about it.
So why do I even bother anymore? I honestly could not tell you, though it's probably a mixture of masochism and a faint sliver of hope that they won't flush our collective investment into this series down the drain by the end of it, just one more episode dammit.
So did Tony die or didn't he? I think he did. I think the suddenness of the cut to black and the previous flashback to his conversation with Bobby that you don't see or hear death nods in that direction. But I also think it doesn't really matter. The point, if I may be so bold, is that the end doesn't necessarily come on schedule. It can come at any time, when you least expect it, when you're not thinking about it, in the heightened moments when you fear for your life at a safe house with an assault rifle draped across your stomach, or when you're feeling safe and enjoying a family meal at a diner.
We try to ignore that fact, to try to live as though it weren't true. You pretty much have to in order to keep living any semblance of a real life. But Tony, more than most people, lives, as Carmella notes, with a sword of damocles hanging over his head at all times. And that means that we should, as Tony once said and as AJ reminds him, remember the good times, to try to enjoy those sweet moments when we have them because we don't know how long they might last or how many opportunities we may have to find them again. It's existentialist, but a surprisingly optimistic take on it for this show.
Drawing back to the title, there's always been something the show posits as quintessentially American about Tony. In the final scene, they surround him with Americana at the diner: the friendly young couple, the cub scout troupe, the sports hero murals on the walls. Even Tony is assembling his nuclear family. He's from an immigrant family, considers himself self-made and both proud of his heritage and a part of the melting pot. Is Tony himself an aging superpower, or am I reading too much into it here?
The finale spends more time with AJ than I might prefer. But it also shows that as much as Tony wanted it, his kids cannot really escape his orbit. AJ is naive and misguided for the most part, and certainly insanely self-pitying, but he also shows a (again naive) sense of understanding about the greater tragedies in the world. His method of trying to help is an interesting one, but also a hard one, which is not typically the Sopranos way. Instead, his parents ply him with a cushy job (as the equivalent of a D-Girl, as Chris might say). And suddenly his concerns about the material world seem to drift away. He may not be a mobster, but he can be corrupted.
And Meadow has given up Tony's dream for her - becoming a pediatrician, and helping little babies. (The episode does lean hard into the "sociopaths like babies and pets" idea between this and the cat.). Instead, she's going to become a civil rights lawyers, and Tony can see her representing folks like him, marrying another mobster, and being pulled into a life he did not want for her. If there's a persistent theme to these series, it's not simply about the difficulty of changing on a personal level, it's about it on a generational level, how we carry the baggage of our parents and grandparents and other generations past, that makes it difficult to escape from their orbit. The show is a little blunt about it when Meadow says that if she hadn't seen her father dragged away so many times civil rights wouldn't be such a salient concern for her, but it's an interesting idea.
Indeed, another theme the show has kept close and blossoms in this episode is the idea that Tony taints whatever he touches. AJ is back to being a spoiled brat. Meadow is too much in the world of the mob to truly escape it. Carmela long ago figured out that she was in too deep to pull out of the life she had made with Tony. Agent Harris has gone native, cheering on the NJ crime family when he hears that Phil has been executed. Paulie talks about taking time off, but instead agrees to skipper the construction crew. And as he hits out in front of Satriale's, there are a lot of empty tables there with him.
So when the episode cuts to black, do we see a man about to get his just deserts, a tumor in the lives of friends and family being removed, or have we simply ended our time with a man who will go on to face a weapons charge? I have my thoughts on it, but more importantly than the outcome is the idea behind it. We don't know whether Tony lived or died, just like we don't know when the end is coming. There are perilous forces in the world like Tony Soprano who result in people like the motorcyclist from the last episode dying, or the comare and her father, who have no reason to suspect they'd be impacted by these events in this way. You can live the high-powered life of Junior Soprano and still have who you are taken away by forces beyond your control. Value the good times, David Chase & Co. seem to say, because we live in a state of sudden uncertainty, where the cut to black could come without warning or fanfare, and those moments become all we have, or had.
Full disclosure, I knew what happened in this episode before I went in. Sometimes you just pick things up through cultural osmosis. But it took some of the oomph out of this one for me. It was still tragic to see what Adrianna went through, to see her tentative hopefulness and dreams of getting away from all this dashed completely. But I can only imagine what the impact would be if you didn't know it was coming.
One of the things I find interesting about The Sopranos is that, contrary to a lot of movies and shows about the mob, it's never really on the mobsters' side. Sure, the show invites you to be allured by Tony Soprano and his brood, but at the same time wants to chastise you for being allured by him. The beleaguered gardener throughout the season is a persistent reminder that these are not good men, and most of what they do involves stepping on the little guy.
But at the same time, it doesn't make the FBI agents who are plotting against the mob looking any more righteous by comparison. They gossip casually about why Adriana hooking up with Tony would be good for business. They casually discuss how a woman marrying her abuser could be good for them. They treat Adriana, a woman who is clearly out of her depth with this stuff, like a tool, almost like cattle, rather than a person. Sure, the FBI are on the side of good, to the extent it exists in a show like this, but they're just as dehumanizing and dismissive of anyone who doesn't help them achieve their goals as the mobsters are.
And that's the tragedy. Chris claims to have loved Adriana. His recurring beatings of her don't seem to lend credence to that, but he does seem broken up by it at the end of the episode. And Tony too, though he is allegedly supposed to be an unrepentant monster, has at least a moment's pause there on the lot at the end of the episode, which is more than can be said for the frosty FBI agent who's been Adriana's contact over these years.
At base, Adriana was someone reaching out for a person who cared about her, a real friend. Danielle halfway promised and provided that and then betrayed Adriana's trust. Chris seems entirely dismissive about Adriana's feelings and her stress. Her newer FBI contact bristles at any of Adriana's moments of reaching out for kinship. And Tony Soprano, the only one on the show who seems to actually connect with her, is the one who orders her killed. Adriana is, to the extent anyone on this show is, an innocent. She's dumb and naive and while she knows what's up to some degree, it's easy to see her swept up it at a level over her head. When people like that suffer or get killed, through the actions of both sides of the good guy/bad guy divide, it shows that this "war" has civilian casualties like any other.
Not that bad of an episode to be honest. Enjoyed watching how the characters chose to spend what supposedly are their last moments on Earth.
The reveal finally happened so there's that, though Dany's tone when speaking of Jon's claim to the throne does put me off a little bit seeing as it was more aggressive than anything and implied future conflict, I guess it's understandable since from her point of view, Jon just dropped a bombshell on her out of nowhere that nobody knew about and only a couple of people who are conveniently closely related to Jon could validate so it must seem like it's a scheme they're hatching in an attempt to discredit her as a legitimate heir. I really hope that's not what's they're going for though, it would be incredibly insulting to both the audience and their efforts in building up the romance between the two only to wash it down the drain so easily...
On the bright side, Emilia Clarke really sold the scene, the post-delivery emotional facial expressions alternating between utter shock, confusion and a hint of anger were really something to behold and added to the gravity of the whole thing.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with S8E02 and really excited to finally see the awaited battle unfold in the next episode!
Tony just has to crush anyone else's sandcastle, huh? There was something wonderful about Janice really learning something, about getting her anger under control, about making a better start in life. Sure, it's Janice, so it all may have just been a passing fad, but she was trying! And succeeding! (And some impressive backbone from Bobby in prompting her to do it!) And then Tony comes in and can't let her do it, he can't let her find the peace and progress that has eluded him so. He has to push her sorest button until she cracks. Then he storms off, entirely self-satisfied.
Tony's impulse control has never been his strong suit. The moment where he yells "mother fucker" at the T.V. was hilarious, and it was interesting to see him halfway confront what has been one of his defining character traits.
Chris's story was interesting too. I liked how he went from his initial disdain for Tony B., to gradually warming to him after the goings on at Uncle Pat's farm, to feeling more and more marginalized once the two Tonys are together again and back to their old ways of breaking his balls. There's a certain idea that you separate these people from their business, and from each other for that matter, and they become something approaching decent folks. Take these mobsters away from the city, put them in some place much more bucolic, and even when they're digging up bodies, they're kind of removed from it all. Tony sitting there smoking a cigar looks like a much less perturbed, much more easy-going man. Tony B., who we've been reminded had a high IQ, has moments that suggest if he had been born at a different time or into a different family, he could have done something respectable, maybe even noble.
But you put these people back in their usual element, put them into context with each other, Uncle Pat and his daughter, the two Tony's, Janice and her brother, and they bring out the worst in each other. It's very interesting stuff.
(As an aside, there's something darkly funny about the poor bouncer at the Bing continually bearing the brunt of Tony's misplaced frustrations. Also, what the hell was the deal with that freeze frame and wipe? At first I thought it was my video screwing up.)
Somewhat decent episode, all things considered.
While I'm glad with the conclusion of the Michael arc (hopefully, I'm genuinely going to have an aneurysm if it turns out he's still alive and his arc is drawn out even further) finally took place, I am nowhere near being satisfied with the execution. It felt rushed and underwhelming considering the stakes at hand, something that remains an apparent constant with Supernatural's "big bad" fights since S5 finale.
This particular conclusion to this arc felt more like a cheap getaway card the writers gave themselves at the last second to justify not having to take a more... "severe" route with Dean, which annoys me because there are literally no more consequences on this show, nothing is at stake, what's the point of having the Ma'lak box twist if you're not even going to entertain the idea even for a couple of episodes?
Speaking of the Ma'lak box, can we file this one under continuity errors? Seeing as it just poked a massive hole in the show's lore as far as death and fate are concerned. Billie stood right in front of Dean and told him fate has chosen one single ending for him and Michael, and now Jack comes out of nowhere with a strength he shouldn't even have at his disposal and offs Michael? Seriously? Where's the consistency?
The development with Jack getting his grace back felt way too rushed and honestly came out of nowhere. And if that's not enough, his conversation with Castiel regarding appreciating the time one has had with someone almost felt like the writer's way of telling the audience to brace themselves for a goodbye, I'm guessing said development isn't going to end well for him.
An interesting, weird episode of The Sopranos. The most striking thing about it at first blush how great James Gandolfini is at portraying what Tony Soprano might have been like if, as he mentioned in "College", he'd decided to sell lawn furniture on Route 9 instead of going into the mob. Even before he opens his mouth and we start hearing many more Rs than we're used to hearing from him, there's something in how Tony carries himself while walking up to the convention that immediately conveys the fact that he's a different man than the one we're familiar with. It's incredibly fascinating to see Tony as a shnook, to use a term from 'Goodfellas'. The way he's largely impotent and meeker, the way he's still too focused on his work and apt to cheat on his wife, even if he's less successful in both areas, the way he's polite and smiles and is uncomfortable at having to lie. Whether this is all in his head or purgatory or something else, it's an intriguing glimpse at the malleability of Tony; that while certain things are set as part of his personality, he could have been a very different man with a very different life.
There's a lot of religious imagery in the episode, and a lot of reason believe that Tony is in purgatory, if only in his own mind. He's stuck, unable to get back home or go on to his next stop. There's footage of flames from Costa Mesa suggesting hell, a religious infomercial suggesting heaven, and even a confrontation from Buddhist monks suggesting reincarnation. The entire exercise is much more linear and much less surreal than Tony's usual dreams.
All the while Tony is asking "Who am I?" "Where am I going?" "What's the point?" He picks up the wallet of one Brian Finnerty -- it's a bit of a reach, but the name sounds Irish and may be a hint toward the idea of Hell as an Irish bar as Chris once reported -- a sign that the doppleganger who took Tony's briefcases represents the life of the man we've come to know, and that it has a definite ending. And yet, there's also the strange conclusion to this little scene that Schnook Tony has alzheimer's, that he will literally forget who he is. Tony is spiritually and emotionally lost; he essentially admits as such; and yet there's a sense to all this that even if he had avoided the mob life, he still might have experienced something less than fulfilment and ended up like Junior.
In an odd way, this episode feels like two distinct episodes: one about Tony in his coma, and the other about his family and colleagues holding things together in his absence. I will continue to gush about Edie Falco and how amazing her work on this show is. Her monologue with Tony in the coma and her tears at hearing that Tony will likely die (news delivered by Masuka from Dexter!) absolutely blew me away. Robert Iler was less impressive as AJ (and that's no sin as compared to Edie Falco), but he was still moving and believable as a bratty teenager when he too spoke to Tony in a coma and vowed revenge on Junior. One of the most interesting moments of this side of the episode for me was when AJ said "poor you" to Meadow, in a frightening echo of Livia that suggests her grandson may have absorbed more from his grandmother than it initially seemed.
The mob stuff on the edges was a little less interesting, with Silvio consolidating things in Tony's absence and Chris rising in prominence as well, but mostly this was an episode about Tony's journey and his family coping with it, and while the tone occasionally felt different from the usual Sopranos vibe (likely intentionally), it still worked amazingly well.
Glad Legends is finally back. While the episode surely had some entertaining bits to it, I don't feel it's really up to the standard Legends has set for itself this season, a lot of plot related stuff could've been handled better as opposed to feeling rushed and not getting the proper focus and attention it deserved (if anything, an entire episode could've been dedicated to properly exploring those avenues), the same thing could be said for the dramatic side to this episode, which honestly felt poorly thought out and as though only injected into the episode to fulfill the expected runtime, hopefully that is not the case.
Character interactions have, for the most part, remained the same; though some frustration was experienced in the process due to certain decisions by the writers, which I'm certain were only made in order to justify what they did with the relationship bit. Disappointing to say the least, as far as that is concerned.
I'm intrigued however by the plot twist at the end, which, while having not expected it at all (due to the fact they were jerking the audience expectations in one direction while preparing an entirely different alternative), is somewhat of an interesting turn of events and I'm curious to see the direction they take with it in coming episodes.
Overall, it's an alright episode, but I'm hoping what comes next is up to the level of excellent quality we've come to expect of Legends.
Tremendous episode. The scenes with Chris and Tony in particular were striking how much subtext was built in to each and every interaction. It was superbly shot and edited, with some particularly great cuts and sequences and use of music in the background to convey certain moods. The sequence of Chris using again in particular was stellar in how it depicted his trip, and the dog as a stand in for Adriana (both herself and for her dog that he killed).
Paulie may secretly be my favorite character. He's an abominable person--selfish, miserly, cruel--but he's just so damn human, so heart on his sleeve at all times, even when he doesn't realize it, that the times when the show shines the spotlight on him, I'm always compelled, occasionally against my will. Between his struggling to put on the festival, to worrying about his biopsy, to (maybe?) reconciling with his mom(aunt), it was all very interesting to see him strain to balance everything and set his fears that he was getting his comeuppance for his various misdeeds aside. (His look to the rustling in the trees in particular was a nice nod toward his superstitiousness about this kind of thing.)
And there were so many wonderful little touches here. I love how Tony says to Carmela that he doesn't want to setback Chris's progress, while doing the same wine-tasting routine that started Chris slipping in the first place. I love the way Carmela hears Tony's version of the Adrianna events and subtly begins to realize that something is amiss, even if she can't admit it outright to herself yet. I love the awkwardness of Tony and Chris trying to recreate the magic of their post-heist conversation in the Sopranos' basement.
Adrianna is definitely a ghost haunting these proceedings. She hangs in the air in those interactions between Tony and Chris, in the back of Carmela's mind after she talks to Ade's mom, and she lurks in the shadows of the life Chris is trying to make for himself -- the house and the kids to fill the void of his guilt or pain or whatever you want to call what he feels for causing her to be killed. It's in the background of his using again as well.
And I love the theme of boredom that starts to filter in during the second half of the episode. Tony's life is never going to be a calm one, but there's a sense that things are good at the moment despite everything. He's recovering from his injury, he's living well, things are at a detante with Frank, there's no internal agitators like Richie or Ralphie or Feech. So what's there to do? Just kind of fumfer around in the daily grind, even if his grind is a lot better than most people's. The old days are done, and momentary jolts like the wine heist are just faint echoes of it that can't be preserved or recaptured.
The facade of the "new Tony" is beginning to crumble, bit-by-bit, and it's interesting to see the slow burn. Children, a recurring theme in the episode, offer some idea of hope, of something new and different and a reason to make a big change in life, something lots of people in The Sopranos are looking for. It doesn't seem to have changed Janice, Chris's trip doesn't portend great things, and it's doubtful that despite Tony's one-man teacup ride at the end, that hope is likely to be realized.
(Oh yes, and Janice continues, delightfully, to be pure evil. Clearly Livia's strongest inheritor. So much great stuff and wonderful little details built into this episode.)
What a tragic story Davey Sacatino's is. And in a way, Tony's story is tragic here too. Hell, so is Meadow's and Davey's son Eric's. Davey's a guy who clearly has a problem, and while Tony's right -- he makes his own choices and they're dumb ones and he has no one to blame but himself, but Tony lets him pursue those urges. Even though Tony wants to keep Davey's iron out of the fire, even though he tries to dissuade him, once the die is cast, he reluctantly does his job. And he realizes how it affects his daughter just a little, even if it angers him.
And he's right when he yells at her. Not to yell, but the point that he makes. Everything Meadow has comes from her father's business. It may not be as unmediated or clear as her friend's car, but everything she has is tainted in the same way. It's no fault of hers, but she seems hurt by the realization in the same way that Eric is frustrated by it. Tony seems frustrated by it too. A lot of the first season seemed to deal with Tony having to harmonize his family life and his work life, and against his almost best efforts, here they are colliding again.
When Tony is reflecting with his crew that he remembers his dad and Uncle Junior running the game when they were kids, there's a sense that it was supposed to be something more than this. This is supposed to be an achievement for Tony, and instead it just causes another headache and makes him have to do something he didn't want to do. Like the Happy Wanderer, Tony should be carefree now that he's at the top of the game. But the Executive Game is a microcasm - it's the trophy he wanted, but it doesn't make him happy.
One of the finest episodes of the show. So many great elements. Tony, for once, is trying to be a good guy: breaking up with his comare but looking after her, hoping she gets the help she needs, even when he's getting frustrated. Carmella is on the other side of it, envious of Janice and lamenting the life she's trapped in with a man who doesn't look at her the way Richie looks at Janice.
And Janice, who has transformed from the free spirit she blew into The Sopranos's world as into a woman who has adopted her mother's skill at manipulating the people in her life. The moment that she shoots Richie, a man who is otherwise fearless, he seems genuinely taken aback. A man like Richie seems to legitimately think he's bulletproof.
Junior sees that he isn't though, that for how much harder Richie is than Tony at time, Tony can command the respect that Richie never will. Tony's complexity, the thing that make him less than the gangsters of the last generation and their style, also make him a leader. Junior's would-be reconciliation with Tony isn't sweet exactly, but it's something.
And geeze, Tony's scene with his mother is amazing. The actress who plays Lyvia, and the writers who crafted her character have done masterful work in creating this monster who both is plausible as creating a man like Tony and who seems even worse than her pitbull of a son. Tony finally confronting his mother with her being able to respond, with all he says, is a powerful moment, and her quiet laughter when he trips and falls just says everything.
And last, but not least, Pussy's sad turn at thinking he can become a G-man leaves him like Carmella, grasping at something greater and lamenting the position he's stuck in. So much good work on all fronts.
Well...that was weird. It was very cool to see the return of the various people in Tony's life who have died over the course of the show. (Livia excepted for obvious reasons). It felt a lot like the Season 7 premiere of Buffy in that way. Hell, the whole episode felt like "Restless" from Buffy in its way. I was practically expecting the Cheese Man.
But I'm not really sure how to unpack it all. There's a lot of vague symbols and callbacks and call outs to elements of the show. There's a sense that we're exploring Tony's subconscious here. When he confronts his old coach, (who, incidentally, is a big fat guy who smokes a cigar), there's the sense that he's still insecure about his position -- that he feels like he didn't live up to his potential in some way, that he could have lived a straight life and maybe been something more or better.
And there's other little moments beyond the ghost of his friends. He tells Carmela that he wants to come home in the dream (on top of, what I suspect to be his favorite horse). The scenes of Tony in the hotel are very lonely. He won't admit it, and he still gets frustrated at certain things, but he wants Carmela back in his life, and if there's a sweetness to all this weirdness, it's their conversation at the end of the episode where they sound like regular, mildly supportive, interested people for once.
And then there's the most obvious point -- that Tony S. realizes that Tony B. is going to avenge Angelo and it's going to mean that everything goes to shit in its wake. It's the realization that he's going to have to kill someone he loves, or at least see him killed, when he still has tremendous survivor's guilt for the actions that led his cousin to jail without his family and led Tony S. to such success and, from the outside at least, happiness.
There's a lot of other telling little bits there -- Tony confusing an incident with Gloria for one with his mother, his old cop "pal" playing the role of FInn's father (alongside Annette Benning, in an inspired bit of randomness). There was even some metacommentary with "I've seen your TV show" and the man whom I suspect is Gary Cooper on the TV and "it's more interesting than life" "this is your life." I don't know how it fits together necessarily, and maybe that's the point, but I was intrigued by it.
I enjoyed this one well enough. The flashbacks were interesting. It was nice to see Pussy again, and Tony and the rest of the crew putting the pieces together of when and how Pussy was ratting on them was intriguing, but a lot of the revelations were really on the nose. Not that everything has to be super subtle, but it felt like the show was holding our hands through this episode, rather than letting the audience piece things together on its own. I did appreciate the subtle touches in makeup and wardrobe to convey that this was an earlier time, and it was also nice to see Jackie Sr. at his full power before he started to succumb to cancer.
The Santa scenes were pretty funny though. Leave it to The Sopranos to drop something super funny in with all the drama. Same thing with Janice, who has become one of my favorite characters in just how balls-to-the-wall crazy she is. When she cries and wants to talk about brotherhood in her song after Tony beats up her Russian assailant, it's hilarious. The spirit of Christmas is truly when your brother beats up an Eastern Block mobster after he roughed you up because you stole you're brother's mistress's cousin's prosthetic leg. God bless us, everyone.
The Jackie Jr. stuff is starting to wear, though. The resolution feels pretty inevitable, and I'm ready for them to get to the fireworks factory already. The actor who plays Jackie Jr. just doesn't bring enough to the performance to really make the character compelling.
8.3/10. One of the things that distinguishes the Wells years of The West Wing from the Sorkin years (or at least has so far) is that Wells is willing to depict the other side as a group of equally potent, not entirely unreasonable group of adversaries. The introduction of Senator Vinick here is another great example of that, and bringing in a ringer like friggin' Alan Alda to play the distinguished competition is an inspired choice that helps give the role and the character instant credibility.
Rather than a dim-witted nothing like the thinly-veiled George W. Bush expy Barlet faced in his reelection bid, Vinick not only seems like a challenging opponent (per Leo's description of him on the campaign trail), but also a decent guy. His stated commitment to wanting the make the government work better rather than waste his time with piddling investigations gives Josh pause to think this may be a decent guy. But more importantly, he doesn't hassle Josh about the whole flag burning incident in private, saying it's a non-issue, but then has the integrity to not only stick to his guns on that when being thrown red meat on the topic in public by the press on that point, but ties it to an idea and contrast with China as to the freedoms of expression and privacy we enjoy in this country. In that regard, the show has Josh give Vinick the biggest compliment he can give to a Republican -- he's scared of him, or rather, the thought of having to take him on in the election.
(As an aside, there's something kind of quaint and amusing about how grave Leo and Josh seem about the realization that this principled man of integrity might be the opposing party's nominee. In the midst of the current election cycle, I think a solid portion of the country would thank heaven if Donald Trump were replaced with someone like the man Josh and Leo seem so upset about.)
I also really enjoyed the inclusion of Penn and Teller. The pair were very enjoyable doing their usual shtick, and it even gave noted Libertarian Penn Jilette a chance to get in on the show's usual political back and forth by emphasizing the first amendment guarantees at play. Plus, as sitcom/comic relief focused stories go, the idea of a pair of magicians doing a trick where they seem to "burn" the flag, and being unwilling to explain the trick in order to appease the powers that be is a fascinating and amusing little story that had other interesting thematic ties in the episode.
The other big election moment is Josh officially turning down Will Bailey's offer to head Bob Russel's campaign. There's some bad blood and hurt there (which Josh Molina sells well), but I like the idea that the threat of Vinick is what prompts Josh to realize he can't settle for supporting someone like Bingo Bob.
Oh yeah! And the President gets paralyzed! Great work from all involved in that storyline. Martin Sheen in particular does a superb job at communicating the ways in which Bartlet is trying to hide or downplay his infirmities, then the ways in which he's frustrated at the help he needs, and also how he's resolute in trying to maintain his strength and position despite his ailments. The swelling music and the visual metpahor of him turning down help and wheeling Uhimself* down the hallway at the end of the episode was a little too on the nose and cheesy for me, but I liked the lead into it, with the show exploring the concern of what to show the public and how much can go on when the leader of the free world is quickly begining to feel his medical limitations. It adds important subtext of Barlet feeling his mortality and time slipping away when he insists that this is his last China summit and he's extremely committed to making real progress.
Overall, a quality episode which introduces a lot of interesting possibilities to the table for the rest of the season and beyond.
