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I will miss The West Wing. But the one element lacking in the series finale was a plot. The final episode of MASH at least told a story.
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I was referring to that which the astronauts were trapped on, not that which was going to be used to rescue them.
And I still wonder whether or not he was pardoned or commuted. In that episode where they showed a glimpse of the future, they clearly stated that Toby was being held in some sort of detention center, I had assumed it was light securty, and that Bartlett commuted the sentence down to a much shorter term.
Dan, clearly Moonraker is against the law, as it divulges classified information. Then again, Bond is British, he can get away with it.
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Lyrhawn, I don't think they say that about Toby. Remember, it wasn't until we were already into this season that Toby admitted to having been the leak. At the beginning of the season, everything seemed to be pointing to CJ.
Here's a link to the Television Without Pity recap of that ep. It's not a script, so it just summarizes it, but there definitely would be a mention if Toby had been referred to as being in jail.
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posted
Yeah, I guess I misremembered what happened. You're right it was probably a pardon.
But did you really think that CJ was the leak going into the seventh season? I thought pretty much everyone knew/suspected from the beginning that it was Toby.
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posted
Too much focus on Toby, and with his history of unilateral action and in general overactive sense of morality, not to mention the fact that his brother is in NASA, and all the recapping they kept doing on the scene where CJ told Toby... It seemed fairly obvious that CJ was just misdirection. She still could have gotten into trouble for telling Toby at all, but he covered her on that one.
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posted
My main worry with Studio 60 is that Sorkin is going to have to make a case that sketch comedy matters.
The banter he'll do just fine, same with the sexual tension, but I don't know if that is enough. We are dealing with affluent, good-looking young people who write comedy for a living. It's not the most immediately sympathetic crowd.
The west wing never had to convince the audience that the job of the president is a serious one and that there is a lot at stake in the quality of the Chief Executive's character.
SportsNight had to make a claim that sports were important enough for the audience to care about the sports show as much as the characters pretended to do so, and I think that Sorkin did a so so job. The pilot addresses the issue head on, but that's it.
The light drama isn't really something I want to see from Sorkin. Maybe he'll make the argument convincing, and I'll actually care about the moral compromises that go into making a sketch comedy show, but I think that it's going to be a hard sell.
To tell the truth, I'd much rather see Sorkin do a school show, like a "Boston Public" type show, at a failing school post NCLB.
posted
From what I've read of the first episode, I think he makes that case specifically. It's not necessarily that a sketch comedy show is important, but that in general they need to stop buying into corporate censorship, be bold, and say what needs saying. There's actually a fairly nice speech making the case near the middle of the first episode.
Shows don't usually have that hard a time making people believe their work is important. I think it's kind of a given for many shows in fact.
And from the look of the cast, they are good looking middle aged people.
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posted
If you think that Sports Night needed to convince people that sports were important, you really missed the point of the show and, for that matter, drama in general. What was needed was that the audience believed that the characters thought it was important and that they didn't appear foolish for doing so. I care very little about professional sports and even less about shows devoted to professional sports, but Sports Night is one of my favorite shows ever.
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posted
I second that. Not into sports; loved Sports Night. Really glad I found it despite the title.
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