Post by First Lady on Feb 12, 2004 0:26:48 GMT
Bingo Night
The West Wing
(9 pm/ET, NBC)
Pity is not a word you'd normally associate with John Wells — the impresario of ER (and Third Watch), he's one of television's most powerful and imposing figures. Still, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for any horse thrust into the brilliant, if quirky, Aaron Sorkin's West Wing in midstream.
So is it sink or swim?
Swim, definitely, but Wells is using different strokes — a solid, unspectacular crawl as opposed to Sorkin's flashy butterfly.
OK, things did begin with a flash in September — more Emmys (and more than were expected). But that was before the season even started. And Wells had to begin his administration by dealing with Sorkin's parting shot: the overblown (if compelling) Zoey Bartlet kidnapping,
Since then, though, Wells has steered his ship of state (sorry, there's that metaphor again) through waters that are, if not calmer, at least less personally explosive for the characters involved. True, Josh (Bradley Whitford) has been screwing up left and right (mostly left), Charlie (Dulé Hill) had a girlfriend for half an episode last month, and the complex, conflicted (and very dramatic) marriage of Jed and Abbey Bartlet (Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing) has been rocky of late. But it hasn't seen that much airtime when you get right down to it, and Josh's problems have all been job-related. No, the focus more and more has been on political issues, and wonkish ones at that. A major story arc last fall was built around a Federal-budget impasse, and last week, Toby (Richard Schiff) set out to "save" Social Security. We haven't heard about his twins in months.
The centerpiece of Toby's Social Security strategy involved making nice-nice with a conservative senator, and that hasn't been at all surprising this season. Perhaps it's the cumulative effect of three years of the real Bush White House, but conservatives have been downright good guys on The West Wing this season. Exhibit A.: the intellectually formidable temporary president Glenallen Walken (a wonderfully subdued John Goodman), who has become, if anything, a friend of Bartlet. Look for more of him.
And that senator Toby courted (played by Josef Sommer)? He was even given one of the show's best lines ("The left hand doesn't know what the far-left hand is doing," he sneered to Toby). This brings up the writing — Sorkin's fabled strong point and the facet fans had feared would slip into a just-more-TV-dialogue kind of mediocrity.
It hasn't and here's where the crawl-vs.-butterfly analogy comes in. The dialogue doesn't zip in the "Front Page" way that Sorkin's did, but writers (there are a number of them now) do get their licks in (there's a terrific line about "stardust" tonight) and, more important, the plots have been as involving as ever.
Tonight's issue-oriented story, about a nuclear crisis (Who tested a device in the Indian Ocean? Evidence points to the Iranians), is decidedly un-wonkish. In fact, it's a bit overheated in spots. But then, we're in February sweeps now. There's a guest star, too — Jay Mohr, beginning a three-week stint as a right-wing cable talker who's out to get C.J.'s goat by dubbing her "Chicken of the Week" — but he's peripheral.
Not so peripheral tonight is new Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell (Gary Cole), who's not known as much of a liberal, either. He's not known as much of anything, actually, and that's why the Republican-dominated Congress foisted him on Bartlet. He's a less-intense and quite welcome addition to the mix. And he stands in stark contrast to his predecessor, the disgraced John Hoynes (Tim Matheson), who'll turn up in two weeks in a corker of an episode written by MSNBC personality Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (Too bad O'Donnell didn't write such scripts for the late, unlamented Mister Sterling, which he created.)
So things could be worse at NBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In fact, they were worse last year at this time, when critics were roasting Sorkin and ratings fell below those of The Bachelor. Now, Wells is beating The Bachelorette easily. Another recent time-slot competitor, American Idol, has been another story, of course, but The West Wing remains one of NBC's most solid performers, and President Bartlet can look forward to serving out the remainder of his second term without fear of cancellation. Nuclear holocaust, maybe, but not cancellation. — Paul Droesch
The West Wing
(9 pm/ET, NBC)
Pity is not a word you'd normally associate with John Wells — the impresario of ER (and Third Watch), he's one of television's most powerful and imposing figures. Still, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for any horse thrust into the brilliant, if quirky, Aaron Sorkin's West Wing in midstream.
So is it sink or swim?
Swim, definitely, but Wells is using different strokes — a solid, unspectacular crawl as opposed to Sorkin's flashy butterfly.
OK, things did begin with a flash in September — more Emmys (and more than were expected). But that was before the season even started. And Wells had to begin his administration by dealing with Sorkin's parting shot: the overblown (if compelling) Zoey Bartlet kidnapping,
Since then, though, Wells has steered his ship of state (sorry, there's that metaphor again) through waters that are, if not calmer, at least less personally explosive for the characters involved. True, Josh (Bradley Whitford) has been screwing up left and right (mostly left), Charlie (Dulé Hill) had a girlfriend for half an episode last month, and the complex, conflicted (and very dramatic) marriage of Jed and Abbey Bartlet (Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing) has been rocky of late. But it hasn't seen that much airtime when you get right down to it, and Josh's problems have all been job-related. No, the focus more and more has been on political issues, and wonkish ones at that. A major story arc last fall was built around a Federal-budget impasse, and last week, Toby (Richard Schiff) set out to "save" Social Security. We haven't heard about his twins in months.
The centerpiece of Toby's Social Security strategy involved making nice-nice with a conservative senator, and that hasn't been at all surprising this season. Perhaps it's the cumulative effect of three years of the real Bush White House, but conservatives have been downright good guys on The West Wing this season. Exhibit A.: the intellectually formidable temporary president Glenallen Walken (a wonderfully subdued John Goodman), who has become, if anything, a friend of Bartlet. Look for more of him.
And that senator Toby courted (played by Josef Sommer)? He was even given one of the show's best lines ("The left hand doesn't know what the far-left hand is doing," he sneered to Toby). This brings up the writing — Sorkin's fabled strong point and the facet fans had feared would slip into a just-more-TV-dialogue kind of mediocrity.
It hasn't and here's where the crawl-vs.-butterfly analogy comes in. The dialogue doesn't zip in the "Front Page" way that Sorkin's did, but writers (there are a number of them now) do get their licks in (there's a terrific line about "stardust" tonight) and, more important, the plots have been as involving as ever.
Tonight's issue-oriented story, about a nuclear crisis (Who tested a device in the Indian Ocean? Evidence points to the Iranians), is decidedly un-wonkish. In fact, it's a bit overheated in spots. But then, we're in February sweeps now. There's a guest star, too — Jay Mohr, beginning a three-week stint as a right-wing cable talker who's out to get C.J.'s goat by dubbing her "Chicken of the Week" — but he's peripheral.
Not so peripheral tonight is new Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell (Gary Cole), who's not known as much of a liberal, either. He's not known as much of anything, actually, and that's why the Republican-dominated Congress foisted him on Bartlet. He's a less-intense and quite welcome addition to the mix. And he stands in stark contrast to his predecessor, the disgraced John Hoynes (Tim Matheson), who'll turn up in two weeks in a corker of an episode written by MSNBC personality Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (Too bad O'Donnell didn't write such scripts for the late, unlamented Mister Sterling, which he created.)
So things could be worse at NBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In fact, they were worse last year at this time, when critics were roasting Sorkin and ratings fell below those of The Bachelor. Now, Wells is beating The Bachelorette easily. Another recent time-slot competitor, American Idol, has been another story, of course, but The West Wing remains one of NBC's most solid performers, and President Bartlet can look forward to serving out the remainder of his second term without fear of cancellation. Nuclear holocaust, maybe, but not cancellation. — Paul Droesch