Review of Five Votes Down


Written by Toniann

review written in Jan. 2002

  • What I noticed right away, rewatching this episode, was the vehement way Bartlet was delivering his speech. He was, rather, yelling. Not like the style we generally see from him.

  • For the record, I have to agree with Sam about combining a speech that stresses "kids are dead" with "Happy Days Are Here Again". Why exactly is Mandy so highly recommended, again? Never mind, her days are numbered.

  • This is the Toby I love, the dry, understated, sarcastic humor, the occasional uproar. And Bartlet telling him "I half expected to see you coming at me with a salad fork", that was the best.

  • In the pilot, girls were asking Josh for his autograph. Now there are hoards of young women yelling "We love you Josh!" What the heck was all that about? Where'd he get the fan club? Did they see him in his smoking jacket, or something? And didn't you just guffaw when CJ said, "It helps not to know him"?

  • Leo's scenes with his wife Jenny, leading up to their breakup, really were extraordinary in that it's the last time we get any glimpse at all into his personal life for a long time. Frankly, for a long time after this, he doesn't really have a personal life.

  • For what it's worth, I believe Toby when he says that he really didn't intentionally manipulate the stock market. I know what he means when he says that he frankly doesn't really understand the system. I could never reasonably be accused of white-collar financial crime. I've got a loose grasp on interest rates, and that's about it.

  • Leo really did mishandle his conversation with Congressman Mark Richardson. I don't think, frankly, you're ever going to get anywhere lecturing a black man about how guns are a danger to the black community. I think he's pretty well aware of that already.

  • Last episode we saw Leo and Hoynes going to head to head, with Leo coming out on top. And yet in this episode, Hoynes was incredibly kind to Leo. It's a side of Hoynes I wish we saw more of, later.

  • Was there anything that could have been funnier than Bartlet wandering into the oval office, completely loopy on too much pain medication? Will any of us ever forget him hugging Toby ("Toby's a nice name")? Priceless. Just priceless.

    "There's literally no one in the world I don't hate right now."


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