Review of Mr. Willis of Ohio
Written by Toniann
review written in Jan. 2002
Though this isn't a very exciting way to start off a Random Thought, here's some information from the president's inane trivia questions from the opening card game: the only fruit with seeds on the outside are strawberries. The three words that start with "dw" are dwindle, dwarf, and dwell. And the 14 forms of punctuation are period, comman, colon, semi-colon, question mark, apostrophe, exclamation point, dash, hyphen, parenthese, quotation marks, brackets, braces, and ellipses.
I share Toby's distress that no one in the West Wing has a copy of the Constitution, or even knows whether it's still in print. But please don't encourage anyone to go break into the glass cases in the National Archives, Toby. Sheesh.
Isn't it interesting that Donna was advocating the Republican proposal for tax relief that would return the surplus into the hands of the individual citizen... and in 2001 that's exactly what happened? Note to self: pay more attention to what Donna says.
I have a bone to pick with Toby and crew regarding the Appropriations Bill. At one point, they were listing supposedly ludicrous add-ons to the bill, and one of the things mentioned was $550,000 to restore the home of Susan B. Anthony. Excuse me, Mr. Sorkin, but why is that ludicrous exactly? I happen to work at a historic house museum, and I happen to think they are one of the best ways to educate the public about the past and to restore a piece of history. Hands-on learning and visualizing is a proven and effective way of teaching, and historic homes cost a lot to restore. The State frequently funds such not-for-profit endeavors, and the bill was including a request from the state. It's an educational initiative, and I resented hearing it mocked. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was dead serious.
Back to the regularly programmed randomness.
I don't blame Leo for hesitating to tell Bartlet about the breakup of his marriage, because boy did Bartlet respond in a crappy way. "Fix this?" Oh, and my favorite, "You're the man." What, Leo's the "man" so he can fix this marriage whether Jenny wants it fixed or not? I'm just glad Bartlet apologized later and said what he should have in the first place: I'm sorry, and how can I help.
Joe Willis was a wonderful character that I wish we had occasion to see again, though the whole point is that we won't. I loved when he talked about his wife and wondered aloud "why she picked a dummy like me." I think Willis was smarter than he gave himself credit for, but it seemed like such a sweet thing to say. I also enjoyed the scene at the end where Toby watched him vote and was the only person in the room to understand just how extraordinary that moment was.
Neat little awkward real-life moment: when the president offered to give Josh money to take Charlie out for a few beers. Was that cute, or what?
That was a strange turn of events, with Zoey in the bar. First of all, when three big guys crowd around you at a bar (effectively physically blocking you in), this really isn't a great sign, dear. One guy hits on you, fine. Three loom over you, exercise a little common sense. Anyhow, she really was flirting, though she denied it to her father, and though his story was upsetting I think it's best that he be honest with her about the dangers of her position. It resulted in a nice bit of communication between them.
From start to finish, Charlie really is the best. He stood there and listened to those guys call him a whole list of racial slurs and didn't back down. I'm glad Josh told the president about it.
"Excuse me, Wink Martindale."
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