Review of The War at Home

Written by Toniann

This was, to put it mildly, a powerful episode. I'm really lookingforward to watching it again; there were some Emmy-worthy performances,and Martin Sheen just blew me away. The image of him standing beforeeach coffin as it was brought off the plane was spine-tingling.

  • It's a small thing, but did Bartlet say "George Bernard Shaw" or"George Burns Shaw"? It sounded like the latter, which is kind of funny,considering the quote was about aging.

  • I liked that we went back to Officer Sloane, but I'm not sure it wasresolved correctly even so. Still, I guess the White House was standingbehind him, despite pressure to do otherwise. Why do you think CJ saidhe would be interviewed in a coat and tie and not his uniform?

  • Ah, Toby, alienating whole demographics right and left (no punintended). Last week it was Dodge Durango owners, this week it was allof North Dakota.

  • Speaking of Toby, here's my confession of the week: I zoned out for asecond and didn't get the point of his anemone joke. Can someone fill mein without making me feel like a complete moron?

  • Although the dialogue between Charlie and Mrs. Landingham was asspirited and funny as always, I'm beginning to feel like this isbecoming something of a set piece, and as such it's coming across asforced. But it's really more that I like Charlie and I enjoy seeing himin meatier scenes-- even those couple moments he had with the Presidentat the end, offering to help, struck home with me more.

  • Donna and Josh and Joey. Well, sports fans, the cat's out of the bagon this one. No matter which side of the fence you're on as far as theDonna/Josh pairing goes, the show has certainly put it out there as anissue now, so it's worth discussing. Talk about a couple of bombshellsbeing dropped on this one. For one thing, Josh is admittedly jealous asfar as she's concerned, even to the point of being bothered that *she*doesn't seem jealous. And I can't ignore the blatancy of his "You allright getting home?" to her as she left... in context, I found it prettyrevealing. And then Joey putting it all out there about Donna sensingthat her feelings about Josh are starting to show and her attempts atmisdirection. Man. To be honest, that made my heart go out to Donna, ifit's true. That's a tough position to be in anywhere, and at work it'sexcruciating. Sadly, I know this from experience. Well, enough said... Iknow you all will be burning up the newsgroup on this one.

  • You've got to love those little literary references: Sam askingAinsley about her own personal Euripides play, and then his commentabout the Curse of the House of Atreus. I wasn't sure if he wasreferring to Elektra or Iphigenia. Sad stories, both.

  • "What are you, my Zen Master?" Well, tonight's scenes with Jed andAbby were phenomenal. I think it's pretty clear, from what was said,that their "deal" was that he would only serve one term, because of theMS (though if anyone else has other theories, throw 'em out there). Itwas riveting, watching them together, and seeing how they came togetherin the end, as a team, no matter what seems to pull them apart. God,it's great to see Stockard Channing in a role like this.

  • I feel ill-equipped to comment on the hostage plotline-- I need tothink about it a bit more. But I will say that I was struck by the clockticking loudly in the background during Bartlet & Leo's finalconversation in the Oval Office. Nice touch.

    "This isn't cold, it's crisp."

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