Review of The Fall's Gonna Kill You
Written by Toniann
It didn't occur to me that they'd skip over showing us the staff
actually getting told, but now that I've seen it, I think that was the
best choice. It simply would've gotten repetitive. And yet the scene
between Bartlet and Leo where he finishes by telling him to bring Sam in
gave me enough of an impression of how dreadful that repetition actually
was, for Bartlet.
Babish: "I've never found anything charming in my life." Did I hear
him refer to CJ's behavior as "cutie pie"?
You know, I do have to go with Donna on this one: why exactly is a
satellite falling to earth funny? Okay, I got it when Josh explained
that this has happened some 17,000 times. And if that's how you get your
entertainment without leaving the office, so be it.
To jump around a bit, the 'Ship-O-Meter hits an all-time low. Not much
of anything going on with Josh and Donna this week, whereas his scene
with Joey Lucas was rather powerful. Kudos to TPTB for keeping this on
the backburner and shuffling back and forth a bit between possibilities.
And for the record, I'm giving this episode a 1.
Come to think of it, though I never imagined the Justice Department
blew its money on video games, hey, I'm sure there are some
adventure-loving folks in that bunch. Tomb Raider, anyone?
I couldn't get into Sam's subplot this week, though in another setting
that bit about high school girls and women who can write to blow a wall
down (I'm paraphrasing) might have caught my attention. There's a lot of
bits that strike me this way in recent episodes: possibly interesting,
but hard to pay attention to in the grand scheme of things. The fall's
gonna kill you indeed.
However, I did get a kick out of Toby and Sam's Batman and Robin
scene. Come on, anyone else want to picture Sam in short pants?
The preview showing Abby incensed about not being told something was a
bit misleading-- turns out it was the thing about the form. Not to
minimize that, but hardly the big disclosure I'd imagined.
Speaking of FLOTUS, I thought her scene with CJ was terrific. It keyed
me in to a closer relationship than I knew the two of them had-- two
women in a group of powerful people, otherwise male-dominated.
Personally, I groaned aloud when CJ revealed that she'd seen Abby give
Bartlet a shot during the campaign. I just knew this kind of thing had
to have happened.
I was also struck by Babish pointing out to Abby how the usual "I
can't remember" response isn't going to suit Bartlett's particular
offense very well. Yikes.
Kenny's on vacation? We missed a Kenny opportunity? Maybe I need new
glasses, but I didn't see the movie-star reporter quality in Dale that
Josh was referring to. While we're on the topic, I for one couldn't
understand much of what Joey was saying or read the notes she scribbled
to Josh. This is understandable, but frustrating to watch. I'm looking
forward to my second viewing, with closed captioning.
Speaking of Joey and the poll: how is this going to work, exactly? Leo
told Bartlet not to worry about mucking things up for a Michigan
governor right now, but I don't think said unnamed governor is going to
feel the same way about it.
Not much from Toby this week, but I loved the story CJ told about him
saying "I'll be here in my office when you're done", and then his
repeating that to Sam. He's a big ol' teddy bear at heart, you know.
Even if he can't trust anyone right now. And while we're at it, though,
(this may be a minor spoiler, but it's only what everyone saw) in the
scenes for next week we see him about to tell Donna-- why Toby? Not that
it matters, I just would've thought Josh would be the one to tell her.
- Lastly, while we're on the subject of next week's preview, "don't
miss the last five minutes"? What, like I'm going to sit through 55
minutes of a show and then turn it off? Silly.
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