Review of The Two Bartlets
Written by Toniann
Well, I just need to say, for the record, that Josh using the old coffee grounds that he'd just thrown in the garbage? That was gross.
Sigh. And, while we're at it... I'm sorry, I really am, but I just don't like Amy Gardner. That nasally voice is driving me up a wall. And, there's just something about the character's personality that's unappealing to me. So it's making it kind of hard for me to even feel like watching the Josh/Amy scenes. Not to mention, that was a little too off-subject for me. Can we be done with romance now and get back to political drama?
But, you know, just to comment: I knew they wouldn't get to Tahiti, and I knew they'd fight over it. I liked Sam calling Josh on that one: "Guys like you -- I'm one of them." But otherwise, talk about a predictable plot. Yawn.
As a side note, did you notice that Donna seemed rather jealous/catty with all of her remarks about "the lovemaking" -- hey, Josh told her he'd slept with Amy, obviously, she can tease if she wants to. Plus, she obviously helped with the Tahiti-apartment ("Donna told me to come over"), which was nice of her. But, then Donna said "I'm kind of seeing somebody" and "I'm dating a lawyer". I guess Cliff is back in the picture.
I've already seen some posts asking about the Bartlet/Toby scene at the end, and we might as well talk about that big ol' elephant in the middle of the room. Folks, I don't have the answers either, but I think Toby spent much of this episode disappointed in Bartlet, feeling that he's "doing it again", taking the safe road, not standing up for what he believes in, forgetting that some things are "more important than getting re-elected". And so he confronted Bartlet -- which I expected. And I expected Bartlet to be mad at him for it. I'm not quite sure, though, that Toby's methods were the best. Confronting him about his abusive father in the Oval Office -- well, that takes guts, if nothing else, you've got to give Toby that.
My favorite part of this episode: CJ, by far. The phone call with her father. Her impassioned argument against affirmative action (agree or disagree, she articulated her point with vigor). The way she finally broke down with Toby, admitting what's going on with her father -- and then, when Sam interrupted, she shifted gears into humor, all without blinking an eye, recovering her composure, hiding her pain behind a professional demeanor. She's one classy lady, hands down.
You know, while CJ's butter cow riff was really serving as a defense mechanism for her, it was also rather funny. I liked the bit about the irony of a cow made out of butter. The Last Supper in butter sounded like something to see as well.
Second favorite part of this episode: Sam and Bob, the UFO guy. For one thing, I love continuity. For another, I love when this show takes what seemed like a silly bit of comedy and finds the serious side. When Sam asked how long Bob's father had been dead, and realized the man in front of him was still grieving, that was a nice moment. Also, you know, any time we get to see a guy in the White House basically saying, "Roswell! Roswell!", that works for me.
Anyone got any thoughts about why the lights kept flickering on Air Force One? No, I don't mean the technical reason. I mean, was there a metaphor there I was missing? It happened pretty often throughout the episode, the third of fourth time I figured they were trying to tell us something.
"Tell me more, Obi-Wan."
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