Review of Inauguration, Part 1
Written by Toniann
I always have trouble spelling inauguration.
I'm a little unclear on how many Inaugural Balls there are, and the
whole "different states" thing. And I've been Google searching about
it for the past fifteen minutes, and it's a case of "too much
information, and not what I need". Does it change for each president?
Or are there always eight?
I was just getting into the spirit of the party -- ready to take
Leo's advice and go get some punch and maybe some cheese -- and then
we had to flash back for the rest of the episode! What a tease. We
didn't even get to see Abbey's dress. Just kidding. I thought it was
a great episode, actually. Except that two-parters frustrate the heck
out of me.
Won't you stick around Will Bailey? I've kind of warmed to the guy,
which I imagine is the idea. This was a good episode for him, and
despite his belief that he's only going to be working for the White
House for four more days or so, I think it's pretty likely he'll be
sticking around a lot longer. And that's okay. Plus, with him, we get
Elsie Snuffin -- "I'm not comfortable, but I don't know if it's
because of the name." Go Winnie.
I think my favorite moment of this episode was when Toby explained
the "rubber ball" technique to Will. Because when you've got a system
that works that well, you keep it.
Let me just say that as a librarian and archivist, I thought the
whole Bible subplot was funny, but I can't speak for the rest of the
audience. I've got a number of Bibles as big as the Jonathan Edwards
one in our collection and, yeah, they're really too darn heavy for
Abbey to hold up. I'm also a little sympathetic about the Bartlet
Bible needing climate control for storage, but if you can't take it
out for a spin every once in awhile, where's the fun in that?
Mr. Cravenly. Snicker.
I'm not sure what's going on with CJ and Danny, but I'm enjoying it,
that's for sure.
What *is* that French guy's name? Jean Pierre? Jean Claude? Jean
Paul? Really? Oy vay. I'm with Charlie on that one. Nice bit with him
and Josh ("Are we gonna be together on this?") as Josh continues
obsessing about Donna and her love life.
Donna. Well, we've got about half the story -- I think I can see
where it's leading but -- we might as well wait for next week & see.
Having said that, I think that in this episode, Josh's jealousy about
Jack Reese (and there's really no other word for it) got in the way
of him talking it out more with Donna. In other words, this situation
is obviously headed for disaster, and someone needed to head Donna
off at the pass, and Josh is the obvious choice but he's got too much
conflicting stuff going on about her (and Jack Reese's bladder
discipline) to do it. But we'll see.
If the Chief Justice starts writing memos and rulings in haiku,
then they should get worried. Otherwise, I think it's sort of quirky
and educational. :)
Who's the Gilbert & Sullivan fan on this shindig of a show, huh?
Though this reference (which was Bartlet saying to Will, about his
father Tom Bailey, "He was the very model of a modern Major General",
which is from "Pirates of Penzance") in particular reminds me more of
the scene in "Star Trek: Insurrection" than anything else.
"Has Toby been taking his pants off again?"
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