Review of Life on Mars
Written by Toniann
I don't usually do anything other than random commentary, but I
feel compelled to share that this episode felt great to me. I liked
the pacing, the dialogue -- the plot. I felt like I was watching
Season 2 TWW again, and it worked great for me. Reminded me of "17
People", when Toby was figuring the MS thing out. YMMV.
That was one beat-up cab that poor Claire Hall arrived in, from
Hoynes' office. I say "poor" because she looked pretty young and this
was a miserable little task she had there. To have to carry a
resignation letter from your boss is one thing, but to know that
yours is the hand that is carrying history into the Oval Office --
not to mention, you're out of a job as of right now. Seriously, she
had my sympathies, possibly more than anyone else in the whole
fiasco. It's tough working for a politician; you put your faith and
trust in their hands, and they screw up and your life is turned
upside down. And she may have really liked and respected Hoynes as
well, and feel confused about that now.
Do they actually call that, officially, the "Morning Press Gaggle"?
That's great. Gaggle. Like, geese.
I'm wondering if CJ ended the day by wishing she hadn't dumped the
science thing on Joe Quincy just for kicks (even if she outranks him
by, like, seventeen rungs), and had instead just put mayonnaise on
his parking spot like everyone else -- hey, they didn't know he was a
biscuit!
Is it just me or does the Steam Pipe Distribution Center look even
sadder without Ainsley in it?
Richard Schiff sounded like he had a cold. But on the other hand,
it completely added to the "misery" thing Toby had going. Guess Team
Toby isn't getting it done.
What tennis was Charlie watching? I'm a tennis fan and the only
thing I knew was going on right now was the Valencia Open and the BMW
Open, and the J&S Cup. Which is great, but it's not Wimbledon or the
French Open or anything. I'm just saying.
I think they're continuing a theme of Josh giving Donna more
significant work -- he assigned her something and she commented him
doing it, just briefly. I'm assuming that the feeling of TPTB is that
if Donna's such a major character in the show she'd be more
interesting taking a more significant role plotwise. I guess.
Do you think Will really can keep all the Laurens straight and is
just joshing them (no pun intended)? Cause I can't. But they've
developed a nice dry sense of group humor there, so I like those
guys. What they needed to do to make those scenes perfect was get Ed
& Larry in there.
What was with the bird and the tapping? (Psst - if you didn't get
the Tippi Hedren reference, she was in Hitchcock's "The Birds").
Also, what's the big thing about getting a lawyer to say "shyster"?
Is this some sort of lawyer gag I didn't know about, not being one
(not even the Josh kind)?
I'm sorry, I know there were other more important things going on,
but I loved Stu Winkle. Wasn't he great? I mean, okay, a little
focused on clothes, but if CJ Cregg called me, I'd be all a-flutter
too.
I enjoyed the unraveling of the Vice-President's story immensely,
and I just want to give kudos to the writers because half-way through
I was sitting there saying, "I don't buy it! Why would he betray them
for a book deal, or a cut of one? That's crazy!". And then -- ahhhh.
The oldest reason in the book: an affair gone bad. That, I buy.
The scene between Leo, Bartlet, and Hoynes out on the walkway was
fantastic -- if only because of the moment when Bartlet (I think)
said, "Didn't you have a clue that she was the kind of person who
would do this to you? Couldn't you tell?" I'm eagerly awaiting the
transcript, because Hoynes' reply is a sad statement that is all the
sadder because I personally think truer words have not been spoken:
to paraphrase, the people who betray you are so often the ones you
wouldn't think would do that.
Why *was* Toby having a salad?
"Yeah, we're gonna need a new Vice-President."