Random Thoughts on The Warfare of Genghis Khan
Written by Toniann
Where is Abbey, by the way? It seems like lately we're seeing a lot of
Bartlet waking up at some ungodly hour, and the First Lady isn't there.
Argentina, perhaps?
Charlie brought coffee in disposable cups in for everyone, and Bartlet
said something about the mess not being open at 3 AM. As we learned back in
the day, there isn't really an all-night pastry chef, either. But why? Not
the pastry chef, but what I'm saying is, considering that the governing of
the country is a 24-hour-a-day job, and considering that this can't be the
only time there've been late-night meetings, or the staff has worked round
the clock, shouldn't they maybe consider at least a skeleton crew night
shift in the kitchen?
Is it just me, or was that CIA director guy being specifically pissy with
Nancy McNally? I got that the prez didn't like the guy, but it seemed to me
like Mr. CIA was nitpicking Nancy in particular. I like her; he should stop.
Did you notice that Toby has completely become Leo's go-to guy? It's
almost as if he's taken over Josh's job of being Deputy CoS, and now Josh is
just left out there on his own, taking swings in the dirt at whatever gets
his attention. But more on Joshua later.
Speaking of Leo, I liked when he said something about the Swiss being able
to afford nice furnishing because they don't have to pay for national
defense. You know, I've been considering defecting to Canada, but maybe
Switzerland's an idea. They must have nicely furnished libraries, too,
right?
Lone moment of humor in this episode: Carol's "Bawk. Bawk. Bawk bawk."
message from Danny ("I don't think I can do it justice"). But it would have
been more fun if Danny had actually been there, so, you know, there's a
downside.
Wow, nobody holds a grudge like Toby. Kind of getting old, though.
Hey, Bingo Bob to the rescue. He actually made a big contribution there --
if they'd kept pushing at Iran, and erroneously, things might have gotten
ugly. Uglier. Anyhow, although Leo still refuses to see any value in the
Veep, I think Jed does -- and I think Russell knows it.
So, this is the part where I have to spend a little time ranting about the
Josh/NASA subplot and how *awful* it was. First off, Josh came off as
over-the-top cocky and negative so very obviously just so that we could see
him turn around at the end of the show. Honestly, that had all the subtlety
of a freight train. More to the point, though, is this not the same show
where President Bartlet has repeatedly stressed how much the space program
means to him? "Galileo 5," anyone? Didn't Sam once passionately defend the
Mars program to Mallory? Isn't Toby's brother a mission specialist? Granted,
we were dealing with Josh last night, possibly the least imaginative of the
bunch when it comes to this kind of thing, but are we supposed to think that
Bartlet would, for one moment, have approved of Josh sitting there and
dismissing all of NASA as screw-up geeks? Calling the Space Station useless,
saying that we've gained nothing from the space program since we landed on
the moon? (I've got news for you, buddy: the moon landing itself wasn't the
most informative mission: it was the ones that came after where real
scientific work got done. Prepared for the meeting, huh?)
Are we supposed to believe these are the kind of people who needed to spend
an entire episode being reluctantly convinced that space exploration is
worthwhile? I'm not debating the issue myself -- I'm saying, we've been led
to believe that the Bartlet administration supports NASA for four seasons,
but in now season five we need to pretend they don't for an episode, just so
that we can get a 9th grade astronomy lesson. Honestly, it's the first time
this show has completely disappointed me. I thought the whole subplot was
poorly conceived and a waste of our time. End of rant.
In other news, that was a heckuva nice gift to leave on Josh's doorstep --
he seriously owes Ms. Moreau dinner.
"Remembrance of things past."