Jack & Bobby ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

I watched the beginning and the ending last night while taking care of other affairs. To my surprise, it was pretty good. Though I never got straight which brother was Jack and which was Bobby, nor which of the two becomes president.

The whole time I was watching, though, I was hung up on it being a fictionalized retelling of the Kennedy's life. The names and profession just pull me mentally to the Kennedys. I think this show would be improved just by changing the characters' names.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jack's the older one, and Bobby's the younger one.

I think the naming was intentional to draw viewers in, but hopefully once they got the viewers to watch the show, they'd get sucked into the narrative even if the name of the show has some tangential reference to the Kennedy clan.

 

[todd s]

Dave,

To answer who the president is: Bobby becomes the president and ends up marrying Courtney who Jack is going out with in the show.

Another little twist that was quietly mentioned:
Jack dies before Bobby even runs for Congress.

 

[Jonathan Carter]

Well at least I now have 1 other show to watch this season other than Smallville and CSI. I checked it out last night and was inexplicably hooked after the 1st 5 min. I'm a sucker for stuff involving brothers like this though.

 

[Citizen87645]

I liked the tone of the pilot and the structure with the interviews. I'm a sucker for stories with reflective sentiment and nostalgia. But I'm wondering if the use of interviews will carry through the rest of the series or hold up if it does? I mean, how long can this apparent documentary on Pres. McAllister go? I guess we'll just have to see...

 

[Citizen87645]

And I thought the biggest tip off about who they were talking about was when

someone said the president was more comfortable talking to women. When they cut to Jack's exchange with Courtney it really didn't illustrate that comment, raising a red flag as it being a red herring. Plus, it was preceded by Bobby's much smoother first interaction with Courtney.

Again, the coyness was fun for the pilot but would have been annoying past that.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Enjoyable but a bit contrived in parts.

Here are a few examples:




Boy says something to offend Mother. Mother slaps him and then appologizes.

Bullys in school pick on nerd boy.

Kid loses enhaler and ends up in Hospital.


The whole secret as to one of them becoming President is distracting and tends to pull me out of the story. Plus TV guide says...

One of them dies
which also is distracting.

Enjoyed Christine Lahti as always but the jury is still out.

 

[Patrick Sun]

That was stated by Courtney in her "interview" segment from 2040's.

Of course, having Slattery play the money-grubbing whore Peter Benedict was great, (though I knew he'd end up Peter, so I'd call it predictable writing, still fun, though). The look on Grace's face when it hits her that she's been having a delightful conversation with someone she previously demonized in her head before even getting to know them.

Anyone else noticed that Jessica Pare' (Courtney's later scenes in the episode appeared to be filmed earlier because her earlier scenes featured her with new caps on her teeth to close up her gaps).

 

[Citizen87645]

Don't forget the whole "oops, the guy I was sharing my complaints with turns out to be the guy I was complaining about" scenario. Didn't see that one coming!

 

[DaveF]

Patrick. Thanks

Todd - I heard that dialog from Courtney, but I was confused on who was who so I didn't really get it. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Ken Chan]

Hmm, I will have to stare at Jessica some more. I was wondering if gaps are genetic, in the off chance we have children.

Comparing the episode to the DVD, they recast the older version of Jack's friend, who becomes Chief of Staff; redid some of the presidential montage at the beginning; and cut a few lines between Jack and Courtney in the cafeteria. The thing already ran five minutes over, so I wonder why they did that. The other girl at their table looked like Scarlett Johansson, but isn't.

David Paymer played the election strategist; he played basically the same thing in the movie The American President, which formed the basis for The West Wing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Looking at the Executive Producers, you pretty much know what you're going to get.

The one thing that struck me about the pilot was that, political/scifi trappings aside, it was tonally very close to the first season of "Everwood" before it went soap-ish.

The thing that struck me about it was just how much better the slower, more contemplative pacing plays.

Berlanti knows how to get a big name lead and really utilize them. Grace McCallister is the perfect anwser to Andrew Brown.

Assuming "Jack & Bobby" makes it as a series, I think Berlanti will have covered a significant range of the human experience with those two characters alone.

I was also struck by just how complex the characterization of Jack was; he was hardly the usual angry, rebellious teen of these types of shows. You could tell that despite being a jock there was just as much going on behind the scenes for him as there was for her.

 

[todd s]

Just curious as to who you would have made president if you you were the writers?

I would have went with Jack. Just because it was obvious that they were going to make it Bobby. It was even a little obvious that he would end up with Courtney.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

When the concept was presented to Berlanti, Jack was the one who was going to be President.

I think the reason they went with Bobby was because Jack's personality and values are already pretty defined; Jack knows who he is. By making the untested Bobby the future president, we as an audience get to see the forces that shape him into who he is going to be.

It'll be interesting if we get to see the future Bobby as President how different he'll be from the Bobby on the show.

 

[StephenT]

Watched the first episode and then deleted the season pass from my TiVo. I just couldn't stand the mother character. Made it hard for me to watch. I've watched Everwood from episode one, so I gave this a try. Maybe I'm leaving too soon, but I have enough other stuff to watch. I'll probably check into the episode threads here to see if it goes anywhere interesting. Jack and the girl he liked were characters that interested me, but the rest not so much.

 

[Patrick Sun]

9/19/04 (spoilers below):

Hmm, now it gets interesting in terms of the
fictional shift in how politics change when Bobby becomes president because Bobby becomes president as an independent. That puts a different spin on Bobby's formative years, doesn't it?

Grace's speech to the incoming freshmen was pretty good. I wish I got it when I was an incoming freshman. I wouldn't have been so afraid to try new things and fail at them, instead of simply succeeding at a narrow focus.

Bobby's innate compassionate nature shows through when he tries to get Jack's suspension from the track team lifted, making things worse, but at the same time, learning another hard lesson.

In all, a good episode, and looking forward to the rest of the season.

 

[Kevin Porter]

I was really impressed with tonight's episode. I was kinda "ehh" about what I saw of the pilot but tonight's was much better. It's rather jolting to be watching a show that doesn't pander to the younger demographics or dumb down the political speak for the masses and then look at the WB logo in the corner. And props to WB for keeping it in it's original aspect ratio. It's very refreshing to see a well directed, well written, and well acted new show in a vast wasteland of shows that are not. You really can see the Tommy Schlamme touch in the visuals. He really does make it feel like a film moreso than a TV show.

 

[Patrick Sun]

9/26/04
Bobby learns some hard lessons on peer pressure after Grace bullies her way into getting Bobby into the "Challenge" program at his school.

Bobby tried his best to keep Courtney from finding out that Jack and his old flame re-connected.

Grace's reaction to the party at her house was funny.

The inter-splicing of Bobby's 8-second brain fart in the 3-way presidential debate with how Bobby handled being thrown in the Challenge program, and then destroying a shrine because his new buddies pressured him to do it was somewhat effective in terms of a framework for Bobby's past lessons providing not quite the footing he needed, but the moral compass he choose to heed after days of remorse set in over the weekend.

I'm not buying that Paul Sorvino would have made a good president.

Perhaps that's why he was a 1-termer.

Grace's idea of "paying it forward" in terms of her feminism, bites her in the butt with her overworked single mom/T.A. becoming a plagiarist, though she still manages to rid herself of the T.A. while also giving her a last chance.

Grace finding out how bright Jack was makes her see Jack in a new light, but how intellectually shallow can she be? Now that she knows Jack is capable of more, what will she do with him? Can't blame Jack for his 8th grade actions because he just wanted to be normal, to fit in socially in school.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I only caught one episode- when did they reveal which one will be President?

 

[Patrick Sun]

In the first episode.