The West Wing - 10/1/03 (1 Viewer)

[Chad R]

Anyone else feel it was a tad anticlimatic? The way Zoe was found seemed rushed at the end, and the way Walken abdicated the office was also rushed. It just felt like they wasted a little too much time in the first three acts and wrapped everything up too quickly. It didn't build properly. It was just stagnant, then boom everything wrapped up.

I didn't mind that they wrapped it up in this episode, just that the didn't do anything for 45 minutes, then did everything in 15.

 

[Thomas H G]

Totally. They could of done soo much more with the story line. I'm glad that she's ok, but I'm not even sure how they found her--the captions didn't tell the whole story and I could barely hear the radio.

King Ralp did walk away pretty honorably. I wonder if there will be some drama with him later on in the season.

 

[Brad Porter]

I agree that the show wasn't well structured. I rewound the TiVo to get the description of how Zoey was found and couldn't make any sense out of it at all. Also the time spent with Pierce the intern was completely unrewarding. I didn't expect to miss Aaron Sorkin so quickly.

I'm wondering if that "nice office" line from Zeljko Ivanek was an indicator that the show has a plan for a future administration change. While I think the current cast is uniformly excellent, I would be intrigued by a mass cast change surrounding the next election. That is, of course, if the show survives that long.

Brad

 

[Rob Speicher]

I don't think they meant for the entire explanation to be audible. In fact, they faded it out. There was something about going inside to get out of the rain (??) and Zoe made a call on her (?) cell phone - which doesn't make sense, why would the kidnappers not search her for a cell phone?

I didn't think too much of it last night but yes, now that you've brought it up, it was very rushed. Could have been a two-parter.

 

[Scott>G]

When I looked at the clock towards the end of the show I was convinced it was going to ge a two parter. Then all the sudden everything was resolved. Very anticlimatic.

 

[Chad R]

I didn't either. The meeting between Josh and the republican in the bathroom with the, "we're not stupid enough to capitalize on this" was very explanatory, somethin Sorkin usually avoided, and reaked of Wells (and almost looked like a scene from E.R.)

I'm very skeptical of the coming season.

 

[Andy_G]

WW has now officially "Jumped the Shark."

 

[Michael*K]

(and almost looked like a scene from E.R.)

Yeah, I almost expected someone to come into that bathroom and beat Josh within an inch of his life so he could spend the next several seasons moping around aimlessly.

 

[PhilipG]

I'll reserve judgement on the series till next week's ep.

Goodman was fantastic. I wish the mini-arc could have gone on just to have him remain on the show for a little longer.

And I'm glad Zoe is safe. Now time to withdraw that immunity on the French Prince, and set Jack Bauer on him.

 

[CharlesD]

Very disappointing. I agree with the comments about how they found Zoey. Goodman was great in his role but I was hoping for some more conflict between him and Bartlet's staff at least if not an outright power struggle. the show seems quite bland now and I really miss Sorkin's snappy dialog as well.

 

[Chad R]

I was very surprised by this as well. With the talk about them letting more conservative views into the show I really expected Walken to ram a Vice President through--and set up a great deal of conflict for the coming season. But that's John Wells for you, although his tenure on E.R. was when the show was at its best, he shied away from committing to long term, interesting storylines; like Hathaway going to Med School in favor of mopey, "some guy beat the shit out of me in the bathroom" storylines.