oh yeah, i had wanted to comment on last night's west wing. which, falling in line with the rest of season 5, sucked ass.

it was an episode about social security, and how toby comes up with a plan to save it, then screws the entire process up, resigns, but then saves himself by orchestrating a plan that his new slutty-dressing assistant pretty much had come up with in the first place.

first, it was just...boring. not terrible. but deadly boring. there were very few personal interactions; no jokes, as far as i could see; no one talked in the rapidly witty tones they used to employ; everyone walked around like a policy-zombie who's had their favorite kitten killed.

tommy made the good point that a negative thing about the episode was that it took on the huge concept of saving ALL of social security - and it did it in one episode. if a policy change that huge were to have happened in past seasons, it would have become a multi-episode arc. i mean, i love toby and president bartlett, but not even they can save social security in 45 minutes. it did not ring realistic, and everything felt rushed. it might have been an interesting storyline had it been allowed to play out over a few more episodes.

actually, that's something i've noticed a lot this season - i don't know if the new writers are nervous or what, but they have just been cramming storylines into one episode, and not allowing for any general themes to take precedence over the season in multiple episodes. for example, i think charlie's dallyings with the reporter could have been played out to a more dramatic effect - but they had sex, broke up, and did the big slap in one episode. next week, looks like we're going to have a nuclear war. naturally, there were no hints or foreshadowing of that in this week's episode, and i wouldn't be surprised if it were all resolved by 10pm next wednesday.

the good things about the episode: all of donna and josh's interactions (WHEN ARE THEY GETTING TOGETHER??) and the rrrrrrrrramone dude from 24 acting as someone from the argentinean embassy who has a buzz buzz thing with cj. no denying argentinean men, especially the older ones, are hot; i learned that in italy through lots of the argentinean kids' parents. but i do have a complaint about that interaction - he gives her a cabbage as sort of a gag gift because they had a funny conversation about cabbage beforehand. this totally reeked of writer's desperation for humor and crackling, or whatever, personal interaction. they also TOTALLY stole that from season one when danny gave cj a goldfish and it became a running joke! it worked for danny and cj, but just comes off as lame here.

oh well. i am a west wing nerd; it cannot be denied. ignore my dissatisfied ramblings. now i have to go take a sexual harassment training course for two hours. hurrah.