Top 5 S2 WW episodes...

[out_there]

I'm officially blah...

Spent yesterday in bed, snoozing and watching tapes. Missed taping the end of Tank Girl which is mildly annoying, since I'll probably never bother to hire the film, so I'll never know what happened. But I can guess.

I also spent some time watching WW again. My favourite season 2 episodes are:

1. Somebody's going to Emergency, Somebody's going to Jail because of woobie!Sam, and CJ dealing with the Cartographers Against Inequality

2. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen because it's slashy and the flashbacks rock. (Hey, I'm planning on introducing WW to fannish friends using this double episode. Can anyone else see any difficulty with that?)

3. Noel because of woobie Josh. I swear, if you haven't fallen for Josh, when you see that episode you love him completely. Plus, there's Leo's 'Friends in a Hole' story which makes me smile every time.

4. Galileo for several reasons. CJ's evening gown (the dark blue skirt and shawl, with a white and black top...which I love), the CJ-Toby and CJ-Sam snark, Sam being bitchy (we're both writers "if you expand the definition to those who can spell" and his comments about Mallory's hockey-player boyfriend) and the entire atmosphere of hope surrounding the space travel. I like it so much.

5. This spot is hotly debated, but it goes to The Leadership Breakfast because of the teaser for that episode. I love Josh and Sam starting the fire, and I like CJ being proved right about where to hold the press conference. (Although Ann Stark can bug me a bit.)

Hmmm... It's amusing that my favourite episodes all occur before SGTE,SGTJ. I'm mentally just around that episode in S2. Mainly it's a case of I want to finish the WW fic before I get distracted with other ideas. Hence, I refuse to think about them.

Comments

[tangleofthorns.livejournal.com]

I used to hate TLB, but I'm over that now. My favorites would include all of the above, except replacing TLB with Two Cathedrals. 'Cause. Oh. Sniff. Really.

I really need to break my S2 tapes out and rediscover them. Maybe soon.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

I really need to break my S2 tapes out and rediscover them. Maybe soon.

*nods* Yeah, come back to the time when the White House had enthusiasm and idealism, before MS and other assorted things broke their hearts.

Personally, the tapes I'm watching aren't mine. I borrowed them from a Sydney friend (at the end of February) and every time I think about posting them back, I want to watch just one more episode. *g*

I used to hate TLB, but I'm over that now.

How come? *curious*

My favorites would include all of the above, except replacing TLB with Two Cathedrals. 'Cause. Oh. Sniff. Really.

Yeah, good point. Although, I also like the Third Stte of the Union/War at Home because of Ainsley's "Blame it on the Bossanova" dance, and the Stackhouse Filibuster with everyone writing to their parents (and Josh's wonderful fall, which makes me crack up every time).

Yeah, the fifth position is... up for debate.

[tangleofthorns.livejournal.com]

Why I hated TLB: I thought the characterization of Toby was completely off. I think he was made dumb for the purpose of the plot, and I was very annoyed by that. Toby isn't that easily bamboozled. Shouldn't be.

And the Karen Cahill/Donna's panties subplot got on my nerves in the worst way. It was gratuitous and it was not funny enough to justify its own existence.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

Ah. The Karen Cahill thing amuses me. (Yes, I am easily amused.)

As for Toby... I bought it. I don't know if he was made dumb, so much as taken in by his own ego. *shruggs* I mean, sure, it's something slightly more likely to happen to Josh, but Toby can also really get into that winning for the sake of winning, and proving that we're better, thing.

I guess it's just a case of I enjoy seeing all of them pulled down occasionally. It sounds mean, but all of the staff have their bad days and their mistakes. If Toby was going to screw up, I think it would be related to his own ego, to proving that he's the smartest kid in the class, and that it probably would be one of those things where he hadn't listened to other people's opinions.

Hmmm...

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

I agree with a lot of the list, except for TLB and possibly Noel (there's some internal chronology problems that really annoy me).

[out-there.livejournal.com]

Really? What are they?

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Do you belong to the Aussie West Wing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/twwoz)? It's very good. We discussed the Noel problems at the time, so I'll cut and paste from posts by krazykitkat and myself.

"We start off on Chrissie Eve.
Then Stanley asks Josh what happened three weeks ago.
We flash back three weeks, Toby has the brass quintet, Josh finds out about the pilot, CJ meets with Bernard.

Then we have the flashbacks to the bagpipe incident. Josh says to Toby that they had the brass quintet 2 weeks ago. And then CJ says to Carol that she met Bernard a few days ago (?) and she wants to look at the report. I assume that same day (CJ is wearing the same clothes), Josh comes into her office while she's looking at the file about the painting and he carrys on about no new info about the pilot (which seems right if it had happened a day or two before, but totally weird if it was 2 weeks before). Not sure whether this was suppsoed to be the day of the Chrissie party (ie. 5 days before). If so, CJ made quick work of getting the painting passed to be given back and the woman down there! Either that or it was a couple of days before the party.

Anyways, the 2 weeks passing between the flashbacks is totally off. It seems to be more like 2 days.

And the last thing is that it took them 4 -5 days to get Josh to go to the hospital?"

"bugged the hell out of me too. And not only did it take them five days before making sure Josh got his hand properly taken care of (the more immediate problem), why did it take five days to organise meeting with ATVA? They'd been worried about him before them meltdown in the Oval Office (did the
absolutely stricken and concerned look on Sam's face in that scene get to anyone else?) and he was basically having a breakdown, not knowing what was going on with himself.

Brilliant acting, editing, directing and writing, pity about the continuity."

[out-there.livejournal.com]

Ah, no I'm not part of the list, but I'm not keeping up with the episodes (Buffy is the first priority... *g*) so I prefer not to be too spoiled.

As for Noel, I didn't spot the CJ/Bernard thing, but I'll pay attention next time I watch the episode. (It's going to be rewatched. Oh, yes, it is.) I'm not too worried about the continuity though, because the entire retelling of events relies upon Josh's statements.

Throughout the episode he is shown to be an unreliable narrator. The fact that we get these continual flashes of him breaking the glass, as well as the initial shot of him turning around with the broken window behind him, shows that he is putting a lot of effort into "damage control".

Hence, my assupmtion is that firstly, the CJ/Bernard thing is just something that he'd heard about, not something he witnessed, so his memory of the timeframe may be out. Secondly, I don't think that his retelling of the events would have been particularly chronologically correct anyway, even for the things that he was personally involved in.

Hmmm... I don't know. I'll have to watch it again to come to a better decision. Although, it'll still be on my top five list because it's an episode that just makes me *fall* for Josh. It makes me love him dearly.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

I'd have to watch it again to comment a-fresh, cause I haven't seen it in yonks. I was just...underwhelmed the first time I saw Noel, and then there were problems with it too. I'd seen so much raving about it, that by the time I saw it, I was a bit 'eh?'.

I do know that my top 5 would almost certainly be only S1-S2. Haven't seen S4 yet, and S3 was also underwhelming.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

I was the opposite. I honestly hadn't heard much about Noel (or most of the S2 episodes, apart from ITSOTG and Two Cathedrals which Dad raved about) so I didn't have particularly high expectations.

None the less, it is an episode that bowled me over. I was highly impressed by it and just fell for Josh.

I do know that my top 5 would almost certainly be only S1-S2. Haven't seen S4 yet, and S3 was also underwhelming.

I was amused that they were all S2 episodes, in a very limited time frame! *g*