The West Wing (TV Series) Celestial Navigation (2000) User Reviews

The best tv episode ever written and acted in history.

[l-s-s-yarberry · 10/10 · 15 June 2022]

Honestly if there is only one episode that I get to show to anyone of this series - this is the episode.

This episode has one liners galore!

A plot that is truly iconic and sadly but humorously timeless.

The best of every main character.

Josh, CJ, Sam, Charlie, Jeb, Leo, Toby (even Danny get's a couple words in that just kill me).

There is no way to describe this other than pure TV gold.

This is why it's legendary. This is it.

Absolute perfection

[dtjqvft · 10/10 · 5 November 2022]

This episode brilliantly encapsulates the essence of everything that is The West Wing. Every character is at their very best. Bradley Whitford, in particular, kills every scene he is in - I could (and have) watch(ed) the press room and Oval scenes over and over, only to laugh harder each consecutive time. The scene in the jail cell is shot beautifully, and is a shining example of what The West Wing does perhaps even better than humor: capturing the raw and often painful reality of issues we continue to wrestle with as Americans, and to a greater extent, as humans.

Without question, my favorite episode of Season 1.

Way better than I thought it was going to be....

[SpookyUser · 10/10 · 11 August 2020]

After I saw the first flashback of this episode I had a real bad feeling that this entire episode was going to be a series of stories that didn't make it into the season.

Luckily it was not that, and the perspective the episode was told from ended up being quite unique and nothing I've really seen before with this kind of trope. I think what helped the episode a lot was the intercutting between the retrospective elements of the episode from Josh's point of view and the present elements of the episode at the same time. It kind of made it felt like anything could happen with Mendoza and that it could end up being a disaster similar to the one Josh is talking about right now.

All in all though I guess I was just happy this wasn't a variety special.

Sam's in Foggy Bottom

[robrosenberger · 8/10 · 22 October 2012]

Josh does an interview show, while Toby and Sam go to Connecticut to get Supreme Court nominee Mendoza out of jail, after he'd been arrested on a false drunk-driving charge. Josh's emergency substitution for C.J. in a press conference, because she had emergency root canal, turns into a flaming disaster. Playing the Wesley police sergeant is Vaughn Armstrong (ENTERPRISE). There's also a little CCH Pounder, for all you SHIELD fans out there. The jail cell scene between Toby and Mendoza is towering...it touches upon the raw wound of racism that still festers in this country. Olmos' rage and humiliation are palpable. One of the top ten scenes in show history.

THE WEST WING: SEASON 1, EPISODE 15: Celestial Navigation

[dalydj-918-255175 · 9/10 · 18 July 2023]

THE WEST WING: SEASON 1, EPISODE 15: Celestial Navigation Directed by: Christopher Misiano Written by: Story by : Dee Dee Myers & Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr.

Teleplay by : Aaron Sorkin

This episode certainly was an appreciated break in the story telling of the show. The episode's story being told through mostly flashback while Josh is in an interview at a lecture hall was a great invention.

I really loved this new way of telling the story cause it led to some humorous one liners delivered by the majority of the cast. Josh stepping in for C. J. and doing a White House briefing is an especially great moment of the episode.

Allison Janney with cotton in her mouth is without a doubt one of the funniest moments ever on the show. I must say while there was great comedy featured one of the most impactful scenes of the episode and the series happens in a jail cell between Toby and Roberto Mendoza.

It is a brutally honest discussion about problems with the American justice system & is so brilliantly played by Schiff & Olmos. This is a strong episode for how it balances the comedy & drama for the series & I certainly appreciated it for its place in the run of the show.