After three humorless episodes, Deborah Cahn again demonstrates she's the only one who knows how to write sorkin-funny. It's C.J.'s first day as Chief of Staff...watch her get creamed! And misrepresented. And bullied by the male establishment. But there's also a brilliant practical joke wherein Toby and Josh (then Jed) pretend to resign. Plus, Georgia (not the state) asks her to accept a gift of weapons-grade uranium. Two of the final three undebuted major characters roll in, as Annabeth Schott (the irrepressible Kristin Chenoweth - KRISTIN, GCB) non-interviews for press secretary. Josh tries to talk congressperson Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits - SWITCH, NYPD BLUE) out of early retirement. Say hello to the tallest and shortest WW regulars ever, one of whom (the perky one) would be criminally underused.
2 Reviews
A Ray of Hope & Humour
Sonatine9721 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
One criticism (of many) I had with season 5 was the lack of pith/humour/sparkle in some of the episodes. Far too much doom and gloom, with constant bickering among the staff, and a general feeling of angst.
This carried on for the first 2 or 3 episodes of S6, with Leo and the Middle East conflicts. But fortunately the writing skills of Deborah Cahn was at the helm of this particular episode, and what an amazing transformation she performed!
It's CJ's first day as CoS, and obviously she is faced with an almost vertical learning curve to confront, even though Bartlet advised Charlie to make it a "light day" for her. Nonetheless rather than turn her first day into another doom & gloom story, Cahn added plenty of humour to keep things positive & laugh-out loud funny.
Examples include. Josh, Toby and Bartlet all informing her that "your new role isn't going to work, and therefore I am resigning". A big joke of course, and the look on CJ's face is priceless.
Then there's Toby taking over CJ's old job as temporary Press Secretary; and typically given his prickly nature with the press he makes all sorts of embarrassing comments about CJ swatting various undesirables with her handbag! Josh sees this on his TV and runs through the halls of the West Wing to the Press Room in order pull Toby out of there before he does any more damage! Again a very funny scene.
The arrival of Annabeth Schott is also welcome, and she acts as a perfect foil to Toby's continued misery of being the Press Secretary. But again the writing is positive, and Schott tries to improve Toby's image to the press corp, which again is fun to watch.
But despite the humour there are also a few touching moments - one is CJ almost pleading with Margaret to stay with her rather than leave the White House now that Leo has stepped down. For without Margaret CJ would be completely out of her depth.
It was also good to see Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) make his debut, albeit only for a couple of minutes in this episode). Another fresh face with a significant role to play in future episodes.
And there is another touching moment where we see CJ almost losing it after her first day in her new job. She visits Leo at his bedside, who is still in a coma. But she confesses that this is "not going to work out" and is almost on the verge of tears, before pulling herself together the following day.
A very good episode, with plenty of highlights and new faces.
This carried on for the first 2 or 3 episodes of S6, with Leo and the Middle East conflicts. But fortunately the writing skills of Deborah Cahn was at the helm of this particular episode, and what an amazing transformation she performed!
It's CJ's first day as CoS, and obviously she is faced with an almost vertical learning curve to confront, even though Bartlet advised Charlie to make it a "light day" for her. Nonetheless rather than turn her first day into another doom & gloom story, Cahn added plenty of humour to keep things positive & laugh-out loud funny.
Examples include. Josh, Toby and Bartlet all informing her that "your new role isn't going to work, and therefore I am resigning". A big joke of course, and the look on CJ's face is priceless.
Then there's Toby taking over CJ's old job as temporary Press Secretary; and typically given his prickly nature with the press he makes all sorts of embarrassing comments about CJ swatting various undesirables with her handbag! Josh sees this on his TV and runs through the halls of the West Wing to the Press Room in order pull Toby out of there before he does any more damage! Again a very funny scene.
The arrival of Annabeth Schott is also welcome, and she acts as a perfect foil to Toby's continued misery of being the Press Secretary. But again the writing is positive, and Schott tries to improve Toby's image to the press corp, which again is fun to watch.
But despite the humour there are also a few touching moments - one is CJ almost pleading with Margaret to stay with her rather than leave the White House now that Leo has stepped down. For without Margaret CJ would be completely out of her depth.
It was also good to see Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) make his debut, albeit only for a couple of minutes in this episode). Another fresh face with a significant role to play in future episodes.
And there is another touching moment where we see CJ almost losing it after her first day in her new job. She visits Leo at his bedside, who is still in a coma. But she confesses that this is "not going to work out" and is almost on the verge of tears, before pulling herself together the following day.
A very good episode, with plenty of highlights and new faces.
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