Plot
This episode is mostly about President Bartlet trying to make a decision about commuting the death sentence of a man who has been convicted of drug-related murders. There are a couple scenes in Toby’s synagogue where Toby’s Rabbi tries to convince him against capital punishment. Joey Lucas is introduced, a deaf pollster from California who is upset about the White House’s level of involvement and support fro her candidate, Bill O’Dwyer.
Music
When Toby is discussing capital punishment with his Rabbi, there is a singer practicing while they speak. The song is called “Hashkiveinu” (arranged by Max Helfman) published by Transcontinental Music Publications, ASCAP. This song is really a Jewish prayer that is usually sung.
Errors
After Father Cavanaugh tells his joke/gives his advice, he tells President Bartlet that God sent him “a priest, a rabbi, and a Quaker.” But he was only in the episode at the very end of the episode, for one scene with no breaks to show any conversation other than the one witnessed by the audience, and in this conversation the President does not mention Toby’s Rabbi (Glassman) or the Quaker, the newly introduced deaf California pollster, Joey Lucas.
When Toby is having the capital punishment discussion with his Rabbi, his (the Rabbi’s) arm repeatedly changes position between shots.
Issues
I really don’t know what to feel about capital punishment. I don’t think I’m informed enough to make a decent decision. I know my own nature, I know that when pushed I can be a real vindictive and spiteful bastard. I can take pleasure in meticulously planned and perfectly carried out piece pf revenge. But this is exactly why I think I should be removed from the equation. Charlie says he would want to kill the man who shot and murdered his mother. I don’t think I would feel any different in that situation *knock wood*. But this is a liberal show, I have to take several clotting medications because of my own bleeding heart and yet I don’t have any major quandaries about the death penalty. Why is this?
Trivia
Karl Malden plays President Bartlet’s childhood priest, Father Thomas Cavanaugh, uses a pocket bible to take the President’s Confession. This bible was the same one Malden used when he played Father Barry in On the Waterfront
Sam states that the United States of America is one of the only 5 countries that executes people younger than 18, the others are Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. How proud I am to be an American right now and have my country in this list.
Quiz Question Answer:
The answer is: Jet Airliner by Steve Miller Band
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Gone Fishin'
There will be no posts this or next week. I am on midsemester break and I am determined to enjoy it without any responsibilities. Have a nice day.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Enemies
Catching Up
The President and the Vice President’s relationship is rockier than desired, with both parties harboring resentment toward the other. Malory, Leo’s daughter, has a crush on Sam. C.J. and Danny Concannon, senior White House correspondent have a relationship than is seen as unethical.
Plot
Leo stretches to find work to keep Sam from the date with his daughter. The President is unnecessarily rude and pedantic to the Vice President during a Cabinet meeting and C.J. tries to track down and contain the leak that told Danny about it, while she dodges his consistent attempts to date her. Josh finds a creative way to pass the banking bill that’s being held hostage by a land-use rider.
Jokes
At the beginning of the episode Josh and the President are talking National Parks, but the president is doing the “lion’s share of the talking” as Mrs. Landingham. Josh is getting frustrated because he’s at the office very late and he can’t leave until the President gives him permission: (Bartlet) “Shenandoah National Park. Right here in Virginia. We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah. I can even act as the guide. What do you think?” (Josh) “Good a place as any to dump your body.” (Said under his breath but heard by the President) (Bartlet) “What was that? (Josh pauses just long enough to understand the magnitude of his gaff) (Josh) “Did I say that out loud?” (Bartlet) “See? And I was going to let you go home.” (Josh) “But instead?” (Bartlet) “We're going to talk about Yosemite.”
All the regular power of a corporate boss with all the power of your Commander-in-Chief means you can wield any arbitrary punishments to your staff without fear reprisal. As a side note, I went to Yosemite National; Park with my family when I was very young and was very disappointed when it turned out that everybody wasn’t a two-foot-tall cowboy with ginger mustaches and bad tempers. Seriously, it ruined the whole trip for me.
Mandy is passionately trying to convince Toby to swallow his pride and allow the banking bill to pass with the land-use rider attached. When C.J. enters she gets caught in the crossfire: (Mandy) “Would you tell him that signing the bill and, thus, swallowing the bitter pill of strip mining would not foreclose a P.R. approach that would truncate banking reforms while at the same time excoriating the special interests’ strip mining scam which, by the way, is what I am happy to call it. Tell him that.”(C.J.) “Toby, Mandy wants you to recommend to the President that we do it her way.” (Toby) “Did you understand what she said?” (C.J.) “No, but she seemed pretty confident.”
C.J.’s response to Mandy’s enthusiasm makes me think of the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, in the scenes where different pigs are giving speeches they tend to be in agreement with whoever is speaking at the time. C.J. seems reluctant to make any commitments in this argument and she’s just agreeing with Mandy because she’s afraid of her. They all are. I am.
Errors
There is an error in continuity in this episode. When Sam is writing the birthday message in his office there is a cap on his desk (although it’s not in focus) with the ATF logo. When Malory comes back to offer Sam coffee and dessert, the cap has changed to one with the DEA logo (this time completely in-focus).
Call-Backs
A call-back, in an entertainment context, is when an issue or a joke or an argument etc. from a show or movie or play or book is referenced again. In season four episode 21 “Life on Mars,” the Vice President resigns in disgrace after leaking classified information to the woman he was having an affair with (Helen Baldwin). In this episode when he is confronted by C.J. about the leak in the Cabinet meeting he tells her: “…the implication that I leaked privileged information is as stupid as it is insulting”.
In the same confrontation he reminds C.J. “…that whatever you may old for me personally, you are addressing the office of the Vice President.” We do not know it at this spot in the show, but C.J. slept with the Vice President. I’m not sure if the writers were thinking that far ahead, especially at this early point in the show’s life. More likely this statement is regarding the rocky relationship between the Vice President and the President and his staff.
Trivia
This is the first episode of the series that was not written by Aaron Sorkin, at least entirely, and it’s the only one in season one.
During the cabinet meeting, President Bartlet tells the room that he thinks they are a “mind-numbing experience” but Leo assures him that they are “constitutionally required.” Really the President is under no constitutional requirement to hold the meetings at all, they are for his benefit and he can hold them whenever he wants.
The most recent proclamation under the antiquities act was by George W Bush, who used it for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument (June 15th, 2006).
Quiz Question:
At the beginning of season seven, what’s the name of the song playing during the Santos campaign montage?
The answer next week
The President and the Vice President’s relationship is rockier than desired, with both parties harboring resentment toward the other. Malory, Leo’s daughter, has a crush on Sam. C.J. and Danny Concannon, senior White House correspondent have a relationship than is seen as unethical.
Plot
Leo stretches to find work to keep Sam from the date with his daughter. The President is unnecessarily rude and pedantic to the Vice President during a Cabinet meeting and C.J. tries to track down and contain the leak that told Danny about it, while she dodges his consistent attempts to date her. Josh finds a creative way to pass the banking bill that’s being held hostage by a land-use rider.
Jokes
At the beginning of the episode Josh and the President are talking National Parks, but the president is doing the “lion’s share of the talking” as Mrs. Landingham. Josh is getting frustrated because he’s at the office very late and he can’t leave until the President gives him permission: (Bartlet) “Shenandoah National Park. Right here in Virginia. We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah. I can even act as the guide. What do you think?” (Josh) “Good a place as any to dump your body.” (Said under his breath but heard by the President) (Bartlet) “What was that? (Josh pauses just long enough to understand the magnitude of his gaff) (Josh) “Did I say that out loud?” (Bartlet) “See? And I was going to let you go home.” (Josh) “But instead?” (Bartlet) “We're going to talk about Yosemite.”
All the regular power of a corporate boss with all the power of your Commander-in-Chief means you can wield any arbitrary punishments to your staff without fear reprisal. As a side note, I went to Yosemite National; Park with my family when I was very young and was very disappointed when it turned out that everybody wasn’t a two-foot-tall cowboy with ginger mustaches and bad tempers. Seriously, it ruined the whole trip for me.
Mandy is passionately trying to convince Toby to swallow his pride and allow the banking bill to pass with the land-use rider attached. When C.J. enters she gets caught in the crossfire: (Mandy) “Would you tell him that signing the bill and, thus, swallowing the bitter pill of strip mining would not foreclose a P.R. approach that would truncate banking reforms while at the same time excoriating the special interests’ strip mining scam which, by the way, is what I am happy to call it. Tell him that.”(C.J.) “Toby, Mandy wants you to recommend to the President that we do it her way.” (Toby) “Did you understand what she said?” (C.J.) “No, but she seemed pretty confident.”
C.J.’s response to Mandy’s enthusiasm makes me think of the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, in the scenes where different pigs are giving speeches they tend to be in agreement with whoever is speaking at the time. C.J. seems reluctant to make any commitments in this argument and she’s just agreeing with Mandy because she’s afraid of her. They all are. I am.
Errors
There is an error in continuity in this episode. When Sam is writing the birthday message in his office there is a cap on his desk (although it’s not in focus) with the ATF logo. When Malory comes back to offer Sam coffee and dessert, the cap has changed to one with the DEA logo (this time completely in-focus).
Call-Backs
A call-back, in an entertainment context, is when an issue or a joke or an argument etc. from a show or movie or play or book is referenced again. In season four episode 21 “Life on Mars,” the Vice President resigns in disgrace after leaking classified information to the woman he was having an affair with (Helen Baldwin). In this episode when he is confronted by C.J. about the leak in the Cabinet meeting he tells her: “…the implication that I leaked privileged information is as stupid as it is insulting”.
In the same confrontation he reminds C.J. “…that whatever you may old for me personally, you are addressing the office of the Vice President.” We do not know it at this spot in the show, but C.J. slept with the Vice President. I’m not sure if the writers were thinking that far ahead, especially at this early point in the show’s life. More likely this statement is regarding the rocky relationship between the Vice President and the President and his staff.
Trivia
This is the first episode of the series that was not written by Aaron Sorkin, at least entirely, and it’s the only one in season one.
During the cabinet meeting, President Bartlet tells the room that he thinks they are a “mind-numbing experience” but Leo assures him that they are “constitutionally required.” Really the President is under no constitutional requirement to hold the meetings at all, they are for his benefit and he can hold them whenever he wants.
The most recent proclamation under the antiquities act was by George W Bush, who used it for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument (June 15th, 2006).
Quiz Question:
At the beginning of season seven, what’s the name of the song playing during the Santos campaign montage?
The answer next week
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