So long dear friend
Today was the series finale of probably my favorite show of all time (to date), The West Wing. I have watched this show from the first episode. I remember I heard about it before it started up and it just sounded interesting, then I watched it and I was hooked. From the pediconferencing to the quick witty dialogue, it was not only mentally stimulating as far as content, but the production (always having been interested in that side of things) was just wonderful in and of itself.
7 seasons, 155 episodes later, it's all over. It was a fun ride, and there's always the reruns (which I watch religiously through the magic of TiVo and even though I know a lot of the lines, I will sit and recite with glee). Incidentally, other shows I watch are The Office, My Name is Earl, 24, Alias (almost over as well), The Amazing Race, Las Vegas, Family Guy and a few assorted others. Anyway, goodbye West Wing, and maybe someday, I'll be in Josh Lyman's shoes and be able to say to a junior congressman/woman, "The President does hold grugdes (puts on sunglasses with the capital in the background), that's what he pays me for." or "Victory is mine, victory is mine, great day in the morning, people, victory is mine. I drink from the keg of glory, Donna, bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land." Love it.
On my way back from Dallas this afternoon, I was listening to my handy-dandy XM Satellite Radio and there was a R.E.M. song that I hadn't heard before. I started thinking about songs and bands and the memories and people I associate them with. For instance, Chris always comes to mind when I hear R.E.M. or They Might Be Giants. Andrew, C.C.R. or Queen. The Rolling Stones and ZZ Top bring dad. Mom and the Beatles. Being from Oklahoma, I have the opportunity to still overhear Garth Brooks, which brings the ex-c (rhymes with bunt) to mind. I don't have any of those for my sisters-in-law just yet. But since I don't hear Butterfuly Kisses on any kind of basis, Bridget at her wedding doesn't normally come to mind :-p.
That said, I was listening to the 90s station for a while, and I tried to place a memory to every song that came on. Now, I should say that Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's Good Vibrations didn't bring anything to mind, or Ace of Base's for that matter, but then that wouldn't be true. (Watching videos after getting home from school with Andrew, Ashley Hess and Kim Haskins, and talking to Jana Miller on the phone in 8th grade, respectively.) It got me thinking about the box of 150-200 CDs of mine out in the garage. If I go thru all of them, I could probably establish a pretty good soundtrack for the last 10 years of my life. I haven't yet because I might be embarrassed by some of the shit I actually enjoyed listening to back then. But to that, I say Post Hoc, Ergo Propeter Hoc.
posted by Patrick at 11:34 PM
3 Comments:
I'd fallen off the West Wing wagon in the past couple of seasons, I but I got caught back up in it as it was set to go off the air. I had to tape the finale and just finished watching it a few minutes ago. Cried like a baby. That's not saying much, 'cause of course I cry at everything, and the West Wing is nothing if not maudlin and sentimental. Only veterans of the show get the significance of the napkin, and even though I guessed it was coming (though for some reason I thought Jed had it to begin with...) the floodgates opened.
But the entire episode was really meant for the veterans who had been watching the show since the beginning. People looking around wistfully at empty offices doesn't mean anything unless you'd been watching this show for a while.
But then, at one point, they work against that sentimentality to narrative advantage -- the moment when the camera tracks into the empty oval office after the Bartletts have left starts out as a very "awwww" moment. And then, the chief usher barges in, pushing a dolly, and the permanent staff of the White House, decidedly without sentiment and ceremony, pack up Jeb's stuff and replace it with Pres. Santos'. A very effective capturing of the true, wonderous banality of the turnover of power in our government.
Oh, and by the way, you're totally Josh Lyman... just don't go and get yourself shot and have a breakdown. Screw your hot secretary though... and don't wait eight years to do it!
you silly goose. Leo wrote Bartlet for America on the napkin and saliva-pasted it to the easel that was holding the "New Hampshire, It's what's New!" sign. That started Bartlet's run to the Oval. Then, after Leo returned from testifying at the hearings, and after his relapse was saved from being exposed, Bartlet was in his office waiting for him and gave it to him framed like that. "That was awfully nice of you." It was yet another gem of a Christmas episode. They almost always had awesome Christmas episodes.
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