Walk and Talk

Tonight may be the night that - for all my Westwingphilia - I give up the ghost with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. One of the reasons I struggle with it is that the "show within a show" seems so lame. I'm convinced that the "controversial" Crazy Christians sketch that powered the plot from episode one would be about as funny as a hole in a parachute.

A couple of weeks ago there was an episode that even the power and the glory of John Goodman guest starring couldn't save.

My West Wing and Studio 60 knowledge has however earned me a namecheck on the weblog of the 77th most important figure on the British left as I explained to him that the trademark shot in both shows in which the camera leads two characters down a hallway as they speak to each other is called a "walk-and-talk".

See http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2007/10/for-more-dynami.html. (Rob M who sparked my interest should be proud. )

The real governor of the "walk-and-talk" however is somewhat closer to home. Step forward Peter Kay.

Odds and Ends

The Profit Burglar and I went to the launch of Dave Saxby's book in the Chapter House after work yesterday, an event which - with Gatsbyesque elan - he didn't actually attend himself.

Thence, fortified with a take away from the reliable Colliers Wood Tandoori, back to my gaff to set up a Media Center PC under the TV. The main reason for this is that Paul has finished a first pass at the program to play "backed up" DVDs that I trailed here, but it has also struck me that it will be no bad idea to have a computer in that slot domestically with the BBC due to launch its Interactive Media Player later this month.

Though we could fine tune the interface, Paul's software works a treat for navigating and viewing content. It struck me this morning as I was walking to work, that if I set up a version of it that catalogued only the New Ninja Bomber's DVDs, and moved the XBOX 360 to his room he could have pushbotton access to all his favourites with the XBOX talking to the PC via Microsoft's Media Extender technology. This will require a network upgrade of some sort. Probably best to get a gigabit hub and run a Cat 5 cable between the ground and first floor.

I also took the opportunity once we were set up to navigate the Media Center Guide to More4 at 8pm on Sunday and set it to record The West Wing, now and for the rest of the run. I missed "Ways and Means" in series 3 a couple of weeks ago to add to these omissions, but with any luck I shouldn't miss any more.

Two Cathedrals

More4's screening of the entire West Wing opus reached the end of the second series on Sunday evening. "Two Cathedrals", the climax of season two is a tour de force. I have created a new label to celebrate this milestone.


I don't want to precis it, so the following won't make a lot of sense if you are not an aficionado, but I was particularly struck by what a high-wire act it must be to write, perform and produce such a complex and allusive piece. The script takes so many risks that it might seem ridiculous if the production didn't manage to pull them off.

First off the bat, it seems to me that the device of having Mrs. Landingham playing Jiminy Cricket in flashback to the youthful Jeb's Pinocchio could have gone horribly wrong (never mind her Ghost of Christmas Present act from beyond the grave a the end of the episode) and yet ...... it didn't.

Second, although we are left wondering "will he, won't he?", I am assuming that Bartlett does decide to run for a second term. (The fact that there are several seasons' worth of episodes still to watch seems to be a clue for me here.) And his motivation for rising to the challenge? We hear him say as a boy:

Catholics don't believe man is saved through faith alone. Catholics believe that faith has to be joined with good works.

This is a remarkable peg to hang motivation on in a prime time TV show. It didn't get in the script by accident. Luther and Calvin did contend that salvation is won by faith alone. This issue (called justification in theology) was a key dispute in the Reformation. And it is implied as the President strides off to the press conference that closes the season that he will soldier on because there is still work to be done.

MRS. LANDINGHAM: I don't know numbers. You give them to me.
BARTLETT: How about a child born this minute has a one in five chance of being born into poverty?
MRS. LANDINGHAM: How many Americans don't have health insurance? BARTLETT: 44 million.
MRS. LANDINGHAM: What's the number one cause of death for black men under 35?
BARTLETT: Homicide.
MRS. LANDINGHAM: How many Americans are behind bars?
BARTLETT: Three million.
MRS. LANDINGHAM: How many Americans are drug addicts?
BARTLETT: Five million.
MRS. LANDINGHAM: And one of five kids in poverty?
BARTLETT: That's 13 million American children.

Don't get me started on the shadowing in Jeb's school friends smoking in the chapel, of Bartlett sparking up in the Cathedral after berating God in Latin.

What a show.

As we sit down to Big Brother this week, let us remind ourselves how unsophisticated Yanks are compared to the highfalutin' Brits.

CRUCIATUS IN CRUCEM, EAS IN CRUCEM.

Previously on the West Wing

President Andrew Jackson, in the main foyer of his White House, had a big block of cheese ........

We're getting towards the end of series 2 in More4's mammoth screening of the West Wing from the beginning.

Although I try to be home at 8pm on Sundays, I've missed the following episodes:

5. And It's Surely to Their Credit
6. The Lame Duck Congress
8. Shibboleth
9. Galileo
15. Ellie

Further, next Sunday being the eve of my attempt on The Spingfield Triathlon, episode 18 "17 People", looks to be vulnerable as well.

But hold. As I will be staying with Maturin, who is responsible for the the thing getting its hooks in me in the first place, redemption may be on hand from his DVD collection.

All together now:

I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town: touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing: while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.

20 Hours in LA

The Clinton-Obama brouhaha that blew up around David Geffen's fundraiser last week seems to be adding weight to my theory that watching the West Wing might make US politics a little less bewildering.

West Wing rerun day on More4, having come round again, the current controversy does seem eerily reminiscent of the 20 Hours in LA episode in series one in which a gay movie mogul tries to muscle the President by threatening to cancel a fund raising party. This seemed preposterous to me when I watched it on DVD. It's a bit less so now - not necessarily a good thing - but I wouldn't be without this extraordinary exchange from the party itself:

David Hasselhoff: I think there's a basic bedrock principle behind the First Amendment. That the government cannot prohibit the expression of an idea just because it's disagreeable. Justice William Brennan, writing for the majority--
Donna: I'm a real big fan, David, not just a Johnny-come-lately. It's not just Baywatch and Knight Rider with me.
David Hasselhoff: Well, thank you very much. My point is--
Donna: I mean, Nick Fury ... Panic at Malibu Pier ... The Cartier Affair. Pleasure Cove, for crying out loud!

Take This Sabbath Day

I managed to get back on my West Wing rerun odyssey last night after having missed two episodes due to "events dear boy, events".

It struck me when Bartlett told CJ that he went to college in Notre Dame rather than Harvard or Yale, "cause I was thinking about becoming a priest," that the show's treatment of religious inclination and affiliation as a natural, but not dramatically dominant, facet of character is an interesting illustration of cultural difference between the US and the UK.

In "Take this Sabbath Day" in the first series, for example, when the White House is agonising about commuting a death sentence, Toby Ziegler discusses it with his rabbi, and the President calls a priest. In a UK drama that sort of plot device would be a rhetorical or even didactic hint that we were dealing with weaklings or loons.

(Great Facts of Our Time: Father Cavanaugh, the priest Bartlett consults, was played by the veteran Karl Malden and the Bible he carries is the same one he used as Father Barry - the priest he portrayed in "On the Waterfront" in 1954.)

Under The Lintel

I've booked up the tickets for "Under The Lintel" inspired by my West Wing Jones to get a sight of Richard Schiff working on stage.

Pop quiz on the wandering jew: Did you know that Oscar Wilde assumed the alias Sebastian Melmoth after he got out of Reading gaol?

The Midterms

I watched episode 3 of series 2 of the West Wing last night. When Bartlet is making fund raising calls from the residence there's a rugby game playing on his TV. What is with the US Presidents and the game? No one else in the States seems to give a fig for it.

Something that consistently makes me laugh in the show is the way that the characters throw dialogue at one another as they march determinedly from one office to another.

I pity the poor camera operator scuttling along in reverse. It makes me think of a quote attributed to Ginger Rogers, "I did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels".

Somebody Up There Likes Me

More4, the UK TV channel, started showing all the West Wing from the beginning at 8pm on Sundays last August.

I stumbled serendipitously on it last week for the first episode of series two. This week I have finished my boxed set of the first series, so I am booked up from 8 until 9 on Sunday evenings today and for the next sixty three weeks.

I wonder if the "Music by W.G. Snuffy Walden" credit will still seem quite so funny in a year and a quarter? I think it probably will.

There is still a hole in my life where series 1 episodes 9 to 12 should be, but I hope to fill that early in February by borrowing a disc. AOL won't let me watch the missing installments via VOD because I am a European cheese-eating surrender monkey, and I can't get the West Wing on Channel 4 on Demand either. It is as if studios push you towards piracy if you want to get hold of anything digitally.

Video In Demand

I see that as well as in addition to bestowing a DVD boxed set of the first series of The West Wing on me, Dr Rob has also gifted ten and a half hours of Firefly to Chris and his family. How on earth does he manage to watch and evangelize all this stuff in addition to everything else he does?

Now that I've watched the first eight episodes I'm on the brink of a fully fledged West Wing Jones myself, but - quelle horreur! - last time I opened the boxed set I found I had two copies of disc 4 (episodes 13-16) and none of disc 3 (9-12).

We're trying to sort it out with the vendor, but meantime I will probably get a dime bag from AOL Video on Demand this weekend.

The West Wing

RobM of El Grupo Libros has sent me a DVD set of the first season of The West Wing to thank me for hosting the last get together.

I like to send tokens of appreciation for hospitality myself - though I'm ashamed that I still haven't thanked Mark and his family after three months because I still can't think of an appropriate present - but this is a very generous gesture.

Rave reviews for the West Wing wherever I look, and I have only the vaguest idea of how the US executive and government is actually constituted.

An entertaining Civics 101 awaits.