S1e22- What Kind of Day Has It Been (Decisions are made by those who show up.)

Well, we've reached the first season finale, and are 22/155 (that fraction does not reduce) of the way through the West Wing-ing It Journey.  There are 230 days until Election Day, and I'm pretty pleased about the rate of progress through the season.  I still have a hard time avoiding just describing my favorite moments, and instead sharing something people might not know about the episode or drawing comparisons to today's world in comparison to the West Wing World.  So, time to congratulate myself?

Oh, man, did you read that wrong.

There is a history to the title of this episode: What Kind of Day Has it Been, in that Aaron Sorkin has used for every show he's written for:

• Newsroom- Series Finale
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- 1st Season Finale (also Series Finale)
• Sports Night- 1st Season Finale (incidentally, the Sports Night Season 2 Finale (also the Series Finale) aired one day before the this West Wing episode aired.

I'll have to dedicate a whole post to all of the Sorkin-isms that are repeated through these different shows, but for now, let's keep moving.

It's been 11 episodes since CJ wasn't told about the Pakistan-India conflict and was sent into the Press Room uninformed, but finally, in this episode, she is offered a chance to set the record straight with Leo:

LEO: There was a problem a few months ago with India/Pakistan, you were uncomfortable -
C.J.: Leo.
LEO: You were uncomfortable lying to the press...
C.J.: I wasn’t lying to the press about India/Pakistan, I was lied to by you, which made me
look like an idiot.
LEO: Well, I’m not lying to you now. Four Mh-53 J Pay-lows carrying 80 guys from the 16th special ops are out flying under radar.
C.J.: We’re going to pay a price for misleading the press.
LEO: I don’t care.
C.J.: I understand.

It's a long time coming, and this recognition of CJ's professionalism is confirmed by the successful mission after her press conference.

There's a line from the Town Hall meeting; "Decisions are made by those who show up" in reference to voter turnout amongst young people.  The story is that Sorkin initially had Woody Allen cited as the author of the quote in the script, but Martin Sheen, who was a friend of Mia Farrow, asked that the line be changed.  Anyhow, what about voter turnout by young people?  This, from the US Elections Project:

Ok, first reaction?  We should probably vote more during midterm election years.  Look at congress, for gosh's sake.  Besides that, it is interesting that in that there is exponential growth in the gaps between voter turnout in that age bracket.  What are we doing to make it easier for young people to vote?  I cast absentee ballots while living out of state for college, but it wasn't easy and you had to do it a fair amount of time before election day.  The problem?  College students seldom write papers sooner than the day before it is due, so expecting them to request an absentee ballot a month before election day seems to be a bit of a reach.  Once those people get out of college, how many of them are going to move to a new state for their first job?  Again, in the midst of young professional-dom, how easy are we making it for this demographic to vote?

Final thought of the season: the cliffhanger.  I'm not saying this season ended with a "who shot J.R." vibe, but it was at least at the level of Ross saying Rachel's name at his London wedding instead of his fiancé Emily's (note from the editor: please do not judge the writer's tv viewing habits on the basis of these two examples).  Ok, not really.  If Aaron Sorkin wanted us to end the episode sitting on the edge of our chairs, what he got instead was:

That's right- it fell flat.  The pre-credit scene leading to a flashback, leading back to the same pre-credit scene and ending with a fade to black and voices asking, "Who's been hit?  Who's been hit?" When I first saw this episode, I was terribly disappointed; it felt cheap and terribly out of character for the show.  I'm relieved to realize that Sorkin felt the same way, telling Terry Jackson of the Miami Herald in 2000: "The first time I saw the [final scene] I said, 'Holy cow, it doesn't really look like our show.'"  It was pretty widely panned in the press as being terribly clichéd, but it's interesting to note how successful it is in today's world of binge watching.  From the same interview, "The last two minutes of the show in May are really the first two minutes of the season opener," Sorkin says. "It really wasn't done to be shocking or to shake up the show."  If you're not forced to wait from May to October to see the next episode, it's not all that terrible.  It creates drama and certainly kickstarted a new narrative.  

Much like this blog.  

And just like that, we reach the end of Season 1 of The West Wing.  I hope you don't wait 5 months to read the next episode, and that you don't feel as though this ends with too much of a cliffhanger.  Because I can tell you, we're expecting big things from the blog in the second season.  I have exposés planned, secret guest bloggers and even a visit from... you'll have to wait until the first blog of Season 2 to find out.  

See what I just did there?

What's next?  A Special Double-Sized Blog- S2e1&2- In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part 1&2 (they originally aired on the same night- I might as well blog them on the same night!)

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