woo-hoo!! only about 12 1/2 hrs. til the first new west wing of the season. i know that some people out there aren't too excited about this episode but not me. i love sorkin's work and am really excited to see what he does with the subject matter.

same here.

Me too.

Word.

my homework for one of my classes is to watch this show

Tivo all the way for me, night job.

I have been waiting quite a while for a new West Wing, but I think I might have to tape it and watch it later because I also want to see...

Special Unit 2.

Don't laugh - a friend of mine recommended I watch the show and he's usually astute about these types of things.

This is not the season premier, or at least the follow-up to last years storyline....That is next week. Tonight is a special episode made because of the recent events.

well at least they said KKK and not the religious right wing, which I expected from this show (I haven't missed an episode and I like the west wing, but there is definitely a left bias)

what was that song at the end (name and artist)

"stop baby what's that sound, everybody look what's going round"

thanks

well, give AS credit for as per usual giving all viewpoints a bit of time. true, the show does lean to the left but i guess that is to be expected. at least he presents both sides of the argument. it wasn't quite what i expected but it was still a pretty good episode.

by the way, i especially liked the bit of humor at the beginning of the intro where donna says when talking about the season...'i get a boyfriend.'

bring on next week!!!

I thought this was a wonderful episode. WEst Wing is far and away the classiest and most intelligent show on television.



Mikehunt: The song is a Vietnam protest song by Buffalo Springfield called "For What It's Worth."

ARTIST: Buffalo Springfield
TITLE: For What It's Worth


There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

thanks for the song info

all in all it was a good, if not different, episode
the way they treated the Arab guy was scary, showed what we can't allow to happen (was he in office space, I think I saw Ajay Naidu in the credits, definitely Ajay something)

i think that was indeed samir.

on a different note, i also thought that the widescreen was great.

Hmm.... I guess the show was only mildly offensive to muslims. Now I know they wanted to show that we are all equal and so on, but I think they went a little too far in their anti-Muslim dialogue, and IMO nothing they could have said would be able to fully salvage that. Keep in mind, I'm a pretty liberal Muslim, and I know Christians that are more religious than I am, so I'm not speaking out of my ass.

I thought they went a little far too, and I'm a WASP
some of the characters tried to make the point that extremeists who have corrupted their religion are to blame and not the general Islamic faith but then other characters would sprew a ton of anti-arab stuff

Well it was just the Asian (East Asian) kid that pissed me off. He should have made the 'list'. These kids were presidential winners or something, you'd think they'd be a little smarter.

i think they did it good...many americans think this way so they showed those viewpoints and refuted them

Refuted? Nah..... all they did was bring those thoughts out into the spotlight. People will still feel the same way they did, because no TV show is ever going to change that. But I'll give 'em credit for trying.

I'm not sure I undertand the criticism here. It did what the best television always does ... it raised questions. If we're looking to these characters to tell us how to live our lives, we're in serious trouble. Each character had a different approach and a different level of anger/understanding/patience/hostility/whatever. While a small cross-section, it was just that, a cross-setion of what Americans are doing right now. Tonight's "episode" did what it had to do. It gave viewers something to think about that they might not have considered before. Did it address every concern, cover every belief, represent every person watching? No. But it raised intelligent questions, far more than it attempted to answer. It tried to make us think and at the heart of it all, it really only preached one thing ... embracing new ideas.

Personally, I think they succeeded.

das

Okay, acting wise, the show was superb (as always). No way am I missing the season premiere........ one week is too long to wait!

the show's script had a lot of flaws...


why would the President just happen to walk down to the cafeteria? to look for teh guy with apples...yeah right.

When it fits in his schedule, the President frequently makes brief appearances in tours/meetings/conferences/whatever that's going on in the White House. If you're going to nitpick irrelevant plot devices, you'll need to try harded than that ... though I wouldn't see the point in doing so anyway

das

I am not a regular viewer of West Wing. This was actually the first episode I have watched. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed.

I felt like this was talking the audience like they were children. Lecture on Terrorism 101. My it was convenient that the students asked every little question with wide eyes.

"Why do they hate us?"

"What do we do now?"

"Who are they?"

I mean, this was like the FAQ on terrorism. Have questions about terrorism? Watch this special episode of West Wing. And it had the dramatic tension and impact of a FAQ. At least, this section of the show.

The storyline about the suspected terrorist in the White House was far more interesting and bought up more interesting ideas than the blatant lecture to America that was the rest of the episode. Unfortunately, this section totaled about five minutes of actual screen time. I would rather have seen some actual drama played out rather than have it spoon fed by each actor's given viewpoint.

i agree with what sherm said. This is only the 2nd episode of west wing i've seen. I wasn't too impressed with the first one either.