Kal-El

I liked the C.J. and Josh stuff. Felt like old west wing. Everything else was still kinda eh.

MrX

The C.J. and Josh stuff was good as were Josh's various descriptions of the PM of Turkmenistan.

Leo picking C.J. over Josh was dumb. Judging by the previews the only reason it was done was to get a few episodes of conflict between Josh, Toby, and C.J.

Let's hope Jimmy Smits character wins the election becasue his wife is going to be played by

Bandoman

The CJ/Josh interaction was classic West Wing. I really liked the Congresswoman who wanted an American monarchy.

Red Dog

Definitely a better episode than the first 2.

aintnosin

True, but I thought Bartlett was still acting totally out of character when he initially refused to even consider promoting a temporary CoS.

Red Dog

I always enjoy West Wings that have outside-the-box ideas/thinking. This one had 3 such ideas:
1. Capping child credits after so many kids.
2. Having a monarch to handle Head-of-State duties.
3. Banning marriage. ALL Marriage.

That's what made this episode decent.

the big train

Somewhat reminiscent of "Big-Block-of-Cheese Day" episodes. I miss those.


I kinda resented the fact that they made Josh and Toby (Josh most especially) seem much more incompetent than ever just so C.J. would appear to be the proper choice. The fact of the matter is that none of them are probably the right choice, but Josh is the most realistic choice of the three.

aintnosin

What's really sad (especially with the cancelling of Rob Lowe's second series since leaving TWW) is that Sam would have been the obvious choice to replace Leo.

NORML54601

I liked this one much better than last week. I'm not a Jimmy Smits fan but after this week I'll give it another week.

kevin75

please explain...

the thing is that IMO, josh is the most logical choice. he is the deputy chief of staff. he was going to get hoynes elected before jed came in and took the election. the problem is that over the course of the last season, the writers have taken josh away from what he used to be. while sam was a great character, he worked the best with toby forming the message.

as for the episode, it felt better. the humor was back but it still seemed a bit forced. the whole josh/toby/cj confusion thing, while kinda funny was on the other hand ludicrous. these three who have been in the political arena for 6 years now don't talk to each other before doing stuff?? ummm, sure.

anyway, while i don't think it is a great idead to make cj chief, it's only temporary so i will try to keep an open mind kinda like i did with the day after tomorrow. also, i wouldn't be surprised if they end this show with the end of the bartlett presidency. with the lowering of the ratings it would make sense. they would have to bring in an entirely new cast when the new president took over. someone said it here a long time ago that the best way to end the show would be something along the lines of a final shot of bartlett and staff leaving the oval office for the final time. i agree. what with the ordering of short seasons, it wouldn't be that hard either.

and finally some good stuff...

donna is back!!!! yay!

and even though we didn't see her too much, we did get to see mallory again. double yay!!

aintnosin

Josh's role was as a bulldog. He was too hot-headed to be CoS. Of all the staff, Sam was Bartlett's favorite (He was the one Bartlett thought would be President one day).

dcprules

This episode definitely felt more like The West Wing, especially compared to the last two. There was some good humor (the CJ/Josh stuff was pretty funny), and it flowed pretty well. Easily the best episode of the season, and I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

Walter Mitty

i still watch this show but it definitely ain't what it was when Sorkin was writing

dstrauss

Damn it. They tease me by putting Allison Smith (Mallory) in the credits, and then she has like 5 seconds of screen time and no lines!



Sigh.

lisadoris

Finally saw this ep and I have mixed feelings about it.

The good: humor - hey the writers remembered that this show used to be funny. Josh was back to his old self and the whole donut issue was great.

The bad: There's no way C.J. should be the new CoS. Yes Josh is hot-headed but he knows congress, he knows the law, and he has information. They spent the first few seasons of the show keeping C.J. out of loop now all of a sudden she's the co-president as the journalist put it? I don't think so. I like Jimmy Smits so I'm willing to stick with it for a bit longer just to see where the writers are going with this.