I happened to catch the last 40 minutes or so of “True Lies,” watching the future governor of California rescuing his daughter, Faith the Vampire Slayer, and I’m thinking, Wow. Now how spectacular would that have been on “West Wing.” Zoey Bartlett is being threatened at gunpoint, clinging for her life with a two mile drop yawning beneath her…and suddenly President Bartlett shows up in a harrier, hauls her aboard, aims a missile at the terrorists and says, “You’re vetoed.” He fires, blows them to bits, and flies away to the tune of “Hail to the Chief.”
Boy, that would sure stake out a tone for the post-Sorkin attitude, wouldn’t it.
PAD
• 
You’re very heavily medicated right now, aren’t you?
– DB Bennett
Ha ha ha! Pretty funny.
Speaking of Sorkin…Comedy Central is still rerunning Sports Night, albeit very late at night and only on Mondays, I think. I caught the “Cliff Gardner” episode this week and it reminded me what a great writer Sorkin can be. And after hearing the masterful “glass tubes” speech that William H. Macy’s character delivers near the end, I was left wondering if any budding actors and actresses have since used that as audition material. Seems like it would be a good showcase speech, in my opinion.
And while I’m on the subject: PAD, do you know of any passages from your work that have been used by your fans as audition pieces? I noticed that Neil Gaiman recently addressed the subject in his online journal (in response to someone asking permission to use Sam’s ‘I believe’ speech from American Gods to that end) and it got me wondering if the same thing had ever happened in your case.
-Dave O’Connell
Ha ha ha! Pretty funny.
Speaking of Sorkin…Comedy Central is still rerunning Sports Night, albeit very late at night and only on Mondays, I think. I caught the “Cliff Gardner” episode this week and it reminded me what a great writer Sorkin can be. And after hearing the masterful “glass tubes” speech that William H. Macy’s character delivers near the end, I was left wondering if any budding actors and actresses have since used that as audition material. Seems like it would be a good showcase speech, in my opinion.
And while I’m on the subject: PAD, do you know of any passages from your work that have been used by your fans as audition pieces? I noticed that Neil Gaiman recently addressed the subject in his online journal (in response to someone asking permission to use Sam’s ‘I believe’ speech from American Gods to that end) and it got me wondering if the same thing had ever happened in your case.
-Dave O’Connell
And while I’m on the subject: PAD, do you know of any passages from your work that have been used by your fans as audition pieces?
If they have, they didn’t tell me. However, I do know of a couple who used Riker’s poem from “Imzadi” as their wedding vows.
PAD
The best lines of True Lies is still Tom Arnolds. – “Ditch the Bìŧçh” when talking about Persian Art and when Jamie Lee Curtis asks Arnie about the people he’s killed (while under the influence of a truth drug) and he says “but they were all bad” . Definitely one of Arnies better movies. – Total Film mag has said the sequel (with Arnie & Curtis) has got a provisional cinema release date of July next year.
You know, Peter, your ending would have been a definite improvement on what was aired..
JSM
As long as it’s been brought back up, then……
….can someone explain exactly what happened in that rescue on WW? There’s background dialogue from an FBI agent about a domestic disturbance 911 call, someone being found unconscious, and someone (Zoey?) getting to “her” cell phone. (A nonsensical idea if ever there was one.) Then, as the President and the Firsty Lady arrive on scene (yet another absurdly nonsensical idea…), there’s talk about Zoey having been found in a back closet somewhere.
Who, in the what, now? Where we they, anyway? Maybe I was just tired, but I’m able to follow Ulysses–and this just didn’t hang together for me.
(BTW, at the risk of starting a firestorm: I hate, hate, hate “True Lies”–a misogynistic romp from start to finish….ED’s presence is just about its only redeeming feature, though JLC puts in a valiant effort.)
George Grattan writes:
….can someone explain exactly what happened in that rescue on WW? There’s background dialogue from an FBI agent about a domestic disturbance 911 call, someone being found unconscious, and someone (Zoey?) getting to “her” cell phone. (A nonsensical idea if ever there was one.) Then, as the President and the Firsty Lady arrive on scene (yet another absurdly nonsensical idea…), there’s talk about Zoey having been found in a back closet somewhere.
Who, in the what, now? Where we they, anyway? Maybe I was just tired, but I’m able to follow Ulysses–and this just didn’t hang together for me.
I agree that it’s a more than a little vague as to exactly what happened at the end of that West Wing episode, but I think that might have been a purposeful choice on the part of the creators.
I hope that the details will get clarified in a future episode, sure, but for right now, I could understand if the creators were purposely leaving things a little ambiguous. The fact that Zoey was found locally–not, say, tied to a chair in a cargo shack somewhere in the middle of Uganda (which was the nightmare scenario Bartlett told Zoey in an earlier episode)–as a result of some 911 call; Will’s question at the end as to whether they were ever able to find those missing terrorist sleepers (which might be taken to mean either “Are those guys who did this still at large?” or “Were those guys even involved?”); Nancy’s comments (mainly from last season’s finale) that the kidnapping didn’t seem like the work of organized terrorists–all of that might have been a purposeful choice toward ambiguity, something to get we viewers to think things like, “Hey, what if they bombed people who, though bad guys, didn’t have anything to do with this kidnapping?”
Yes, the story’s ending could have been cleaner, but maybe ambiguity is the effect the creators were after. Sure, if might have been executed better, and sure future episodes may flesh out some of the details (and, heck, maybe I’m totally off-base here,) but I can sort of envision a scenario where the chaotic vagueness of that episode’s conclusion was part of the point…
Thanks, Ali– I agree that much of the ambiguity was no doubt deliberate, designed to make us question just who had taken her, why, and what (then) the morality of the military responses taken in the episode were. But, other than Will’s question, there seemed to be very little confusion among the characters themselves about what had happened–indeed, no conversations, even, about who, exactly had been holding her, where, etc. I’m all for moral ambiguity on WW–Sorkin’s best scripts used it with mastery–but this struck me as more storytelling ambiguity than anything else.
That is: the final scene just sprawls out on the screen, overhead shot, helicopters, nightime flashing sirens and all–there’s no context to it, no lines of action or dialogue to follow. I really have no idea of who was holding her, where, or how she was rescued. If that’s the new standard of clever storytelling on the show, count me out–there’s more than enough stuff out there with old fashioned lack of clarity masquerading as complexity already. 🙂
Still, it did make more sense than last season’s Buffy…. 🙂
What if your daughter is attacked by a cougar or bobcat, while terrorists are torturing you?
I TiVo’d the episode and had trouble understanding the scene in the helicopter, so I jumped back and turned on closed-captioning. I can’t recall it exactly (and can’t check having deleted it), but it was basically somthing to the effect of:
– A state trooper (that’s how he was IDed by the CC) telling them the events that led to the rescue
– A couple was driving down a secluded road, one or both were drunk, they had a fight, the guy dumps the girl off in the middle of nowhere
– The girl calls 911 and police officer is sent to find her
– The officer is unable to do so, but comes across a barn with a white vehicle parked nearby
– Somehow it becomes clear that the terrorists and Zoey are in the vehicle
HTH.
Eschel
What if your daughter is attacked by a cougar or bobcat, while terrorists are torturing you?
Use your power over animals to make them eat the terrorists while your daughter skips away singing “tra la la la la.” 🙂