Seems rather disturbing/ironic to be watching this episode during the ongoing Cov-19 pandemic, with most countries around the world still in lockdown.
Although this story is on a much smaller scale, the shots of everyone wearing gloves, masks, along with secret service agents sealing off rooms with people inside unable to leave seems like Déjà vu.
But on the plus side, this episode is purely character-driven rather than the usual event-driven one. Seeing Toby & Will argue over the credibility of VP Bob Russell, is well written. But also shows how determined Will is to defend his man despite Toby's verbal bullying (Toby always raises his voice to anyone when he tries to enforce his view). Toby might be the experienced old pro, but Will has new insights & idealisms that Toby refuses to acknowledge because is too stuck in the muck to even want to change.
Then we have CJ & Donna sharing a room together. Despite having worked together for 4 or 5 years, you would think they were almost complete strangers when they try to have a conversation not entirely to do about work. Instead their conversation touches on Donna's desire to progress in her career choices, but feels that Josh is holding her back.
CJ responds by intimating that she can do whatever she wants if she fights hard enough, and that perhaps there is something more personal about Josh that is holding her back. This touches a nerve with Donna, and she goes quiet. And that's about it in terms of getting to know more about them. Other than work they are indeed total strangers!
Then we have Josh & new girl, Kate Harper. As we all know, Josh is full of himself, arrogant, aloof, over-confident and seems to think he can ride rough-shod over people he thinks are beneath him.
But as usual he comes upstuck here, and his fragile ego soon crumbles when he finds he cannot strike up a conversation with her. She doesn't bat an eyelid in fact, and just carries on with her work while Josh finds another way to break her (in a nice way) In one example he threatens to access her NSA file because he thinks he has the necessary codeword clearance given his position. But again she thwarts him by saying "you really don't have codeword clearance for my file!" Which shuts him up again.
I do like Josh. He is perhaps my second favourite character after Leo. But it always quite fun to see him gently pushed from his high horse.
Finally there's the Bartlet, Charlie, Debbie confinement. And to be honest I found this the least interesting of the captive groups. I have never been much of fan of Debbie Fiderer. She lacks the genuine warmth of her predecessor, Mrs Landingham. Plus she was pretty rude to nearly everyone who entered her office over her tenure in the show, and as a consequence I never really cared much about the character.
A good story overall, but some of the character revelations were never really carried forward into other episodes, which is a shame.
Although this story is on a much smaller scale, the shots of everyone wearing gloves, masks, along with secret service agents sealing off rooms with people inside unable to leave seems like Déjà vu.
But on the plus side, this episode is purely character-driven rather than the usual event-driven one. Seeing Toby & Will argue over the credibility of VP Bob Russell, is well written. But also shows how determined Will is to defend his man despite Toby's verbal bullying (Toby always raises his voice to anyone when he tries to enforce his view). Toby might be the experienced old pro, but Will has new insights & idealisms that Toby refuses to acknowledge because is too stuck in the muck to even want to change.
Then we have CJ & Donna sharing a room together. Despite having worked together for 4 or 5 years, you would think they were almost complete strangers when they try to have a conversation not entirely to do about work. Instead their conversation touches on Donna's desire to progress in her career choices, but feels that Josh is holding her back.
CJ responds by intimating that she can do whatever she wants if she fights hard enough, and that perhaps there is something more personal about Josh that is holding her back. This touches a nerve with Donna, and she goes quiet. And that's about it in terms of getting to know more about them. Other than work they are indeed total strangers!
Then we have Josh & new girl, Kate Harper. As we all know, Josh is full of himself, arrogant, aloof, over-confident and seems to think he can ride rough-shod over people he thinks are beneath him.
But as usual he comes upstuck here, and his fragile ego soon crumbles when he finds he cannot strike up a conversation with her. She doesn't bat an eyelid in fact, and just carries on with her work while Josh finds another way to break her (in a nice way) In one example he threatens to access her NSA file because he thinks he has the necessary codeword clearance given his position. But again she thwarts him by saying "you really don't have codeword clearance for my file!" Which shuts him up again.
I do like Josh. He is perhaps my second favourite character after Leo. But it always quite fun to see him gently pushed from his high horse.
Finally there's the Bartlet, Charlie, Debbie confinement. And to be honest I found this the least interesting of the captive groups. I have never been much of fan of Debbie Fiderer. She lacks the genuine warmth of her predecessor, Mrs Landingham. Plus she was pretty rude to nearly everyone who entered her office over her tenure in the show, and as a consequence I never really cared much about the character.
A good story overall, but some of the character revelations were never really carried forward into other episodes, which is a shame.