thisbluespirit | West Wing Icons

Hi! *waves* You will never believe this, but during my last few weeks of scarcity I have been a) drinking a lot of wine and b) watching series 1 of The West Wing, finally! And then I come back to LJ to find these amazing icons. Great minds. :D :D :D

That said, I haven't got very far yet, so I don't think I've heard a single one of these quotes, nor met Ainsley. Currently I am a big happy grinning mess for Toby, Leo and Josh. Which is not to say I am not also a big happy grinning mess for CJ, Donna, the President, Mrs Lanningham, Charlie and EVERYONE, except maybe for Sam, who can go be smug somewhere else and take his patronising attitude to call girls with him. THANK YOU SO MUCH for dragging me into this universe of pure joy!

(Also, I seem to remember you saying something about years of watching Spooks making you expect Bad Stuff to happen all the time on The West Wing? I totally get that! I have to keep reminding myself that there is no way they are going to kill off a main character and I can RELAX.)

there is no way they are going to kill off a main character

Ahhhhhh ok the moment I wrote that I had a paranoid fit. If someone is going to die, can you warn me? Like, just say "watch out for episode 324 I AM JUST SAYING"? I don't think I could deal with it otherwise. I can barely deal with it on Spooks and I am expecting it then.

:lol:

Um, bad stuff happens on the WW, too, that's all I'm saying. How serious are you about wanting to know if someone actually dies? Because they do like cliffhangers... And I haven't got there yet, but I'm aware there's a rl event that happens, too.

Edited 2010-10-17 09:20 (UTC)

OH GOD NO, REALLY? ARGH. ARGH. I haven't even finished the first series yet so I haven't encountered a cliffhanger... Usually I am so anti-spoilers, but I don't know... I think what you've just said is enough of a warning, actually. I will be on my guard now. Thanks. :)

Yes, they lull you into being all cute and funny, and then they have big political issues.

BTW, I was thinking of you - they lost a spy plane during one of the episodes, and had to phone the Russians to try and get it back. So it reminded me of Spooks...:

Pres. Bartlet (on what he's expected to tell the Russians to explain it): "We were on an environmental mission for Finland?" :-)

Random responses some at a definite tangent to your comments(sorry about the spammage):

a) Not in Spooks-league amount of bad stuff, of course. :lol:

b) I want to rewatch S1 in order this time, not backwards.

c) am now wondering again what John Spencer (Leo) was in when he was younger, as I suspect he may have been quite the charmer...

Edit And forgive me for making the spammage worse, but I forgot an important and sensible question: where are you up to? (So I don't accidentally spoiler you.)

/random.

Edited 2010-10-17 19:08 (UTC)

Ha! I'm very much looking forward to the spy bits. THERE HAS TO BE A SPOOKS CROSSOVER. HAS TO BE.

Leo has done all the charming he needs to, never mind his age, I am totally taken. :D

I'm up to... watched 1.14 "Take This Sabbath Day" last night. (And argh, I see what you mean about dark stuff now - that one was a bit of a punch to the guts. Toby! Asking the President for the pardon! Oh my god, heart in little pieces on the floor.)

Ha! I'm very much looking forward to the spy bits. THERE HAS TO BE A SPOOKS CROSSOVER. HAS TO BE.

Oh, I know. I started working one out the first time I was ill and in between my watching marathon I carried on where I left off, but I'm not sure where you start with combining two such sets of awesome.

[Feverish plotting results: Presidential visit to the UK - he can take Toby, Josh and Sam on these things; I think CJ sometimes goes, too, so that is okay. I sort of went 'aha' during my S2 or S3 watching when they came back from a foreign visit...) However, they find that there is a leak in the CIA and therefore they need more input from MI5 to find the traitor (very reluctantly and with much snarkage on both sides), cos they don't know who it is, and the Presidential entourage is diverted to an unplanned location (ostensibly under a request from the President, who is briefed by dodgy CIA chief and Harry about this). I am forgetting my details here, but they think Josh and Sam (and/or Toby also) may have useful information (they really don't) and interview them, and I have forgotten the how and why now, but Sam puts his foot in it (prbably in some unwisely patriotic remark, you know how that goes), and gets trouble from various of the Spooks team, and Josh gets a phone call from Donna who has a thing she thinks isn't worth informing anyone else, but turns out to be important and so we have a Donna-Harry telephone conversation that solves the mystery. There was a thing with the President and the Times crossword, but I forget. Um. This is why you should never write out illness-induced synposes, isn't it? It sounds dreadful!!! I can do (possibly) a plot and think of incidents/exchanges, but I fail at the idea of starting to write it, so I think discussion etc is in order. I need to sort out the timelines of both shows. Spooks, mind, is so bizarre by now, that as long as the WW is post the start of S3 (which opens with an acknowledgment of 9/11), it'll all work out. We may need to campaign on

spooky_doings or something.]

*sends sticky plaster for broken heart*

YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES

What are you talking about! This is a totally workable plot! I would love to have Thinky Thoughts to add to it but I've just watched 9.05 so I have my canons completely confused, and not saying more in case you haven't seen it, but you'll have seen the trailer for it anyway, so let me just say that the image I got in my head whenever someone mentioned the President wasn't in any way Obama.

!!!!! So excited. Especially about Donna having the answer after all! Write it, write it, write it!

Aw, thanks. Unfortunately, I only believe I can write this (and have any clue about the finer details) when I have a temperature, apparently. :lol: In the real world, as I said, I lose my nerve at the thought of writing both of these. It's on my list of fics to write when I get six weeks off at once some day. (I don't know when that happens ever unless you get made redundant or are a teacher, though.)

I am all behind on Spooks, although I have managed now to watch 9.04 (being as I had a temperature and was not fit to be watching shows like that at 9pm on an evening at the time.) I need to catch up with 9.05 and then I can speak to you about Spooks again. :-)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your warning about cliffhangers. I got up to the end of series 1 the other day but then I remembered your advice, and I waited until I had series 2 actually in my hands before I watched the finale. And ARGH! I would have probably died if I'd had to wait longer than the ten seconds it took me to change the dvd, and as it was I nearly died during 2.01 with all its ridiculous flashbacks holding out on telling me if Josh was going to live, ARGH JOSH NO. ARGH.

*takes deep breath*

So now I'm well into series 2 and have calmed down a bit, and also I have met Ainsley, who is great. And I will definitely make sure to have series 3 in my hands before watching the series 2 finale!

Also I did some stumbling around for fic recs and the very first thing I came across was this with zombies, omg. You will love it!

:lol: Well, I remembered how it felt when I watched S1, finishing about this time last year and had to put S2 on my Christmas list, and then wait till I got back home to watch what happened next...

Glad you're still enjoying it. I wasn't sure about Ainsley at first, but I grew to like the way she always leaves Sam looking kind of shell-shocked after talking to her. And I like her insane love of all food. It's a bit like my little sister.

And I am so amused that you instantly found WW zombie!fic! What was more, fun zombie fic by

netgirl_y2k who writes some of the best DW humour fics around. And also amused that you found a comm called

apocalyptothon, too. Not surprised, of course, just very amused... :-D

It was a good fic. I am just worrying now. (Donna can deal with zombies, right? I mean, Josh'd probably do something dumb while talking a lot, but Donna'd cope. They'll survive, out in Wisconsin, and live happily ever after once everyone else has eaten everyone else's brains? *wibble*)

Edited 2010-10-24 11:45 (UTC)

I have no idea how you survived waiting that long to find out what happened. (Possibly by being less involved than I seem to be... oh dear, how did this happen?!)

Yeah, I wasn't sure about Donna at first either, but now she has grown on me in a very big way! I'm excited to see she has a spot in the titles now. Though what happened to Mandy? Maybe I missed her exit but it looks like she got shafted the same way Sam did in Spooks.

Re the fic, YOU ARE WELCOME. My first stop-off for fic recs is always delgaserasca's del.icio.us, so I cannot claim credit for randomly digging up zombies and apocalypses in relation to everything, sorry. :) As for whether or not Donna and Josh make it, probably the only way you will ever know is if you write a sequel. *unsubtle hint

Write a sequel? I know NOTHING about Wisconsin! :loL:

Besides, I was too busy writing zombie!fic for Press Gang, because... I was idly thinking about this post and your love of zombies and... there was Lynda and Spike and Colin and zombies in my head. I had to get them out of there at once.

Yeah, I think Donna gradually gets more and more to do, and the more that happens, the more awesome she is. :-)

:lol: Mandy just vanished - she is the only character to completely disappear with no explanation whatsoever so far in TWW. She and Sam should probably compare notes. I mean, at least we know there's a possibility that Sam's sedation just went horribly wrong with Spooks...

Hi!!!! Well, I'm glad your weeks of scarcity have been filled with relatively nice things, at least so far as you're saying here, anyway. I have been watching my way through S4 and S5 while being ill.

Heh, as for Sam, I'm just amazed that I like anything with Rob Lowe in it at all due to his being in this version of The Glass Menagerie, which I was forced to watch during A Level (it feels like a nightmare I once had & sometimes I think it was, and it was about lobotomy, and he was so pretty he scared me. Plus, I assumed everything I watched for A-Level was at least 10 years old, but judging by his age in the WW, either he has scary non-aging powers... and anyway, I am therefore impressed that I quite like him in this.) Which is the joy of the (totally non-existent) ship that is Sam/Ainsley because... I was going to do a post of clips. I will, and then you can see for yourself. She arrives in S2, so you won't meet her yet.

Heh. :-) I think I love just about everyone - it's the likeability of the characters that keeps me watching. The President and Donna remain my favourites, and the more Josh realises he should be with Donna (because of the whole thing where they are ALREADY MARRIED, OKAY?), the more I like him, too. I have problems with some of his smugness, too, sometimes, but he is losing it rapidly. Donna gets more awesome as she goes along. And CJ is great. And Leo. And Abby...

And... The West Wing can get very serious and dark from time to time - be warned. And the lightness departs along with Aaron Sorkin after S4, as far as I can see. But it remains good. And because it's such a top-rating US show, you get random guest stars like Glenn Close.

Well actually it was weeks of stress and little sleep, which I think you guessed! But I have been healthy, so I'm sorry to hear you're not - get better soon, and enjoy your medicinal telly. :)

He was in The Glass Menagerie?? I studied that for my final exams, too, but we stuck to the text version. I guess he was Tom? Or the Gentleman Caller? Ha, it feels like a nightmare to me too!

I am very much looking forward to how everyone changes as I go along. And new characters sound like fun! Oh hmm, I'm not sure I like that it stops being light-hearted, but I will definitely wait and see. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! ♥

Aw. Hope things get less stressful now - and definitely involve more sleep!

Yes, I am feeling quite a bit better, and luckily had S4 and S5 to hand - and have now watched so much of it so fast, my head is a stranger place than usual. Most of the quotes were from S4 that I used above.

We actually did Cat On A Hot Tin Roof as one of our set texts, so we watched The Glass Menagerie for sort of background stuff, or because the Demon English teacher wanted us to? I don't know. But, yes & he was the doctor being asked to do the lobotomy, I think. Unless it actually was a nightmare, or it wasn't even Rob Lowe and it was realy 30 years old or something. I wouldn't swear to anything about it. :-)

Well, never entirely, but Aaron Sorkin seems to have left, and that has changed the vibe a bit, but it goes quite dark in between the light stuff up till then anyway. But hasn't yet lost its sense of the ridiculous of government entirely. And the characters are still themselves, very much so.

have now watched so much of it so fast, my head is a stranger place than usual - oh yes, I know what you mean! I get that whenever I watch more than two episodes of something in a row. Or, after pretty much any episode of Spooks, lols.

I... what? I do not remember a lobotomy in The Glass Menagerie! Either that was a very strange film adaptation, or you have been having nightmares, or I have forgotten a lot of my high school years (very possible).

Okay, in the interest of whether or not I had evil-English -teacher induced madness/nightmare or not, I Googled and what I watched was Suddenly Last Summer (1993) with Maggie Smith, Natasha Richardson and Rob Lowe, which makes total sense. Whether I got confused by the teacher's waffling, or he actually told us it was the Glass Menagerie, I don't know - either is entirely possible.

I quote, mainly for my information, sorry: Mrs. Venable has to be one of Maggie Smith's most powerful small screen performances, her rendition of the crippled yet revenge ridden widow is a gothic portrayal which is matched with an equally memorable Natasha Richardson as Catherine. Every facet of this Richard Eyre production reeks of class, the supporting cast are divine with Rob Lowe turning in an understated Dr. Sugar who is pressured to perform a dangerous lobotomy on Catherine in return for substantial research funding by Venable. As the film progresses the viewer is drawn into the tense narrative and the final scene where Catherine is summoned to the house to relive the death of Venable's son before the unbelieving harridan is just phenomenal. Only seen once on BBC2 back in November 1993, this film surely deserves a video release or even a repeat showing. Why it has only had one British outing is beyond me.

This means it was shown while I was doing my A-Level and it explains where I knew Natasha Richardson from - she was amazing in this. And Maggie Smith! No wonder it was giving me nightmares... :-)

Well, that was probably not exciting for you, but I have explained a weird thing that's been lurking at the back of my head for about 16 years, so I'm happy.

Edit: I think I remember how the son died as well now. No wonder I filed it under 'nightmare' and forgot it until I was forced to watch something else with Rob Lowe in...

Edited 2010-10-18 16:27 (UTC)

Well, I am glad you sorted it all out! That is quite a mystery to have been carrying around for so long. In the interests of sanity I am avoiding that film at all costs.

:lol: Judging by the 'why has this never been released on DVD' remarks that accompanied the reviews, I think you should find that easy. On the other hand, Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson? Hmm... :-)

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