The Worst Wing

Gettin' imperialist with the Bartlet Administration! We crammed two episodes into one session this time around because the format of both is such that the writers basically split up a single 85 minute ep into two parts. Which is fine, because nothing resolves in the first half, and then only West-Wing-Resolves in the second! A wonderful sneak peek behind the scenes of the neurotic concern over mes...

Oh joy it's Lord Crompton Bigglesworth, back from the Inbred Isles, here to titillate us with conversations of pedigree and inebriation! It's motherfuckin John Marbury, being put in service of "comedy" this time around as Sorkin exorcises more of his sexist demons through his stable of pliant and obedient writers. A lot of things happen in this episode. There's a very good guest star in Rocky Carr...

Strap the fuck in y'all we're going COMPROMISIN'! Our thoughts run long this week becauuuuuse: Holy shit, this TV. Stu's traditional gift of gab was well and truly stymied in his attempts to describe the abject banality of the limbo, nay, fugue state, that makes up the brainfog middle portion of this episode. We are introduced to a guest star for the ostensible purpose of something dramatic occurr...

Bernard... THATCH? A ride or die Etonian takes on CJ's fashion faux pas and we get to engage in some seriously dramatized and very bootstrappy wrestling with PTSD. A character-dive episode, Josh's brush with death at the muzzle of a Nazi gun is central to the convoluted flashback sequences in this certified Christmas Episode. Stu's content this time 'round is probably enough in and of itself to co...

I'm going to guess that everyone who listens to this show, like us, is a tremendous nerd in some fashion, and so will wholly empathize with the cringe-by-proxy feeling of suffering through President Bartlett's superficially didactic rambling in this cold open. Wow, President Dad! Factoids? That... aren't particularly esoteric?? Truly your Big American Peni I mean Brain is unrivaled! This episode i...

In case you're not aware, the Uighurs are Turkic Muslim population living in the remoter parts of China that the Chinese government has ALLEGEDLY gone Full Fash on and is detaining in camps TO RE EDUCATE THEM. Sound familiar? The US administration is cynically harping on this fact as a convenient cudgel to be used against Xi and blossoming Chinese hegemony. RE EDUCATION CAMPS. 20 years ago, these...

Hey Other Dave, Look we know you're a busy guy. We'd be busy too if we had adoring legions of fans, comedic talent and timing, friendships with cool people like Gareth and the Chapo crew, etc. But fact of the matter is, we don't have any of those, so Dave Actual and Stu can blow an hour or two of our tedious weekly existence as capitalist thralls recording a podcast about how the West Wing sucks a...

But but but the small businesses!! That somehow are both small and have Executives! A lot of disconnected issues are thrown together under the umbrella concept of a "lame duck" congress in this episode. For those blissfully unaware, the term originates from a British metaphor for an easy mark on the financial markets. A lame duck being unable to keep up with its flock, thence becoming an easy targ...

Ainsley Hayes, welcome to DeathCrew!! Almost nothing of lasting import happens in this episode except for John Larroquette being tall and bristly. Three caricature-level one-offs get owned by the powerful women in the administration which is cool and good. Of course then we're expected to just sti and nod along as Putatively Rahm Emanuel does NOT exact vengeance on the third and fourth generation...

white people die from AIDS like this *beep bippy boop boo* black people die from AIDS like THIS *a beepa boop beeboop* In perhaps the most bizarrely constructed Very Serious Attempt to seamlessly integrate a new character into our established cadre, the writers blow straight past the charming paternalism deliberately stereotype by Lord John Marbury, into full-ass weird Orientalism juxtaposed with...

Disingenuous candidacy? CHECK. Fundamental perversion of the electoral system? CHECK. Modern-day relatability? 100% CHECK. The admin does an extremely rapid treatment of a midterm election which, up until maybe 2010, was exactly how much attention the American Voter paid to such things. More leaning on Charlie's blackness ensues, and Toby goes to bat for the guillotine except quite for the right r...

MULTI-LANE DRIFTING?? A two-parter to start the second season, we deal with a stark departure from the norm and more action-movie cinematography than the entire first season deployed. Also hardly any politics at all, as the administration struggles to piece together the fallout of a devastating, somehow still hilarious (it wasn't even a .50 cal Deagle lmfao) attack on poor Charlie, not actually Pr...

Avi? Pull your socks up!! We made it fam, it's the finale of the first season of the West Wing! In complete faithfulness to form we have The President literally say out loud "It's a little of both", and nothing happens on a policy level. However, to its credit this time around there's some interesting trivia tidbits to digress over, and a lot of well-crafted character drama driving the bus... to M...

It's free polls! The administration has been letting its novel message osmose through the population for (indeterminate length of time) and it's time to quantify how Good they have Bartletted! If there's an opposite of "compelling narrative framework", this mechanic of turning the episode's drama around the literal act of putting an approval rating poll out fits the bill. Also we see Lisa Edelstei...

Field trip field trip!! Join the administration's top minds on brief, unnecessary excursions to such iconic DC locations as "generic courtyard bistro" and "somewhere on the Tidal Basin". We learn that Toby conclusively does slash did not deserve his ex-wife Andy, Josh definitely does not deserve Mallory, and Charlie's oddly creepy! And not a lot else, with an eponymous political issue being given...

An interstitial episode this week, as Stu suffered a few Brain Genious moments while in full revolutionary embrace of Alexandria OC Thought. We're watching a media narrative break down in real time as the freshman congresswoman from the Bronx confuses and flusters the communal oligarchic machine with her fresh ideas like "actually give people money" and "my voters enjoy such things as eating, bein...

A crisis of conscience envelopes the administration in a malaise that extends throughout the entire White House. Also the show becomes so close to self-aware that I'm edging hard the entire time but then oops! No policy outcomes! And the lack of introspection continues. Happy New Year! Here's to a less-shitty 2019, solidarity from New York and Florida.

There are neither six meetings NOR LUNCH in this episode and I believe we were promised both?? The show throws out a bizarrely spontaneous presentation of possibly one of the most contentious, and righteous, issues framing modern society... and then spends the rest of the episode talking about reparations! Woo, a lot of material to go after this time around. Also, the only Jackal I want to hear ab...

Today the administration spends an enormous amount of emotional energy and brainpower on what ultimately boils down to a spat of college jealousy of an assuredly big-dicked Federal Reserve Chairman appointee. And speaking of dicked, it's gotta be really awkward to be a Secret Service agent super enthused about your designated protectee not going out in public, because her boyfriend is dropping by...

Surprisingly fresh if completely unintentional takedown of its own farts, the show goes out of its way to describe the bought-and-sold nature of its political philosophy with a jaunt to the West Coast. Several guests appear and will never be seen again. Stu wrestles incoherently with describing a bedrock concept of the zeitgeist. John Stamos is NOT Joey Lawrence.

The culmination of a lifetime dedicated to public service: one big wet flopsweat panic moment on camera, triggered by the most banal, orthodox question posed to you, a certified Brain Genious, on your own home turf. Racism?? In MY United States? Surely you jest good sir, harrumph, this shall be rectified posthaste!

Sorkin dials it the fuck back in on this episode as we take a very spiritually-inspired tour of the arguments for, but also hugely vastly against, the institutional barbarism that is the death penalty. Some craven political maneuvering introduces a very of-the-time minor character and also Stu and Dave are pretty punchy considering it's the day after the midterms. Holy shit what a mess.

A series of inopportune moments come together with the longer-running major scandals plaguing the White House, hopefully all to be meticulously wrapped up and swept under the rug. Content warning: unironic appreciation of Good Television contained within, because it's Lowell Lydell Denouement time, baby! Leo makes a bizarre staffing decision in the heeeeat of the moment. Tellin' him what her heart...

A bombshell disclosure rocks the White House! THRILL as the most minor of technicalities in speechwriting language poses ABSOLUTELY NO THREAT to any person involved! CHILL to the spine-tingling honks of an inbred colonialist doofus! It's been a rough week y'all.

The legacy of colonialism poisons every aspect of modern society, it is impossible to fully comprehend or grapple with any issue without incorporating a systemic analysis of the brutalizing effects of Western colonial domination. There's a neat Hell Of A Way To Die episode where they chat with Ken Klippenstein about the Freedom of Information Act and journalism that I forgot to plug in our discuss...