Just a quick note to comment on last night’s episode of The West Wing, "California 47th"…

It was the best and most wholly well-written episode of the show I’ve seen all season…maybe even the best and most wholly well-written episode in the past two seasons. Props to the story writers, Lauren Schmidt and Paula Yoo, director Vincent Misiano and of course Aaron Sorkin, whose teleplay was the most effective one I’ve seen in a while. A truly ensemble effort, with some really great lines given to a number of characters, top-notch talent, especially in the return guest roles, and even some tongue-in-cheek silliness to provide comic relief. Not flawless, perhaps, but still quite effective nonetheless. Reminded me of the series’ classic debut year (1999-2000), because the show kept picking up momentum and when the final fade happened, I found myself wanting to see more. I haven’t enjoyed a WW episode this much in a long time. I can’t remember the last really good ensemble episode…maybe "The Stackhouse Filibuster" from the second season.

Most memorable scene: I’ll go with serious this time, and say the one with the extremely unpleasant and deluded couple in the hotel bar. I can see how some people might consider the scene a bit overdramatic, but I thought it was very well played and shot. It certainly made me really uncomfortable, as it should have done. Another powerful serious scene was Leo realizing, from Fitz’s update, what the sudden acceleration of genocide meant.

Favorite line: So hard to choose…there really were many. If I had to select one now, I’d go with the one that made me laugh for at least ten seconds. It was Andie referring to Toby: "Sorry girls, I saw him first." Yeah, it’s the punch line to an entire scene, so the humor is tough to translate here. But it’s a good thing I actually taped the episode (I haven’t done that in a while), because otherwise I would have missed what Donna and Josh were talking about while I was laughing.

P.S. And of course it was nice to see the number 47 in the title. 🙂

P.P.S. For the third (fourth?) week in a row, seeing Joshua Malina on The West Wing right after Sabrina Lloyd on Ed made me smile.