I had heard that the third season of The West Wing takes a noticeable dip in quality. I’ve just watched the first two episodes and while it is quite early in the season, I have to admit to not seeing a dip. I was annoyed a few episodes back that we didn’t get to see the reaction of each staff member as they were told about the Presidents MS. A sizeable amount of this two part opener is actually the staffers dealing with this issue.
The storyline flips between two time periods. The immediate afterwards of the press conference when Jed announces that he will in fact seek and win re-election and a period 4 weeks later where they prepare to make an official announcement and kick off the campaign. Ron Silver guests in these episodes and while I’m not sure I like his character or indeed the other two new characters he is a great actor. He is one of 3 new characters brought in to help the team win the election. I think this was a waste myself. The election is going to drive the next season and I would have rather seen the main cast having to deal with the issues of the campaign themselves. Saying that, these characters were partly brought in now in order to move a plot point forward. They created tension and build-up and moved some pretty major items to the front to be dealt with.
I look forward to seeing how Josh deals with the tobacco issue over the coming episodes. I hope that with this being set up as such a big issue for him that some follow through would be nice. Also so nice plot points for C.J. and another great performance from Allison Janney. I don’t like the character of the First Lady and I don’t particularly like Stockard Channing, the actress who plays her.
I am glad to saw the usual excellence in dialogue was present and as long as that continues I’ll keep watching.
And to take it down a level, Donna played by Janel Maloney is hot.