Transition Reviews

Wow, this has quickly become one of my favourite episodes of the series let alone season. This is probably down to it being focused on Josh and was another “Josh goes a bit barmy” episode. He is by far my favourite character so I love episodes that focus on him. But again it was great to see behind the scenes of what goes on during the transition period and the stresses that come with it. By the time he finally lost the plot and screamed at Otto he’d taken that much stuff to keep him awake and alert, I’d be surprised if he ever slept again.

I think what I really liked about it is that it helped to change my opinion of Santos. I’d never been a big fan of his mainly because he was so independent and ignored his advisors as often as he did take on board what they’d said. I often found myself battling not to like Vinick throughout the election (for the first time in the shows history it seemed to portray a Republican as not the source of all evil) but I changed my mind during the course of this episode. Seeing him working with the President to resolve the situation in Kazakhstan was great to watch, how quickly he went from villain to hero.

Donna as COS for the First Lady is a brilliant choice that made me want to see another season to see how she would have got on. And the prodigal son returned, oh how I have missed Sam. It was great to see him back even though it was for a few minutes. I looked forward to seeing him in the final couple of episodes.

The end stunned me. Never in a million years did I expect to see Josh and Donna actually run off together – well even if it was for just a week, but it’s the old romantic in me. It was great to see Josh coming to the decision that he needed a life outside of work like the rest of the original cast. All in all I thought it was a superb episode and one I’m desperate to see again when it comes out on DVD.

this episode is a good expample how the end is going to be so good for not to be mist. also in this episode i think that the writers leave a window open for some type of follow up series by calling old actors that were out of the west wing. In this episode we can see how many details are involved in the changing of guard for the first job in th US.

Stressed dosn't even begin to describe Josh when he gets in a limo in california. The republican driver dosn't help him, but he gives us some laughs.
When Sam shows up at the white house things get all the more interesting, and with a job offer to donna for first lady chief of staff (I didn't even know the fist lady HAD a staff.) things are definatly going to get interesting in the last few epps.
When she shows up at Josh's door, well, just another plot bunny to play with.

This epp was awsome. Multiple plots, charater development, all of the above.

I go back to a prior comment I made, 'its to bad we will not see the next presidency in office'. Josh as COS, Sam as DCOS, Lou as CD, Donna as COS for the 1st lady. It would have been wonderful.

In the mean time in this episode, Josh coming unglued and yelling at Otto, and Sam bringing him back to earth was a marvelous piece of business.

Who would have thought that the writters could use Santos's own bullheadedness to suprise us. I for one did not see the Good Cop...Bad Cop routine coming. When it became appearant that Bartlett and Santos had a plan I had to smile, it was a nice suprise!

The best part of course is Josh on the plane at the end and Donna joinning him. It looks like for once, the writters are going to let romance win.

What a roller coaster ride! I could not have been less impressed with "Requiem" and so I only watched "Transition" in much the same way that one watches an impending car wreck. Mostly out of some long instilled loyalty that said "the West Wing is on and it is a new episode, so I will watch."

I was pleasantly surprised. Now I have to wonder if it was because the episode was good, or because I had so lowered my expectations that provided no one actually used their own names, instead of the character they play, that I would have been satisfied.

Watching Josh hit burn out was exactly right. It needed to happen and I found myself caring more about the support staff (especially poor Otto) than I ever have before.

Seeing the return of Sam was great, but it is still a huge miss about him not attending Leo's funeral and an even bigger miss that not one person mentioned it. It really should have been explained.

Having said that, the interaction between them was rapid, eloquent and sardonic, just what we long-term viewers have come to know and love.

This episode suddenly had me caring about the Santos White House and feeling like it would be interesting to see them go forward. After my scathing (but very much deserved) review of last week, I am perhaps the most surprised to find myself wishing the show would go on.

Donna as COS for the First Lady? I would love to see that relationship develop!

CJ maybe staying on? Well they would need to resolve how she winds up in California by the time the Bartlett library is going to open, but yes, yes, yes, keep her on the show!

Sam as deputy COS, yes, as he proved only too well, he is exactly the type of person needed to stand up to Josh.

The "Good Cop, Bad Cop" bit between Santos and Bartlett was really well played and left me respecting both men more.

And so here we are, a well acted, fairly well written episode.

The directing needs to be ramped up a bit. There were some extremely obvious continuity errors (case in point, Josh hitting the sofa on his return home, exhausted, falling down with his arms stretched out over his head, cut to a behind shot of Josh getting up to answer the door where his arms have instantly and mysteriously found their way to be folded under his head like a pillow.)

Remember the good old days with those seamless scenes that ran for several minutes as characters walked and talked and interacted and never once did they use cut-aways?

Still, all things considered, even with lowered expectations, this episode showed that the show still could have legs.

Could, that is if they somehow had a network that cared enough to really support the show, and an executive producer with more than sporadic ability to pull from the extremely talented cast the brilliance that is begging to be supported.

Of course I would love to see the somehow rise from the ashes and go forward in brilliance, but failing that, I will settle for episodes like this one to take us through to the end.

8 out of 10 (as a John Wells episode) 5 out 10 (if Aaron had been at the helm)

If the fifth and sixth season (which had their moments but were mediocre compared to the first few seasons) had been as good as the second half of this season (which has completely revived the West Wing Franchise by not being afraid to further develop the characters), this series would never have been canceled.

The fifth and sixth season introduced some new characters (Matt Santos, Arnold Vinick, Kate Harper, Annabeth Schott), they lacked real character development.

This season also started out that way, it seems as if only the foreshadowing cancelation (let's be honest, we all knew it was coming to an end after seeing the first few ratings) enabled the writer to become less conservative.

Now with only three more episodes to go, I am ready to call the seventh season on par with the first and second season, perhaps even better.

But now to this episode - the story line was long overdue: Josh is burned out: we witnessed it during the campaign and some people say that it is proof that he should not be Chief of Staff (I read this in a quite a few reviews). I think one must not forget what Josh pulled off in the past year (or nearly two seasons): he singlehandedly got an underdog with charisma but virtually no name-recognition on to the democratic ticket, and then was able to assemble a team to get the guy elected to the white house over a guy who initially at least presumably had the chance to win all fifty states.

No other person could have pulled this off, after his holiday, he should be in excellent shape to be Santos' chief of staff.

It's nice to see Sam back on board, but somehow I never figured he would have accepted to become deputy chief of staff under Josh - I always saw them as equals, even if Josh had more authority according to the organization chart. But Sam is an ideal partner for Josh, as he proved on his first day by sending Josh on vacation.

I really liked the idea of Donna becoming Helen Santos' chief of staff. I have been asking myself for weeks, which job she would have in the new administration: she wasn't a candidate for director or deputy director of communications, and I could not imagine her as deputy chief of staff (it would not work with Josh as chief of staff - she even says it in this episode). I was picturing her as press secretary, but I am not sure whether that would be utilizing all her talents. She is virtually a more self-controlled version of Josh, but without the JD and the necessary respect on the Hill. This job is perfect for her - as long as Helen Santos is willing to be a more Hillary Clinton like First Lady and less of a Laura Bush.

I was hoping for one scene: after Sam gets Josh to go on vacation, I would have liked him to have publically apologized to Otto - it would have had style and integrity. It would have been another scene demonstrating his character growth over the years. At least he asked Donna to go on holiday with him. She already knows that he cannot keep his apartment tidy (and any other bad habits he might have) - I'm pretty sure they will get this relationship to work. It will certainly help coordinate the work of the president's and first lady's staff ;-)

Bartlett and Santos are cooperating to get a quick solution to the Kazachstan situation - I really liked that and I did not see it coming. Bartlett is going out in Style. Now let's see what position Annabeth and Kate end up with, and CJ and Charlie (world domination here we come?), and how Toby figures into the last few episodes of my favorite series ever.

I have to say, I liked this episode a lot. There were a few things I didn't like, of course. It's hard for an episode to be so perfect that there isn't a thing wrong with it. It was great for Sam to come back, but I just felt he deserved more. Maybe a little reuniting with some old colleagues would be nice, instead of just Josh, who barely gave him the whole "haven't seen you in forever" speech that you would think old friends would do. So although its nice that Sam's back, Jeers to the way they did it.

Other than that, I loved it. I totally agree with Santos that it must be hard to just sit back after that whole campaign and do nothing until its his turn for office. I totally get that.

Last but not least: Josh. I feel so bad for Otto, and when Josh gets back from his little vacation he had better offer a great job to Otto to make up for it. You could see him freaking out all the time, and he was always so frazzled. Thank you Sam, Santos, and Donna for trying to get him to relax. Santos was worried about him. Sam was the one who told him to take a vacation. And of course, Donna gave him a litte something else to think about, if you know what I mean. Interesting for her to put a window of opportunity on their relationship. I hope it works out. They have been in love for what, almost eight years now? Please. Was all that waiting for nothing?

Loved the ending. So cute for Josh to bring Donna along on the vacation. Somehow, at the end of each episode, they manage to wrap up the problems just enough to keep the audience satisfied but still waiting for more. Thank you writers. Excellent episode.

The producers are in a difficult position as the season and series wind down. On the one hand, they want to give the audience a strong sendoff, bringing back old friends and giving the main characters a proper farewell (especially Leo). Yet how can their efforts live up to expectation? It’s nearly impossible, and even if Sorkin had been writing the episodes, I doubt the final product would please everyone.

I’ll admit that I was expecting a little bit more with regards to the Sam Seaborn return. At the very least, I wanted some indication of why he wasn’t at Leo’s funeral. All things being equal, I know that it was likely a matter of contracts and timing. Even if they had filmed something after the fact and inserted it into “Requiem”, it would have been an issue because of SAG rules: Lowe would have to be paid for appearing in that episode. Still, why not a single line of dialogue to explain things?

Yet, I understand why the writers would avoid it. What answer would be sufficient? As it stands, the logic behind Sam’s return works, and as the characters themselves note, the circumstances are neatly symmetrical. It was fun to watch Sam “protest too much” about the deputy CoS job, because it was rather clear from the beginning that he was coming back into the fold. But in some ways, the energy wasn’t there, and I’m sure that some will be disappointed that every scene wasn’t full of the same snap and crackle.

So much attention was on Sam and his return that the Bartlet/Santos gambit was neatly pulled off. It was a nice touch, because it would have been easy to assume that Santos was operating on his own. This was a clever way to address one of the issues that I had with earlier episodes. Santos was never shown reacting to the Southeast Asia problem, but apparently he and Bartlet had discussed a few things here and there in terms of strategy.

Helen’s offer to Donna resolves one of the issues with the whole impending Josh/Donna thing, since the whole boss/employee problem was one of the stumbling points earlier in the series (whether they came right out and said it or not). I thought that Donna took a very pragmatic approach to her relationship with Josh, as if the past year or so had taught her a few lessons in self-assertion. I was struck by the fact that Donna wasn’t really acting like Donna, but why would we expect the characters not to change?

Which, of course, brings us to Josh. Josh is also changing, as he realizes that his manic behavior over the past year has given way to the verge of a nervous breakdown. Sam is probably the only person he’ll listen to at this point, which proves out the logic of the script. Josh’s growing insanity sparks off some odd moments along the way (like Santos asking about his love life with Donna, which was an odd choice), but where does it end? With Sam coming back to keep Josh on track and Donna there to give him a chance to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. Even better, there’s still three more episodes for the answers to become clear.

A successful episode, to be sure--but a exasperating watch at times. Consider:

How many ankle-kicks at George W. Bush will "The West Wing" attempt on the way out the door? The transition vandalism was "apocryphal," a direct jab at the stories surrounding what Clinton staffers did on their way own way out, and by implication a jab at the stories coming out from W's people--in short, calling them liars. Classy.

And then we have the NSA wiretaps, a direct swing at the current NSA and (by implication) a boost to the real-life Senator Feingold's censure motion (and if the Dems take either House in November the way they took the House of Reps on TV, watch out). Then, once Santos discovered that his calls were being monitored, I thought, at least here we go. I expected at least a DFCON 3 in the Oval Office, maybe not on the level of Toby-learns-about-MS, but certainly on the level of Hoynes-comes-over-on-Sunday-after-the-gun-death. But then? Barlet: "Yeah, I'm sorry about that." So that's it? So do the show's writers and producers feel that real-life NSA wiretaps are legal, or at the very least forgivable by a simple "I'm sorry?" I'm rather partial to the former premise, but I suspect I'm alone here.

And so much of the show I saw coming down the chute. Donna as First Lady COS--well, what else was there? She can't work for Josh, and she can't go away. And for--what?--the fifth time in the last six episodes, we got walked up to the Josh Lyman meltdown and the possibility that Santos might drop him for Lou or someone else. I myself bought into the Josh-gut punch notion right up until last week, when it became clear how badly Santos needed him. Right. Got it. Josh's self-loathing, his sense of inferiority, his huge Jungian hang-ups with his own father and Leo, and the weird masochistic relationship he has with C.J (offering her a job? Is he kidding?)--all these will surface again and again, out in to our imaginations, when the show itself is long-gone. But he's smart, he has superb political instincts, and he dragged Santos into history, so--as much as Santos--he's deserved his shot.

Right. Got it. Time to move on.

So what was there to recommend this puppy? I'm sorry, I'm a sucker, but it was worth it just to see Sam again, and (within the show's narrative) just in time. If his meltdowns are Josh at his worst, his snatching of Sam from California was Josh at his intuitive best. (Ever notice that Josh's flashes of brilliance so often involve a journey that most would describe as a fool's errand? Manchester, Houston, now LA.) Josh knew Sam, once back, wouldn't leave, and perhaps he knew that throwing Sam into the midst of things was the one thing necessary to save himself.

So: Aurrgh. This episode committed many sins, but not the two most important. It did not bore, and it did not fail to live.