The West Wing: The War at Home

Air Date

Wednesday February 14, 2001

Production Code

226214

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•  

  8.9 Great

  A good episode hide show

  This is one of those episodes what in one point can really break your heart. And this time I think it was not so much the story what was very thoughtful and those dilemmas president had but more about the acting as Martin Sheen really played marvelously, better than usually. It all looked just so real and somehow so true and the feeling of acting was gone.
  
  But it was not only hard topic episode all the long. Ainsley was again as crazy as always and added some laughter moments as Josh and Donna did. I specially loved the dialog when Josh was on hold.

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  Parricida Added Sep 6, 2008 All my reviews
•  

  9 Superb

  Near perfect. hide show

  This is one of my favorite episode for a number of reasons. First of all it gives Martin Sheen a chance to do some real acting, and he does it well. The dilemma of the President who has to decide whether or not to employ force in a hostage situation, is handled realistically. When things go wrong, President Bartlet's frustration gives us an idea of the stress in the White House.
  
  Secondly it shows the complexity of modern day politics, what with polling and pressure groups. Within all of this Sorkin successfully puts some comedy with Ainsley's second attempt at meeting the President. One of the funniest scenes in a drama.
  
  There is some unintentional irony in the episode as well. A large part of the plot is centered around illegal drugs. How can we fight the cartels? Should we make the drugs legal? A few years later Sorkin got into trouble with the authorities as a result of ... his drug use.

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  rb1962 Added Jul 30, 2007 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Patrick Falls Billy
  • Emiko Parise Carrie
  • Richard Riehle Jack Sloan
  • Tony Plana Mickey Troop
  • Adam Alexi-Malle Translator
  • J. Michael Flynn Officer
  • Lee Warren Jones Aide
  • Marvin Krueger Officer #2
  • Sean Patrick Murphy Floor Manager
  • Ed Begley Jr. Seth Gillette
  • Ted McGinley Mark Gottfried

• Stars

  • Martin Sheen President Jed Bartlet
  • Dule Hill Charlie Young
  • Allison Janney Claudia Jean "C.J." Cregg
  • Rob Lowe Sam Seaborn (Episodes 1-84)
More Episode Cast and Crew »

• There is currently no trivia. Add trivia!

• Awards and Nominations:
  Stockard Channing was nominated for a 2001 Emmy in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for his performance in this episode and in "Bartlet's Third State of the Union"
  
  This episode won the 2001 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series along with several other episodes from the season
  
  Nominated for a 2001 Imagen Award in the category of Best Primetime TV Series, Drama [edit]

• (Josh is on the phone.)
  Josh: I'm on hold. I'm on hold. I'm on hold. I'm in some hellish hold world of holding. [edit]
• Josh: Numbers don't lie.
  Joey (Kenny): They lie all the time. They lie when 72% of Americans say they're tired of a sex scandal while all the while newspaper circulation goes through the roof for anyone featuring the story. If you polled 100 Donnas and asked them if they think we should go out, you'd get a high positive response, but the poll wouldn't tell you it's because she likes you, she knows it's beginning to show and she needs to cover herself in misdirection.
  [edit]
• Josh: Last night at the phone bank Donna kept telling me I should ask Joey Lucas out.
  Sam: You should.
  Josh: Fine, but putting that aside, what do you think of Donna being the one pushing it?
  Sam: I don't think anything.
  Josh: You don't think she'd be jealous?
  Sam: She goes out with guys, are you jealous?
  Josh: No.
  Sam: See?
  Josh: I don't get jealous...
  Sam: So…
  Josh: I don't like it. I usually do everything in my considerable powerful capabilities to sabotage it, which is why it's curious that Donna would do nothing to discourage, and in fact do everything to encourage a date with Joey Lucas, who is quite frankly a very attractive woman. [edit]

• Sam: You're just in your own little Euripides play over there, aren't you?
  Sam: Don't you have to absolve yourself of the humiliation visited on your family and the House of Atreus?
  
  In reference to Ainsley's attempt to reverse the dishonor she thinks she brought to her father and family name Sam makes two references to Greek classical tragedy. Euripides (480 B.C.?- 406 B.C.) is considered to be one of the three greatest ancient Greek playwrights. Drawing on Greek mythology, many of his plays dealt with family issues that explode into deep tragedy. The House of Atreus is royal family featured in the Oresteia, a trilogy plays written by Aeschylus. Both Euripides and Aeschylus wrote plays about daughters struggling to resolve the troubling legacies of their fathers. [edit]
• The War at Home, the title of this episode, is also the name of a movie that starred Martin Sheen and was directed by his son Emilio Estevez. [edit]