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"Dead Irish Writers"
Episode Airdate 03/06/02"Your breasts are magnificent..."
How many plot lines can Aaron Sorkin weave into one episode? Lemme see if I can dig them out…
The First Lady is having a glamorous birthday fete…
The First Lady is struggling with the potential loss of her medical license…
Donna is subjected to a surprise party-level background check and is suddenly not a U.S. citizen…
Toby and Lord Lecherous (John Marburry, British Ambassador to the U.S.) jocularly exchange writer's quotes over aged liquor and dance around the issue of legitimizing Sein Fein. (Yeah, I probably spelled that wrong, but I don't know how to spell PLO, either.)
Sam humors an old college professor by bullying an uncooperative senator into unblocking legislation supporting the construction of a multi-billion dollar super-collider that serves no obvious purpose…
Josh's sassy new girlfriend, Amy Gardner, lobbies Josh for more women on the re-election campaign staff by exercising her friendship with the First Lady…
The President gives Charlie an exercise in how not to write a toast…
…and a partridge in a pear tree.
We're not talking daytime soap opera plot weaves here, folks. This is serious, real-life character interaction. We all have different sub-plots occurring in our personal and professional lives, but rarely do we see how our stories interact and affect the stories of others.
I know, I know, I know….none of us will ever be in the White House (speak for yourselves), and none of us will ever be super snotty smart (again, talk amongst yourselves), but look at the rug Sorkin weaves for us in this episode. So much going on, so much to take in…so much to love. Sometimes he tells an hour-long fable that is held together with a great theme or symbol, but this week he pulls a 24 and takes an hour or so out of the West Wingers lives and just shows what happens during that brief time period. No big moral, no huge catastrophe. This is just smart people interacting with each other.
When I say "just", I don't mean dull. I mean simple…pure. Like Shaker furniture simple…like honey pure…like "just" the Mona Lisa. How else could a bunch of boozy broads discussing personal issues be re-interpreted in a new and hilarious way that hasn't been done a thousand times before on Sex and the City, Absolutely Fabulous, and Three's Company? Donna's drunken reprisal of Abby's licensure situation is so right on when it comes to depicting the truth-in-alcohol moments we all regret. Abby learning from the slipped comment and not getting into fisticuffs with Donna teaches us all something about decorum, respect, and self-reflection. That's often difficult for us to grasp, but important to learn on a very simple and pure level.
Amy Gardner gets the take away quote for this episode…hands down: "The First Lady just asked me to get boozy with her. You don't think I want to write a book one day?" If we couldn't see Ainsley Hayes in this episode (where was she anyway? Trapped in the basement?), then thank God we got Amy Gardner. If I can't have one, then give me the other. And when do they get to strip it off and hit the verbal mud pit together?
