I lurked at TWOP when I was watching Season 4 as it aired. One of the memorable things that I read on those forums was this day-after-reaction to this episode from a poster. I paraphrase: The episode started as a screwball comedy and evolved to a "Whodunit" mystery and finished as a Shakespearean drama. Yup, that's ( Life on Mars )

( Evidence of Things Not Seen- Part II )

Onto the final four episodes of S4 and the last four episodes of the Sorkin/Schlamme partnership. How the time has flown. Anyway, Sorkin and Schlamme were on their A-game for the last four episodes. This is actually the least awesome of the four but all four upcoming episodes are filled with humor, heart, intelligence and perfect character work. ( Read more... )

I love this episode. It's not a classic like the next four episodes (where I intend to party with hyper-meta and flailing because Evidence of Things Not Seen through 25 calls out for that. Still, this is a fun episode with layers of important meaning. Hence, I wrote a *ton* of meta on this puppy. It came pouring out.

( Angel Maintinence )

I had always been fond of but rather ambivalent about this episode. However, recapping it gave me a new appreciation for the episode. There's a lot of meat and good stuff in this deceptively silly episode. I will now rate it much more highly.

( Privateers )

Last episode with Sam Seaborn until Season 7. Momentous occasion. I do feel that this episode fails as a send-off for Sam. As an episode, it's well-made and relatively popular. However, I do have my issues. These issues do come more meta than I expected to write on this ep! More on that in the recap:

( Red Haven's on Fire )

The second to last episode with Sam, Sam, The Sunshine Man. So sad. On the plus side, road trip to Californ-i-ay! This episode is rather light on the meta. While quite fun, this ep is low on substance from where I would draw meta.

( The California 47th )

Now, we're on the second part of the Inauguration two-parter. Normally, I love the second part of West Wing two-parters the most. However while this episode is fun and decently written, I do think that it gets way too fluffy and saccharine and doesn't satisfactorily answer the tough moral, interpersonal, etc. questions that Inauguration Part I and ( Read more... )

So after the Midwest ennui of The Long Goodbye, we're back to the ensemble, witty banter, heavy politics and effervescent typicality of classic West Wing. This episode is a particularly stunning example of excellent West Wing.

( Inauguration: Part One )

So I've watched these episodes so many times that I never needed to rewatch anything before I recap. My memory is just jogged from the transcripts and screencaps. However, I haven't seen The Long Goodbye since it aired because I don't think of it was "West Wing". So I had to rewatch. Here's ( The Long Goodbye )