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30 days of TV meme
This just in: Archer Farms' Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream is the best thing in any freezer anywhere.
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Oh, wow. That's a tough one. Last - gosh, last summer? Some time ago, anyway -![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_fremedon got the complete box set of Star Trek:The Original Series, and worked out which were the half-dozen or so absolutely essential episodes of that show. And not too long later, she asked me what were the absolutely essential West Wing episodes, and you know, I couldn't come up with a half-dozen absolutely essential episodes from season 1. (I think starting in about season 4 I was able to control myself.) Trying to choose one favorite episode from seven years' worth of damned good show is really, really hard.
So I'm going to cheat. No, wait! I'm not picking my favorite episode from each season - I'm zeroing in on one, but I'm zeroing in on a two-parter, and it's "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen".
I watched plenty of television before West Wing, but that was, as I've said, the first show I was really devoted to. I was too young to follow St. Elsewhere with my dad (though I used to hear the theme song from the living room when he tuned in), so the ending of that didn't have a huge impact on me. I was studying abroad when my college roommates got hooked on Buffy, so although I watched it with them when I came home, I hadn't imprinted hard enough to get how people got. I didn't watch The Sentinel in the first run, so I always knew Blair didn't stay in that fountain. But the West Wing - oh, man. Oh, man. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: ALL SUMMER LONG! People don't understand - at least, Ellen didn't - the real nature of that cliffhanger: Nobody at my house had cared about JR Ewing, but everyone knew he was the one who'd been shot. West Wing wasn't like that. We had to wait four months to find out who had been shot. They did a nice job not leaking the spoilers - at least, I didn't have to make too huge an effort to avoid them - and the season 2 premiere, dude, there was another person at my office who was awaiting it as eagerly as I was, and I swear I don't know how we got any work done that day.
And it's a hell of an episode - they do a really nice job integrating the stuff from the end of s1 with the same stuff from the beginning of s2, and then everyone, everyone, is SO GOOD in just the first eight or nine minutes of the thing, there's just not a false note anywhere. Gina can't talk to you right now. CJ hit her head. Toby is looking for Josh, oh, god, Toby! ("I ne- I need a doctor!" And I say 'oh, Toby', but that is all Mr. Richard Schiff, is what that is.) Oh, Josh! SAM! ("Josh, I'm here!") And the president and Ron Butterfield and Leo and Zoey and Margaret and MRS. LANDINGHAM and DONNA. (I was never, ever a Josh/Donna shipper, but Ms. Janel Moloney did her best work in this episode.) And Abby and Ginger and Nancy McNally and Charlie and the vice president, who never says a word, but look how his face changes when they come to get him.
PLUS the flashbacks.
I could go on and on about other episodes of that show, but I shall leave it here. "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen", parts 1 and 2, my favorite episodes of The West Wing.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Oh, wow. That's a tough one. Last - gosh, last summer? Some time ago, anyway -
ellen_fremedon got the complete box set of Star Trek:The Original Series, and worked out which were the half-dozen or so absolutely essential episodes of that show. And not too long later, she asked me what were the absolutely essential West Wing episodes, and you know, I couldn't come up with a half-dozen absolutely essential episodes from season 1. (I think starting in about season 4 I was able to control myself.) Trying to choose one favorite episode from seven years' worth of damned good show is really, really hard.So I'm going to cheat. No, wait! I'm not picking my favorite episode from each season - I'm zeroing in on one, but I'm zeroing in on a two-parter, and it's "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen".
I watched plenty of television before West Wing, but that was, as I've said, the first show I was really devoted to. I was too young to follow St. Elsewhere with my dad (though I used to hear the theme song from the living room when he tuned in), so the ending of that didn't have a huge impact on me. I was studying abroad when my college roommates got hooked on Buffy, so although I watched it with them when I came home, I hadn't imprinted hard enough to get how people got. I didn't watch The Sentinel in the first run, so I always knew Blair didn't stay in that fountain. But the West Wing - oh, man. Oh, man. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: ALL SUMMER LONG! People don't understand - at least, Ellen didn't - the real nature of that cliffhanger: Nobody at my house had cared about JR Ewing, but everyone knew he was the one who'd been shot. West Wing wasn't like that. We had to wait four months to find out who had been shot. They did a nice job not leaking the spoilers - at least, I didn't have to make too huge an effort to avoid them - and the season 2 premiere, dude, there was another person at my office who was awaiting it as eagerly as I was, and I swear I don't know how we got any work done that day.
And it's a hell of an episode - they do a really nice job integrating the stuff from the end of s1 with the same stuff from the beginning of s2, and then everyone, everyone, is SO GOOD in just the first eight or nine minutes of the thing, there's just not a false note anywhere. Gina can't talk to you right now. CJ hit her head. Toby is looking for Josh, oh, god, Toby! ("I ne- I need a doctor!" And I say 'oh, Toby', but that is all Mr. Richard Schiff, is what that is.) Oh, Josh! SAM! ("Josh, I'm here!") And the president and Ron Butterfield and Leo and Zoey and Margaret and MRS. LANDINGHAM and DONNA. (I was never, ever a Josh/Donna shipper, but Ms. Janel Moloney did her best work in this episode.) And Abby and Ginger and Nancy McNally and Charlie and the vice president, who never says a word, but look how his face changes when they come to get him.
PLUS the flashbacks.
I could go on and on about other episodes of that show, but I shall leave it here. "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen", parts 1 and 2, my favorite episode
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death