west wing 6: season premiere

previously on the West Wing:

Admiral Fitzwallace and two congressmen perished in a bombing in Gaza, with Donna critically wounded. The Middle-East tension escalates when the Israelis surround the PLO Chairman Farad's compound. The Palestinian police refuse to apprehend Nasan without explicit authority from Farad. Leo thinks Jed is gun-shy, and says so to POTUS face. Meanwhile, Donna's injury takes a turn to the worst...

Season 6 Premiere - NSF Thurmont:

We see Marines attending to the procession of Fitz's funeral. Very vintage TWW - snapshot images, one after another, with wonderful cinematography and amazing camera angle. The music then drops in dramatically, and we see a line of limosines snaking thru the (Arlington?)cemetary. POTUS is in one of the limo, discussing the current Mid-East crisis with Abbey and Asst. NSC Advisor Kate Harper and Leo. Leo keeps harping on military action, and doubts that Farad really wants a peaceful solution.

We then proceed to the church, where Jed's giving the eulogy. and quoth Jed from the Book of Matthews:

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy..

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God..

"And blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the children of God..."

smashcut to title music. so far so good. (p/s: Kate Harper is a regular now????)

The rest of the episode contends with the turmoil in the Mid-East. The Speaker wants POTUS to take aggresive military action, and says that a mere peace summit is dishonoring the congressmen's deaths. Leo says that Congress, Joint Chiefs, and 80% of the American public wants Jed to carpetbomb Gaza. Madam Ambassador Gallit of Israel flatly rejects any suggestion of sitting at the same table with Farad, accusing Farad as the mastermind behind recent bus bombings in Tel Aviv.

POTUS then calls everybody to the Oval and wants ideas, and no ideas too stupid, about getting Farad and the Israelis at the same table.

Kate then says, "really stupid ideas?" POTUS says yes, and Kate suggests that they forget what had happened in the last 24 hours and hold Farad to his earlier promise to apprehend Nasan if Farad wants a seat at the peace summit. If Farad equivocates, then POTUS can go to the press and says that Farad refuses to cooperate. If the Palestinians apprehend Nasan, then the show of good faith may the Isrealis that the negotiations are valid.

POTUS then goes to both Farad and Israeli PM, and soon with the custody of Nasan by the Palestinian forces, the Camp David (aka NSF Thurmont) Peace Summit is back on.

Meanwhile Josh and Colin are busy in a pissing contest over Donna, and Donna's sudden pulmonary embolism requires surgery that soon turns critical that she may incur brain damage in the next 48 hours.

The episode closes with a view of Josh at Donna's bedside. She wakes up slowly, and calls repeatedly for Josh. Donna gives a weak smile, and whispers, "You're still here..."

and Josh whispers back: "Yeah... I'm still here..."

sweet!

I feet really damn good about the episode. Hopefully it keeps up. But TWW, as evident in the last season, tends to start with pomp and fireworks, - and soon goes frustratingly downhill thereafter. The writing's still good, not as good as Sorkin's, but still. I think TWW's taking itself a little too seriously though, ever since the departure of Sorkin, focusing too much of national issues and less on character conflicts. Used to be that every TWW episode is witty and funny and insightful and always have one of those laugh-out-loud moments in the midst of serious issue discussions. The dialogs and the banters used to be the best on TV, and four straight years of Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama are evident of that.

This year we'll see, I guess...