Joshua

When I started watching it, I thought to myself, "This is as good as Sports Night." I guess there was a reason for that... it was created and written by the same guy, Aaron Sorkin. Anyway, I was hooked and watched all the episodes from last season all last summer. What did NBC say... if you haven't seen it yet, it's not a repeat! Damn, that's clever!
Ok, enough fan babble... tonight's season finale [last spoiler warning] was just awesome. Ok, well it was awesome in the sense of what transpired on the show but disappointing in what didn't. Having the president resign since he clearly doesn't think he's in the right frame of mind to make sound decisions is pure brilliance in the writing. It makes it clear why they booted the VP off the show a couple of weeks ago because it means that the speaker of the house is the next in charge if the president resigns... conspiracy theorists get to work! So we've never really seen the speaker of the house in the show, or at least I haven't... so who walks in to make it clear that he's the boss and he's not really interested in anyone's opinions (including Barlett's) but his own? It's John Goodman. Goodman, who's already an amazing choice for this role, knows how the play the heavy, no pun intended. Just look at Oh Brother Where Art Tho and Barton Fink*, to name a few. And they kept it such a good secret, even IMDB does have it listen yet. (I did submit it tho.) Anyway, he's clearly an ass and Sorkin is going out with style leaving more things open and to be resolved than any writer next season could ask for, and possibly even want. James Brolin did such a wonderful job at being Barlett's nemesis but, imho, he's not going to be able to hold a candle to Goodman. Stay tuned.

(By the way, Barton Fink comes out on DVD next Tuesday. About time.)