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April 08, 2006
'West Wing' cheats with sudden death
by Alan Sepinwall
New Jersey Star-Ledger
Friday, April 07, 2006
SUNDAY NIGHT on "The West Wing" (8 o'clock, Ch. 4), the election results are announced and Leo dies -- and this time, they mean it! Really! Absolutely! No more foolin'!
After last week's whole lotta nothing bait-and-switch, which ended with ballots still being counted and Annabelle stunned to discover something amiss in Leo's hotel room, the show finally gets down to the business of naming President Bartlet's suc cessor and dealing with the real- life death of John Spencer.
And yet it still feels like a cheat.
The death of Spencer in the middle of an election storyline that had Leo as a key figure created a minefield for producer John Wells and his writers. The last few weeks, they navigated it by keeping Leo off-screen, campaigning in different states from running mate Matt Santos. (Appropriately enough, Spencer's final scene had Leo in the Oval Office with his old friend Jed.)
But by having Leo's death take place on Election Day, then using it as a plot device to create tension about how it might affect voter turnout on the West Coast, Wells has done a disservice to the fans and himself.
Here you have arguably the most beloved character on the show (both among viewers and the other characters), and his death is squeezed into a busy hour that's primarily about the tight race between Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). Aside from Josh (Bradley Whitford) and, to a lesser extent Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and C.J. (Allison Janney), none of the characters who were so close to Leo in the first six seasons get time to show much, if any, reaction to his passing. Toby and Charlie don't even appear, and several of the characters who do, learn the bad news off-screen.
How do you fail to show the initial conversation between C.J. and the president? Or the reaction of Leo's long-suffering assistant, Margaret? How do you screw up something that obvious?
And by the episode's halfway point, Leo's passing is almost an afterthought. Wells has done an admirable job this season of get ting viewers to invest in the San tos and Vinick campaigns at the expense of scenes with their old TV pals. But turning Leo's death into just one more obstacle San tos has to overcome is going to really tick off the handful of people still watching out of loyalty to what the show used to be.
Next week's episode will be a more fitting on-screen tribute to Leo and Spencer, but regardless of which candidate you're pulling for (no hints here as to who wins), "Election Day II" is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Posted by Jo at April 8, 2006 06:11 PM