So I have been meaning to give a shout out to TWWW Podcast on this thread for quite a while and never got around to it; a recent episode gave me sufficient motivation.
As noted here last March, the Podcast is hosted by Josh Molina (he was on the last four seasons), and I very much enjoy him. There was a time in the life of this list where we rarely went more than three months without a reference to Sportsnight. If your main exposure to Malina is through the bathtub crank which is *Scandal*, you owe it to yourself to go back and watch Sportsnight again - I did a few months ago (for the third time, not for some years) and was again pleasantly surprised how well it holds up, and how great it is (once you get past the unfortunate laugh track in the first part of season 1). But the real delight in this Podcast is co-host Hrishi (pronounced "rich") Hirway. Rich is articulate and graceful and smart and funny, and unlike Molina, Hirway is a dedicated super-fan of the show who remembers relevant and arcane details, and has the mind of thoughtful literary critic, identifying broader themes within and between episodes of the series, and often introducing quirky, silly and or deeply relevant intertextual references to other television, film or musical forms. He and Malina both went to Yale (maybe 15 years apart?) and were already friends, and Rishi is the one who brought the idea to Malina. I love their deconstruction of the show, and one of my favorite things about it is that more of then not I have to pause the podcast, often several times, so I can have long and elaborate arguments with them (in my own head, sometimes out loud). For different reasons (Rishi is youngish, and Malina apparently was too busy trying to establish himself as an actor) I feel like they both are light on the 90's political and social context of the show. One of the great things about TWW is how evergreen it is (it anticipated many aspects of the Obama story in an uncanny way, in part I suspect because many in the Obama circle were influenced by the show)., Even so, the kind of close reading of the episodes that this podcast deliciously engages in requires a more intimate understanding of the challenges and failures of the Clinton administration. Malina nd Hisway do not ignore this, but often enough they miss or underplay elements that I think are critical to their discussion. They have had some really wonderful interviews, with cast members, Sorkin, and Schlame, They have also had fabulous interviews with members of the technical crew - costumers and props and set design, and a wonder episode with the great Snuffy Walden (composer of most of the music).They also have a playlist on Spotify of "Cool Sorkin Jams", which features popular songs used in TWW (and, I think Sportsnight). If you are somehow a regular member of this list and have never really dived into The West Wing, I really encourage you to use this Podcast to do so. They treat it as if it is a current show being broadcast once a week, and their policy, which they follow pretty rigorously, is to not have any "spoilers" - they discuss episodes in light of previous episodes, but do not bring in later developments (this is a bit of an irritation for me, but I understand why they do it. Apparently a lot of young people are watching the show for the first time with the podcast, and some apparently stop cast members they see walking around and compliment them as if the show is a first run Netflix series. I download episodes from iTunes, but you can also get them at their website: http://thewestwingweekly.com, which also lets you access some nice Merch. They also run an active FB and Twitter feed, in addition to the entertaining Twitter feeds of the two hosts. The episode that got me to update this thread was released recently (7/11/17) and was on episode 13 from season 3: "Night Five". One of the threads that both hosts, but particularly Hirway, picks at is the casual and entrenched sexism in the show, especially by men who are supposed to be liberal. It is a cause of much debate among fans of the podcast. I find it interesting because it gets at several deeply entwined strands: Conscious sexism that Sorkin was dramatizing and holding up to critique; implicit sexism which Sorkin was perpetuating and had internalized so much he did not notice it; and cultural sexism, which was a function of that particular time in US social history (by this I don't mean to excuse or minimize it). Anyway, this comes up a lot, but they handled it in a particularly great way in this episode; Hirway solicited three regular listeners of the Podcast, who were women and attorneys specializing in workplace sexual harassment, to participate in a conversation with him about a funny, interesting, awkward and (for many) offensive scene with Sam, Ainsely and a one-time character "Celia" (a lower level employee in the West Wing). Same makes some sexualized comments about Ainsely, who is not offended and seems to enjoy the banter, but Celia is offended and confronts both of them. One or two of the lawyers in the conversation about this represent plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases, and the other 1 or 2 represent plaintiffs. I won't spoil the content of that conversation, but I just wanted to spotlight it as a A+ example of the high level of discourse Malina and (especially) Hirway create on this podcast. He is perfect in the interview, asking productive questions, but allowing each woman to speak fully. They mostly agree, but in some cases do not, and that mirrors the way the issues have been discussed throughout the Podcast. "Night Five" is not the best episode of TWW, but it is one of the better episodes of the TWWW Podcast. If you are interested in intelligent, informative and entertaining discussion of one of the finest pieces of television ever created, I recommend it highly, P.S. They are getting closer to the end of the Sorkin era on TWW. I know many (including Hirway and our own Kevin M) often dismiss the post-Sorkin episodes, but I think doing so is unfortunate. The show does take a distinct nosedive for the first half or so of the first non-Sorkin season, but then improves, and for my money the last two seasons of the TWW, while not quite at the same level as the Sorkin years, still belong in the Golden Era of television, and I don't think you can find more than 9 other broadcast television series that had full seasons better than the last two of TWW. My point is, if you do decide to sample the show I encourage you to power through Season 5 stay with it to the end. "What's Next?" On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 4:05 PM, Jon Delfin <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/joshua-malinas-west-wing- > podcast-is-here.html > > (If for no other reason than that the first sentence made me laugh.) > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
