TV Meme: Day 6

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite t.v show

Nearly all TV shows label their episodes.  All the Desperate Housewives episodes are song lyrics, all Friends episodes are "The one with..." easy descriptions.  But you rarely see the name of the episode on the TV anymore, it's just a tag to refer to the episode in print.  I like that The West Wing always opens their episodes with a quick synopsis of what you need to remember, and then the title of the episode, like the name of the film arriving on the screen.  They're usually descriptive, but can be true on many levels.  My favorite episode of The West Wing is "Evidence of Things Not Seen."  The title is a quote from the King James Bible about faith being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  The episode has nothing to do with religion, which is a slight change for writer Aaron Sorkin and director Chris Misiano.  It's actually about faith in other people, trusting them, and believing in things when you have to proof that it's true.  There are 5 main storylines, which is tame by West Wing standards.  First, it's a Friday night and the staff are all getting together to play poker.  CJ Cregg is going on and on about how on the vernal equinox (March 21), you can stand an egg on its end.  No one believes her, but she's confident it's true.  

Second, Josh has to interview a new candidate for the council's office, Joe Quincy (Matthew Perry in the first of his 4-5 episodes).  Third, President Bartlett and Leo have to figure out how to tell the Russian president that a secret "spy plane" taking pictures of terrorism crashed in Russia and they need to retrieve it.  And finally, a guy shoots at the White House, putting them into lockdown.  And finally, Will has to go work for JAG to defend some soldiers who are being court marshalled for not complying with a military order that shouldn't have been given.  It's not a quick episode, but with all good West Wing episodes, there's a lot of talking, some personal idiosyncrasies emerging (Leo can't get over the deli spread brought in for dinner), CJ's faith in Will's ability to help people, and the two President's agreeing they're both going to have to work together against terrorism.  I always think of this episode as not very much happening, but I guess a whole lot does.

 The runner-up for this day was season 5's "The Supremes" when Glen Close guest stars as a potential Supreme Court nominee.  She just shines.