That got the show in lots of trouble iirc (putting the cigarette out on the floor rather than the smoking itself)

if you ever, ever lie, you're finished with me.
"Bartlet's stubbornness, even in the face of the greatest crime he's ever committed, to maintain his integrity"

SONG SPOILERS
A song we'll hear part of again in S5, from Eve to Lorne.

It had it's moments, but it really didn't work. It was pretty clear that Sorkin was trying to write something heavier than the premise would allow. This led to preachiness turned up to 11.

I stand by my belief that having Britney play April have been perfect. She would have been playing a machine designed with no motive except pleasing men. Tell me that's not a bit on the nose.

It can sometimes stick out, but it's generally from the mouth of The Host, Cordy, Gunn or (spoilers) Fred - the latter 3 are quite young characters (and Cordy's voice was already well established from BtVS), and the Host is a karaoke demon who's camp as a row of tents.

"…Shawn Ryan, who sadly doesn't seem to be able to make use of his talents within the fantasy setting. IMO, it's becoming clear why he was only on for one season."

Eh, I don't really rate Epiphany, but we'll discuss it next week.

SPOILERS ALL THROUGH THIS THREAD

SPOILERS

SPOILERS I GUESS THOUGH ACTUALLY I'M REFERENCING STUFF THAT HAPPEN TWO SEASONS AGO

Kind of spoilers-ish

And yet clearly it was a dry run for half the ideas that Shawn Ryan would start The Shield exploring (dirty cops actually do stop crime, but at what cost?).

You're right Mandealiet, stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watc… just isn't at all touching.

Laroquette wasn't perfect but he probably had the best introduction of any character other than the President. "I will kill people today, Leo"

Second favourite Whedon-show writer has to be Minear for me. He wrote some of my favourite Angel eps (Sanctuary, Are You Now…, Lullaby) and was showrunner on Firefly, as well as writing Out of Gas, which was probably the best episode that show ever did.

Behind Joss, I always felt that a Petrie episode was likely to be a very good one (before S6, thereafter dicey), Marti was great in S2 & 3, but not after that, and not a great showrunner, and Drew Goddard wrote most of the best stuff in S7, when he came on board.

Mere Smith admitted when the episode was aired that she was very annoyed about a mistake that was left in the script - a vampire in the demon fight club is beaten by a choke hold, which doesn't work if you don't breathe. In fairness Joss made the same mistake in Becoming Part II, so it has some pedigree.

Riley was altogether far too earnest.

I think she had some trouble coping with the writing - the writing staff clearly had deeply variable ideas as to how a 14-15 year old girl sounds. Often they came to the conclusion "like an 11 year old".