RIP Mrs. Landingham (this time, for real)

Kathryn Joosten, 72, of lung cancer.

http://m.digitalspy.com/celebrity/s21/desperate-housewives/news/a385096/desperate-housewives-star-kathryn-joosten-dies-aged-72.html

Sad when her character on the West Wing died, sparked one of the greatest moments in TV history (Bartlet's prosecution of God, in Latin) and weirdest moments in reality (California legislature actually observed a moment of silence for the character).

 

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Although I loved the series as a whole and that specific episode, I really dislike Bartlet's prosecution of God in Latin, as you call it. Get mad at God? Sure. But in Latin? Really? Even for Jed, and even for Aaron Sorkin, that just seemed a bit much. I always cringe when I watch that scene. (I realize that I may be in the clear minority on this.)

Anyway, RIP to Ms. Joosten.

 

Yup. You are in the minority. Love that entire episode. I especially like when Charlie finds Bartlett standing in the rain. He brings him a coat, but Bartlett walks by him without taking it or saying a word. Charlie simply goes back inside, takes his own coat off and lays them down together. The little moments between those two were among the best in that series.

RIP Kathryn Joosten.

 

The scene on the West Wing when she tells how her sons died in Vietnam was just devastating.

 

I miss my boys.

She was the central part of the best hour of network television ever aired.

RIP

 

Hmm...

I have several episodes of FNL that I think would strenuously object to that statement, but it would make for an interesting argument.

 

RIP indeed - didn't take up acting until her 40s.

 

It would, at that.

 

West Wing was so fucking great.

RIP to one of my favorite characters.

 

After giving it some thought, I would put "The Son" ahead of it. (I would put "State" behind it, as well as "It's Different For Girls" and "New York, New York." I would really need to watch the series finale "Always" again to give it proper consideration. But it would be in the running.)

As much as I like "Two Cathedrals" -- and I do like it a great deal -- I think the acting by Zach Gilford in "The Son" is unlike anything we've ever seen on network television. Both episodes are haunting, and framed by the way death affects those left behind, but there is a realness and rawness to "The Son" that I think makes it slightly better. Sorkin's writing has a certain theatricality to it. I think we're always conscious of the fact that we're watching a television show. And that's not a bad thing. I just don't feel quite as emotionally invested in President Bartlett's pain the way I do Matt Saracen's pain. Sheen's performance is showy -- deliberately so. The whole show was written that way, so the emotional high points were big speeches about, well, duty. FNL asked you to live in the characters skin, not admire them, and some of the best moments are the quiet uncomfortable ones. The scene were Matt has dinner at the Taylors breaks my heart every time, and it's so pitch perfect the way he starts to freak out because his carrots are touching his chicken, and then it leads to the "speech" about how he hates his father. The grief there is just so much more real to me than what Martin Sheen is giving us in the church.

I might say that "The Son" could be downgraded a bit because it's also juggling several other plot points that were necessary in that season, some involving J.D. McCoy and Luke and Vince that aren't as interesting as what's happening to Matt, and the narrative isn't as tightly focused as it is in "Two Cathedrals."

Now, "Brothers in Arms" is a badass fricken song. I think I actually like sequence where he walks through the rain, and goes to the press conference, better than the cursing God in Latin in the National Cathedral. The whole sequence is shot so well.

. There are some beautiful choices by the director, from the way certain shots are framed, to the way it bounces back and forth between the President and C.J. in the presser. And it's such a good cliffhanger.

But man, the blood on the shovel at the end of "The Son" when Matt is tossing dirt on his dad's grave? I mean ... damn.

 

The way Leo says, "watch this," was so great.