Current mood:

dorky

Just for Fun
On a whim, I've decided to have a fun little ramble in my LJ. This ramble is in no way a great balanced essay but more a squeeeing of fangirlishness so it's cut for those of you who might want to wander onwards.

For the rest of you, what follows is my fangirling over a cannon pairing that I've adored for...wow 6 years now.



So, I’ve been enjoying a West Wing on DVD kick over this past weekend while Husband and Schmoo went down to visit In-Laws and I was restruck by how some unique factors came together in that show to present the viewing audience with one of what I consider to be, the most unique relationships ever portrayed on Prime Time Television.

I don’t know if I’ve waxed poetic on the cannon relationship between the President and the Chief of Staff but, if I haven’t I think I will now. Please bear in mind I’m saying the cannon relationship between them, not the fun slashy relationship that is written in fanon.

As I said, a group of factors came together in the development of what we have gotten to see on the television. First of all there is of course the writing. Aaron Sorkin may have many faults –coughnotgettingascripttogetheruntilthe13thhourcouch- but he did write up one hell of a rich dynamic when he wrote for Jed Bartlett and Leo McGarry.

He built these two characters who have such a rich history together, such a depth of friendship and innate understanding that I was caught by it on the second episode. The second episode!!! None of this needing a season or two for it to flesh out, it jumped right off the screen by the Second episode. Of course, helping it jump off the screen are the amazing talents of Martin Sheen and John Spencer.

It’s my understanding that these two actors, though long in the same circles had never really experienced acting against one another or even knowing each other as more then passing nods before the West Wing came along. But, not long after the West Wing started filming they took to each other like ducks to water and that friendship, married to a shared ability to say more with a look then most of their costars can do with dialogue and you were on your way to gold.

Add into the mix a parade of directing talent who knew well enough to stand back, give the actors their heads and just let the scene roll rather then over styling it and…whamo all three elements were in place.

Sorkin never shied away from writing lines like,

“Leo, you want to believe the best in people and I love you for that…”

“He loves the team, I love him so much.”

And MS and JS never shied away from delivering those lines with so much heart and subtly of feeling that you can’t help but hope that at some point in your life you’ll have a friend like that. And of course, the kiss in the premier episode of season 2. I never found out if that was scripted or a spur of the moment move between MS and JS but whichever I think it’s probably written it’s own little place in television history.

While the cannon relationship between Jed and Leo does not open itself as readily to the slashy goodness that many of us enjoy in our anime, it is interesting to note that in just using cannon for backup, that an argument could be made that the friendship love that runs between these two men is even deeper then the sexual love they share with their wives.

Take Leo in the first season. He gives up his wife in order to run Jed’s White House. In order to be there to support Jed. Once you’ve seen the scene it’s impossible to forget the dialogue,

“This was important.”
“Not more important then our marriage.”
“Yes, yes more important then our marriage. At this time, this is more important then our marriage.”

And so Leo’s marriage is dissolved. Now as for Jed and his wife Abbey, well… it’s rather hard to override Stockard Channing’s Abbey but you get the idea that Jed is such a force of a personality, so high strung and so driven that in many ways Abbey and Leo have shared the responsibility of supporting Jed emotionally for over 40 years. That if either of them (Abbey or Leo) tried to do the job alone, Jed’s personality would have sucked them dry years ago. It takes both of them in the same capacity emotionally and mentally to give Jed what he needs.

In fact throughout all the changes the show has seen in writers and in plots over the past 6 seasons that is one very subtle balance that hasn’t changed. Even though the actions of the job have caused Abbey to be professionally furious with Leo, even though Abbey has also had personal reasons to be angry with Leo and visa versa they have never stopped balancing Jed between the two of them.

When Jed explodes with Abbey in the first Season, it’s Leo who smacks him down and reminds him that he will be sending flowers to his wife.

When Abbey is so angry with Jed and Leo in the fifth season and Jed is suffering from her cold absence, it’s Leo who steps into the lions mouth, takes the hit for Jed and asks Abbey to come back, tells her Jed needs her.

When Leo’s ex-wife remarries, it’s Jed and Abbey who pointedly make the decision not to attend the wedding –as invited- instead spending the weekend with Leo.

And most recently, it’s Abbey who, when Jed is in a blind panic about loosing Leo and is blinding himself to reality of the situation, tells Jed, “You have got to keep him (Leo) away from the Chief of Staff job or he will kill himself for you.”

And even then it’s only when Leo supports Abbey’s words that Jed realizes he has to let go.

I’ve always enjoyed the West Wings Jed/Leo dynamic and have actually yapped about it at length in other West Wing specific forums but it’s been a real treat to sit down with all the episodes at my fingertips and go through the moments back to back to back. It’s been a treat to weigh the words Sorkin wrote and to study the subtle looks, the subtle touches and the way MS and JS played Jed and Leo as comfortable getting into each other’s personal spaces.

Given the predictability of American TV it really is a fresh of breath air to come across a writer who was not afraid to write a close male/male friendship without the awkwardness seen in so many other ‘masculine’ dramas. And the West Wing was doubly blessed to have two older school actors who just as easily could have balked against the types but who were comfortable enough to play it with the depth it deserved.

Played it to a level that one of their Co-Stars, Allison Janney –who plays CJ Cregg- had the best thing to say about it in an interview once. When asked about the lack of romance on the West Wing she laughed and pointed out,

“What are you talking about? The West Wing depicts one of the greatest romances ever written for television. The love affair between Bartlett and McGarry.”