The Great West Wing Rewatch: 1.20 "Mandatory Minimums"

Joel: This isn’t the last episode that we’ll see Mandy in, but it’s pretty much the last time that a story revolves around the character in any way so I wanted to take this time to talk about Mandy for a second. The character of Mandy was a really good idea to have on a show like this where the audience would get to see the PR side of politics. It’s a great thing to explore, but as the season went on, so much of that got wrapped up into CJ’s storylines with her having to spin something bad as good to the press, or try and spin something that’s a very big deal as a non-story. By the end of the first season, most of CJ’s issues had to do with some sort of PR situation, at least in some degree and Mandy as a character was becoming a bit of a redundancy. Plus, due to the fact that the character was intentionally written as a force outside the White House staff, Mandy as a character had a hard time fitting in with the rest of the cast that was already becoming a very tight knit group of people. Where arguments between any two other character felt like two friends having a passionate discussion, whenever one would disagree with Mandy it started to feel like they were yelling at the outsider who didn’t get it, because she wasn’t really working in the trenches like they were.  In the end, it really is best that we moved away from trying to make Mandy fit into the show and focused on what was really working, because we can see by this point in the first season, there are a lot of point on the show that are working really well. I will say that it’s strange, and perhaps a bit morbid that in the upcoming season finale, we see Mandy prepping the president, then there’s a shooting, then nobody ever mentions her ever again.

Chris: That’s right Toby has an ex-wife in Congress and boy do I love Andy because she pulls more of that irritated Toby that we all enjoy watching. We’ll see plenty of her in the seasons to come and we’ll wish she do things a little differently but, trust me, nobody is a thorn in Toby’s side like Andy. On the last episode, I said there wasn’t going to be much difference in the president following the “let Bartlett be Bartlett” not and perhaps that wasn’t entirely true as we see a much more brash Bartlett to start it off and the attitude trickled down to the staff as they have a different demeanor about this, perhaps a bolt of confidence even. I must admit, I was pretty okay with Danny finally getting worked up about CJ antics from the last couple episodes. What CJ says is instant publicity and her keeping Danny in the doghouse for doing his job, knowing she has this public brain-fart hovering over her head is a bit indignant and it was time that Danny whipped out his moral righteousness and laid it out on CJ’s desk. Take that however you wish.

A good president let’s Danny out of the doghouse (I guess Mandy too but who cares?)