Friday, February 8, 2013

1600 Penn: Two Presidents in the Family

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I noticed that a few folks on twitter were big fans of this episode. But, at the same time, the show has been taken off NBC's schedule for next week, so who knows what will happen! This episode only pulled in 2.6 million viewers (the previous three episodes were over 3M), and as much as the show's marketing has tried to only pull the good quotes from critics, it's getting panned just as much. Personally, I'm losing interest. I have been hoping for more focus on Xander and Marigold, but this episode didn't do it for me. It was nice to have the political stuff tie into one of the kids' stories (Skip's), but Becca's plotline was pretty miserable, and I was dumbfounded at how unfair that teacher was! Even if you do favor one child over another, you're not supposed to admit to it! Sheesh! At this point I'm still with the series, but only half-heartedly.

1600 Penn "Frosting/Nixon" (S01E05): Xander is running for Class President but his posters are torn down around school. [they must mean School President, no?] His opponent is Jessica, Marigold's crush, whom a teacher is helping because she feels Xander has an unfair advantage with such a political family. Dale had asked Emily not to be a helicopter parent, but she won't allow the biased situation to continue and quickly decides to create a war room, work on winning over the cliques, and run a focus group. [I'm pretty sure I didn't know what a focus group was until I was in college. but that might be a sign of the times as well.]
Byron Cohen/NBC
Jessica decides to use Marigold to find out what Xander has planned, though all Marigold says is that Xander's plans are likely hidden somewhere like his locker. Well, Jessica steals her opponent's speech, which Emily wrote. [for the record, I was School President in fifth grade and wrote my own speech, though my mother typed it out on a typewriter for me.] Still Xander perseveres, quoting what his peers stated that they most wanted and promising a soda machine. [thanks to Marigold for smoothing over what Xander actually intended to mean!] He wins the election, and when Emily gives him a congratulatory hug he tells his "mom" to stop embarrassing him. That was all Emily needed to hear. [awww.] And, the aftermath? School security cameras caught Jessica, though, and Marigold loses interest in the girl with the hair that smells of frosting. [yeah, that's what Marigold said...]

Meanwhile, at the White House, Skip goes to tell some protesters that his dad is awesome as the President, but they soon convince him that mass transit is more important than the road projects Dale supports. [I laughed SO HARD when Marshall came out and said, "you've got to be kidding me"] Skip tells his father about the concern, and is placated until he goes out to the protestors again, who win him over so much that he squares off against a street sweeper. [I'm serious in this moment.] The President personally addresses the protesters, accepting that they need more mass transit. [we do!! holy cow, we do!] And, Becca realizes that all of her old friends are busy doing important things and that she may be the "loser friend." [awww. I am so glad that's not me. LoL.] She's sad that she's not studying law at Harvard at the moment, but she drowns her sorrows by venting to a Secret Service agent. [the boyfriend that dumped her was Marshall?? did I miss something?!?]
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