Gah I find him incredibly annoying! He walks around believing he's so cool and he has a fan club of girls. Really? Have they not seen Sam Seaborn. I don't know watching this, it seemed like the show was trying to force me to fall in love with Josh and I just didn't and just rolled my eyes every time he spoke.
shareCan't help you there I am in love with Josh. I like Sam too but he's no Josh.
shareHe does seem to have a cocky attitude, but I think everyone falls in love with the insecurities underneath that (and the cutest behind in politics to paraphrase).
shareSounds like you're in Season 1.
I found that a little annoying also. It wears off. It seems as if it was a character trait they wanted to try but the girls shouting at him etc. disappears.
His cockiness does not and I am thankful for that.
"Watch this....." (Leo T McGarry - Two Cathedrals)
It does seem very odd that they used Josh as the character to have the groupies, but it seems like that was used just to further the witty banter between Josh and Donna. Also, I can't imagine the Deputy Chief of Staff having that much of a presence. I'm guessing that might have been based on George Stephanopoulos' days in the West Wing.
Josh does go back and forth from being Bartlet's hatchet man to the lovable goof, but he's good people.
The faxes from his groupies during the kidnapping, Lemon Lyman, and the smoking jacket, all that later stuff may have been for the Donna banter. But, the early stuff the poli-sci majors asking for his autograph especially was before they knew there would be Josh/Donna banter. It was never gratuitous though, it always had a reason...including Mandy or giving CJ a funny line.
While I agree in reality the DCOS (both policy and operations) haven't been as visible, the show was also combining in a 3rd senior advisor role as well, which have been the known entities in the recent administrations.
In Washington, DC, I would imagine that somebody like him would have more of a presence, even with college students. I'm not sure what college hosted the lecture that was featured in "Celestial Navigation," but the Poly Sci majors in the nation's capitol would be the nerdiest of the nerds.
See...I'm one of those that fell in love with Josh right from the get go. It took me a little longer to fall in love with Toby but not much. Honestly, I could watch an entire series that was just Josh and Toby. I like Sam, and obviously Rob Lowe is a very handsome man, but he is too something. I can't think of the right word and calling him too "blah" sounds harsh. I like the cocky arrogance and sharp wit of Josh and Toby.
Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
I love Josh, he's got this boy next door quality, the guy you could be a friend with, drink a beer with, I find him completely likable, but maybe I'm bias, he and I are a lot alike.
www.jmberman.com
Online Mews, Reviews, Poetry, Music, and Ideas
@nicole-luna15 I think Josh is an absolute douche. Remember, he ended up turning his fan club against him, which is quite an achievement.
I like Sam - if only the producers hadn't screwed over Rob Lowe, then maybe it would've been Sam running the Santos campaign, which would've been great to see.
Per my understanding, Lowe was originally supposed to play Josh but he blew everyone away for his audition for Sam. Lowe was undeniably the best looking cast member but Sam was kind of a nerd. I loved him and I missed him terribly when he left but Josh had the arrogant, cocky personality which attracted the groupies. It wasn't really about looks. I liked Josh from the beginning but he could be really douchy at times. Towards the end of the series he became pretty annoying at times but it's part of his charm.
shareWhile Sam leaving left something of a void I think Josh would have left a much bigger void. While Josh could be brash he also had a sweetness about him and a vulnerable quality.
Lowe's looks don't really do much for me but I think as an actor he works better in the ensemble cast over time the other character were more compelling and that did end up diminishing his role.
Honestly, I don't really notice someone's role getting diminished or not. It always felt like an ensemble piece from the beginning for me. If anything, it was Sheen's role which got progressively bigger given the popularity of his performance and he became the de facto lead despite the role being originally considered as a supporting role. As for Lowe's departure, I felt his absence quite badly. I suppose it also had a lot to do with his departure coinciding with Sorkin's departure from the series. I felt Sam was the idealistic guy in the group and the ensemble missed a character like that once he was gone. Will was originally conceived as a similar character but he went in a completely different direction in seasons 5 and 6. I just missed the camraderie in the first four seasons because it just felt like all the relationships between the characters fell apart and the show lost some of its sense of humor as a result. C.J. was definitely way more fun as a press secretary, Leo became a pale version of himself after the heart attack, Josh became pretty douchey once he left the White House, and Toby became more and more bitter as the show went on. So I sort of associate Sam's departure with the decline of some of the elements I loved about the show in the first four seasons.
shareLowe wasn't ever slated to play Josh. It was Whitford who was cast as Sam that was changed. He wanted to play Josh (and Sorkin had written it with him in mind), but the execs cast him as Sam until Lowe came on board. The point of casting Lowe as Sam seemed to be to get publicity for the show over how brave he was being to do this part with a "political sex scandal issue" (Laurie) after he spent years in career limbo after his video escapades with a minor at the dem convention.
shareThat's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure that it was Whitford they wanted to play Sam but he thought he was better suited to play Josh. I think there was some diminishing of Sam not that he wasn't around but Josh/Donna CJ/Toby Josh/Toby,Bartlet in general became the more interesting parts of the show. Early on there was a lot of Josh/Sam ,Toby/Sam ect.
Will had a few character changes he got better again once he became press secretary. CJ was less interesting as CoS. The changes though I think reflect how things are different in the last years of how an administration generally is. People move on new ones come in ,the energy level is different some of the relationships are not as close. The last seasons the campaign side was certainly more interesting and entertaining.
I thought the opposite. I found the campaign stuff to be very boring and with the exception of Josh I didn't care about any of those characters. Never been a Donna fan and she became even more annoying as the show went on. I actually skip those episodes of the campaign on re-watches and just watch the white house episodes. What I loved about the show was the core characters (Bartlet, Leo, Josh, Toby, Sam, CJ, Charlie) and the way they related to each other and handled the day to day problems of running the country. I to felt the show lost some of that after Sam left. Will was just not a good replacement and neither were any of the new characters they introduced after that (like Kate). The best seasons were definitely 1-4. Everyone spreading out and going their separate ways in the later seasons ruined it for me.
shareOriginally Lowe was supposed to be the star of the show & it was supposed to be revolved around him and as a speech writer. Sheen's role was to be limited, but his popularity increased & then they decided to make it about the president. Towards the end of the series that is one of the reasons Lowe left. He was upset he wasn't give the start power Sheen was
share