Well, I got those other two bushes out, more easily than the first one, proving that even a little experience can ease the task. (By the way, after writing this morning's post, I went to church, where the sermon was called "Spring Pruning" and the pastor had many stories about his own fun with plants. Sometimes these things are in the air — especially when the air has bright sun and warmth passing through it, and being outside is mandatory.) We have accumulated groceries. The bride cleaned house and put a second coat of paint on the shed door, and washed her car, and made a lasagna. I ran the edger along the sidewalks, which wasn't bad, and swept up the cuttings, which is not among my favorite things. Younger son went to his job.

In other words, the day was full for everyone. And some TV was squeezed in. Well, a little bit of "The Sports Reporters" this morning. At lunchtime, we watched "Survivor" and caught up on all the strategizing and scheming.

I don't really have anything to add to the discussion I saw online after the telecast. Terry seems a lock for the final two, with a game that combines great individual effort with terrible team strategy. He reminds me of the "Saturday Night Live" parody of a Bush/Dukakis debate, where — after ramblings by Bush — Dukakis says, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy." The folks on "Survivor" must feel that way every time Terry approaches them with a plan. Cirie, on the other hand, is really smart. We'll just have to see how smart. At this point, if I'm Terry, I want her in the final two since she has been so skilled at betraying nominal allies now sitting on the jury. But when has Terry ever managed to influence who joins him at anything?

Watched some of the Cavaliers-Detroit game during the afternoon. Might have watched more if it hadn't gone like this:

Passed through the house at one point, score's tied 14-14, looks good. Back to the yard, where the bride later informs me that Detroit is up 10. A short break around half time, to see Detroit was up 21. Another check later, when Detroit's lead was in the thirties and time was short. Not a lot of reason to sit by the set and expect a Cavs comeback — at least, not in that game.

Finally, evening brought a chance to really couch out in front of the TV. Rewatched "Alias" and it makes more sense to me — well, as much sense as "Alias" ever makes. As I've said before, I'm sick of Rambaldi but I keep hoping it's finally leading somewhere. Odd to have not only two deaths but two involving cut throats — an eerie symmetry underscoring the betrayal and obsession in each. And I like the way Jennifer Garner is playing Anna-as-Sydney, grabbing onto a facial expression as shorthand for Anna.

I thought a lot about faces during "The West Wing" (which I actually watched after "The Sopranos," but I'll order my notes here by the clock). I may be overthinking this, but when I look at "Sopranos" or "The Shield," or tonight's "West Wing," I see shows where the people involved know they're near the end and they want to go out great. Everyone on "WW" was on his and her game tonight, and I don't mean they were chasing Big Moments. They were just working — working together, playing off each other.

Think of the scene where Joshua Malina (Will) and Mary McCormack (Kate) talk about him running for Congress. Timothy Busfield (Danny) on the street. Busfield in the apartment with Allison Janney (CJ). Janney and Richard Schiff (Toby). And what about the way that Jimmy Smits (Santos) is morphing into Bartlet — like in that moment where Santos gives CJ a won't-take-no speech? I will really miss seeing these guys go at it.

'"The Sopranos" was a dud for me, the first one this season. The best explanation I can give is that the show was so intent on showing us why Tony was bored, it made the show boring. The Christopher stuff felt flat. We know he's the victim of his own demons. The scenes at the street fair may have been touching on their own, but in the larger context they didn't really tell us anything. And the flashback to his betrayal of Adriana, while filling in a gap, didn't fill it in a way that brought us a new insight into what happened. And guess what, Pauly is cheap and selfish and mean, and Janice is selfish. Not great.

I'm hoping to post tomorrow about "Grey's Anatomy" and maybe "Saturday Night Live," which I recorded. But for now, I'll leave you with my hope that there was sunshine in your day, too.

I laughed — very hard — at "The Sopranos" on Sunday night. Wasn't alone, either, since this was a night in our regular "Sopranos" gatherings with co-workers, so the laughter was not mine alone. The Ben Kingsley stuff was funny enough. Mugging Lauren Bacall — one of those things where you think, oh, no, they wouldn't DARE, and then they did. I know at some point, probably even next week, that the show is going to get back to serious business. Still, as I've said before, the makers of the show know that every episode counts these days; they're obviously determined to leave people with the sense that this was a great show, one that could do anything, including comedy — and last night was gut-busting.

I didn't get around to "The West Wing" until this morning. An all right episode. Liked the way Josh went to Sam, since it invoked the scene where Josh brought Sam into the Bartlet campaign; unfortunately, these being smart characters, they then had to talk about how this was similar to that earlier moment, which took some of fun out of it. (Rob Lowe's oddly stylized performance also grated quickly.) The switcheroo at the end of the Bartlet/Santos conflict wasn't much fun either. And I hope the NBC promo was deliberately misleading with its hint that Santos might pick Vinick as his new VP; that's way too tidy for a show that was built in a lot of ways on messiness. As we were reminded every time Josh had to handle a pile of papers.

This was a weekend that began with frustration; I had called a guy Friday morning for a story I thought I would need to write and still hadn't heard back from him by the time my workday officially ended. There was some frustration near the end, too, when the office called about the passing of Linn "Barnaby" Sheldon, to ask if I wanted in on the story. By that point, we had company coming, and I had to pass. I did know Linn, a little, and will probably have some notes about him here later.

In between those points, though, were domestic pursuits — painting, yard work, cleaning house — involving all the folks in the House of Heldenfels, ending with a home that looked and felt better. There were also chances for TV in the gaps.

"Gilmore Girls" was very good for about half the episode, where we saw that Mrs. Kim has her own Mrs. Kim; a vivid reminder how deep the cast is, with Emily Kuroda doing a terrific job. Then, as the show got back to its arc — the Luke/Lorelai wedding or not — it struggled. Lorelai's drunk scene, while showing off the way Lauren Graham can play multiple dramatic notes effortlessly, felt too grimly, deliberately sad, especially when we remember that Lorelai has put herself into this situation. At the same time, though, with Amy Sherman-Palladino officially leaving "GG" at the end of this season, I have to wonder how the new creative team will maintain the show's tonal approach — and if, Aaron Sorkin-like, she is going to leave the show in a horrible little box that the new team will struggle to escape.

I very much enjoyed "Veronica Mars" although I have no idea what I really know about the bus crash. Liked the way that grasping Kendall is now connected to the Fitzpatricks, although I do wonder why no one came across this connection before. Of course, Neptune is a town where most people spend a lot of time NOT looking for the truth. The Duncan clue at the end baffled me, though. Are we really to think that Aaron was not a murderer. And if not, weren't his dealings with Veronica at the end of Season 1 just the tiniest bit extreme? Still, I liked the Wallace-Jackie scene where Wallace spoke so cruelly to her, since it reminded us of how skillful young people are at saying horrible things.  And always enjoy Tina Majorino's presence; her reactions to the unexpected prom date were delightful.

"Veronica" addendum. One reader sent these notes along: "Remember Kendall went to Logan's to "sell" him real estate?  She took hair out of Duncan's drain in the shower and they planted the evidence.  All he has to do is have reasonable doubt with one jury member.  OJ Simpson, Robert Blake, if you are famous and rich, sometimes you get off.  Veronica speculated that Arron killed Lily with an ashtray.  Rumor has it that the actress that plays Lily will be in the last episode so I am thinking another flashback at what happened that night. As for him trying to kill Veronica, more interesting storyline if Arron is out of jail.  Remember, Logan mom's body has not been found.  Here's hoping the new CW gives Veronica another season with it being available to most of the country and not getting moved for a game of some kind of sports."

Thanks for the info. But that shower scene has bugged me because it was so unclear about what was going on — and I remain dubious about Kendall's ability to extract a hair and know whose it would be, especially considering the traffic through that place. Let us now resume the original post…

The bride and I also took in the two-hour return of "Alias." I am not a fan of the show, which always feels exciting for about an hour and then just exhausting. The return was entertaining, and I have a mild curiosity about where it's going, but I can't get too crazed. Seeing Jennifer Garner playing pregnant with her thinner, post-pregnancy face was intermittently amusing. And the closing scene was a giggle simply because one of my TV mantras is that no one ever really dies on "Alias."

And now let's all charge into the new week. I'm really looking forward to "When Andrea Met Kellie…"

I did not expect to go this long between posts, but the days filled themselves up — chasing down a cat to take to the vet, putting a fence back up around a flower bed, Easter morning at church, grocery shopping, giving the grill its spring inaugural. Today at work I was hip-deep in a non-TV project, now finished.

Watching was done, too. Friday night, we kicked back with "Serenity," the big-screen continuation of "Firefly." Sunday night was devoted to '"The West Wing" and "The Sopranos," and in between there I caught up on "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls." I keep thinking the viewing menu included something else, but right now I can't remember what it was.

Notes on all that viewing:

– I laughed more at "The Sopranos" than at any other recent episode as the guys exhibited their homophobia in so many different ways. For Paulie, of course, it was all about him. Tony's stumbling explanation of how guys get a free pass for any homosexual acts in prison was priceless. And I really like the way they're treating Christopher's NA sponsor, the latest in a line of characters who are not hoods but still want to hang out with some.

At the same time, though, the guys' reaction to Vito's secret life reminded us how unenlightened they are about many things; even young guys like Christopher can't handle the idea of men with men. Even though Tony was less dismayed than the others (and nice to see that his change brought us back to his post-shooting introspection), even he felt social pressure from the others — until that pressure was a challenge to his authority.

As for Vito, I'd like to think that he has found a place where he can be himself and is out of harm's way; the implication in Tony's attitude was certainly that Vito is fine as long as Vito doesn't come back. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as out of harm's way on this show, as we saw early on in the "College" episode.

– "The West Wing" offered some civics lessons, as Santos is learning that even a transition period comes with hard lessons, and old friends are not necessarily the best new allies. And it held out some fun hints of what could be if the show wasn't ending now, by beginning to fill some staff positions. But overall the hour dragged, and I expected more for Bartlet's farewell to Leo than false bonhomie bucking up everyone else.

– "Gilmore Girls." Emily is right. It's time for Lorelai to step into the middle of the Luke/April situation. It's sure not easy emotionally for Lorelai to keep herself apart. And it appears that just about everyone else on the show has had more conversation with April than Lorelai has.

As for ongoing plots. the Rory and Jess thing was a waste of air time (even if it gave the promo makers something to hang the episode on). And Rory is just a bore to watch (partly because Alexis Bledel is bringing little to the part), her attraction to Jess no more convincing than her ambivalence about Logan. Not a great episode overall. Luke's accompanying the field trip kept seeming to go somewhere, only it had nowhere to go. And for all the kerfluffle about Lorelai's parents being in town, why has it not occurred to her that they might be house-shopping for Luke & Lorelai — a very Emily wedding present, yes?

– "Veronica Mars." Not bad, and it feels as if we're getting closer to something on the big mystery. Some interesting visuals on the dream sequence. Lot of empty air, though.

– "Serenity."  Of the three folks under this roof, I am the one least enamored of "Firefly," so I may not be a great judge of "Serenity." While it wasn't completely lacking in entertainment, it never elevated beyond being a so-so action picture. Of course, on a Friday night when we were all eager to kick back, I appreciated the way the movie made few demands on me.

I have reservations about Sunday's episode of "The West Wing." I'm not saying you should not watch it, because I would have even if I did not receive an advance copy. While I see the numbers saying that the "West Wing" audience is a fraction of what it was, there's still something — maybe sheer stubbornness — that will keep me watching to the end of the series.

Still, I have issues. For one thing, this show has had one long election day and night, with the outcome kept in doubt through most of this episode, which continues from last week's. (I am not revealing the winner here.) And, although Leo is officially dead relatively early in Sunday's episode, it just begins the other characters' farewells to him. The following week's telecast will be built around Leo's funeral.

In fact, only one character gets a really extended reaction to Leo's passing in Sunday's episode. It's Josh. Part of that is for dramatic tension, since Josh is also central to the election-night drama, so he's going back and forth between two different emotional roller-coasters. But I also think that, besides Bartlet, Josh deserves the most time saying goodbye to Leo.

(Although, again, I wish that we weren't getting such a stretched-out story. Juxtaposing Leo's death with the election means that the story has to fight for time with how Santos is feeling, how Vinick is feeling, how the results are going. There are some good things in there, notably when each candidate has to think about how to consider if a close finish merits bringing in the lawyers. It's still stuff taking us away from Leo, teasing us for one more week.)

Anyway, to understand why Josh's reaction to Leo matters, look past Josh's getting Leo to run for vice president. Go back instead to the second-season opener, "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen."  That's the two-parter using an assassination attempt on Bartlet as the basis for flashbacks revealing how the Bartlet team came together.

The episode tells us a lot about the Bartlet-Leo relationship, how crucial Leo was to getting Bartlet elected, how he was the guy who could give Bartlet bad news (and tough love). But it's also where we see that Leo did not merely bring Josh into the campaign. (And then Josh brought Sam, while Toby — saved by Leo — brought in C.J., so it really all came back to Leo.)

Although he and Josh did not know each other well — Josh speaks very formally to Leo at first — Leo was a friend of Josh's father. And when Josh's father dies in "Shadow," we can see how Leo became a father figure for Josh. Bartlet stepped partly into that role, too, in the airport scene. But even there, Leo was close by Bartlet.

I'm going over some of this old "WW" history because it informs what happens Sunday night. It also reminds me that, as hard as "WW" has tried to be great again — and as much as I have liked some the presidential-campaign arc — it still isn't quite what "WW" used to be.

"Shadow" suffers from excess ambition, from trying to do too many things at once and from what I still consider a continuity flaw (CJ's having worked in Hollywood, when an earlier episode indicated she knew nothing about the entertainment business). It still has moments of real greatness. Sunday's episode also tries to do too much, only its best moments are merely good, not great.

Put it another way: Parts of Sunday's episode stirred me some. Parts of "Shadow" tore at my heart, even all these years after I first saw it.

Tonight's "West Wing" was supposed to be about election day, and about Leo dying. (We knew that from the show's promos.) I had wondered if there would be a storyline where Leo died before all the polls were closed, and the Santos campaign had to decide whether to keep his death secret until the West Coast closed. I don't know how it would have worked dramatically, but it probably would have been better than what we got tonight.

Which was basically an hour-long trailer for next week's episode, and not even a particularly good trailer. The election's end puts a lot of people in bed — literally, though only two to a bed. The exit polls seem to favor Santos, but there's a lot of weird data in them, which shouldn't surprise all these professional politicians in "West Wing" world.

Sure, they live in a parallel universe so they didn't have the hard lessons about exit polling from the Kerry/Bush race. But they live in a more or less real political world, and that should be one where people ever more commonly lie to exit pollers.

As annoying as that was, it was the double cliffhanging of the episode that most irked. It ended without a clear winner in the election. It ended with Leo being found, probably dead, with his death definite … in next week's episode.

I should know that the makers of television can get very cynical when it comes to getting you to tune in for one more week. But here's a show coming to the end of a run that was often distinguished. That is dealing with the death not only of a character, but of a beloved member of its ensemble. That is playing to an audience that, however small, cares deeply about what will happen.

And in the middle of that, "West Wing" pulled a rotten stunt.

I took a look at a new episode of "The West Wing," which airs on Sunday. It's still following the two tracks — the presidential campaign between Santos and Vinnick, and the international crisis where the U.S. may have to intervene — and even finds a place for the tracks to come together. It has some good stuff in the campaign portions, where the Santos campaign has finally pulled close and Vinnick's moderation on some issues may have to be compromised to keep his campaign viable. Ron Silver and Patricia Richardson, who have been playing members of Vinnick's team, have some good scenes. Still, it wasn't a great "West Wing," and I thought Vinnick had stepped out of his moderate box when he went knee-jerk in the debate episode.

But that, as you are undoubtedly aware, is not why I am a sentimental fool. It was the first sight of the late John Spencer, still alive and playing Leo, in this episode. It was just a glimpse, but it choked me up. I miss the guy, even more when I see him at work.

And I still love to see him work. There is a scene in this episode with Leo and Bartlet that reminds us how well those two worked together, what a good fit they were. It was a good enough scene that I just watched the characters interact, and the actors at work, without thinking once again that Spencer was gone.

It's a regular Sunday in most of the world, including the House of Heldenfels. But out west, the TV critics' press tour goes on, and today NBC had a mixed bag of announcements for the folks there, and those of us getting the network's e-mail.
The good news: "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" have been renewed for 2006-07. "Earl" has been one of the delights of the current season. "The Office" has been very good, too, though a bit uneven and more ratings-challenged. But NBC is apparently happy with "The Office's" performance on Thursdays, and so picked it up.

Could this mean the return of a Thursday-night comedy block on NBC next season? A lot will depend on whether it has two other comedies that can do well on the night. Yes, two. "Will & Grace" is in its last season, and NBC officially announced plans for a big send-off on May 18.

So where's the mixed news? Well, "The West Wing" will be done after this season, so we'll never know how the next presidential adminstration might have gone. The finale will be on May 14, with a retrospective special at 7 and the last episode at 8.

That's a Sunday night, which shows that NBC is just shoving the show off. Even for those of us who like the show, remembering that "West Wing" is on Sunday has been a nightmare.

Word reached me a little while ago that John Spencer of "The West Wing" has died. It's quite a blow. You can see my admiration of his work and his character in my recent "Journey of Leo McGarry" post. I also had a chance to talk to John several times over the years, and not just about "The West Wing," and he was one of the nicest guys in the world. At the moment, I don't know what "West Wing" will do without Leo, and I pretty much don't care. Instead, I'm saddened by the loss of such a terrific actor, and glad I had the chance to know him a little.

"The West Wing" has been about a lot of people. President Bartlet, a little-seen figure in the series pilot, has constantly stepped center-stage. Josh has had a lot of emotional moments, and I hope we haven't seen the last of Toby. But when we sit down to write the complete history of "The West Wing," Leo should be at the center.

We saw that again Sunday night, where Leo was featured not only as a vice-presidential candidate but as the ultimate Democratic party pro, always the smartest guy in the room when the issue is politics, the one man who can validate anyone and end any argument. Yes, there is a huge fantasy at work in the show, including the idea that someone with Leo's terrible past could end up getting the vice-presidential candidate. But even that selection played off the notion that, if anyone had to hold the hand of an underdog and maverick presidential nominee in a rough campaign, then Leo was the one to do it.

Can't say I really liked Sunday's episode, and not just because I'm watching it in HD, which has been brutal to Mary McCormack. Entertaining stuff here and there, including Josh's tortured expression and Barlet's phone tantrum. And every time John Spencer, who plays Leo, gets onscreen with Martin Sheen as Bartlet, it's just a joy to watch.

But the campaign stories are still much more interesting than anything the White House has going now; the show keeps having to pound war drums, like a real-life president trying to get attention by starting a war somewhere. So for all the wedding business, I wanted to be back in the rooms with Josh and Santos — and, of course, Leo.

Sometimes I think every review I write should have a note about the viewing conditions. You know, "This prime-time show was watched between 7:30 and 8 a.m. on a Tuesday when I had the house all to myself, with a second part viewed piecemeal late that evening when I wished I could be asleep instead. I then watched the end of the second part at my office, where I couldn't hear all the lines because I have to keep the volume somewhat low and other people were talking, but it at least went quickly since my preview copy didn't have commercials."

Shows are designed for certain times of day, after all, and my job means I don't always get to see them that way. But the bottom line on any show should be that it's good no matter when you watch it, and bad no matter how much you wish it wasn't.

So let the record show first of all that I watched last night's "West Wing" this morning, And let it show second that I kept saying to myself, "Gosh, how good is this?"

The Santos storyline clicked, and ended with a moment that — though naive in many ways — said yes, this is a guy who could be president, and maybe a good one. At the very least, he could be Bartlet. And that wasn't all that was going on. The wedding-prep stuff was kind of amusing, and the Toby-Josh scenes were really good. "West Wing" has been uneven this year — as I said before, the debate episode was a dud — but this was one of those times when it stepped up. It kind of makes me hate that next week's episode is the wedding, because that feels like a momentum-killer. But I was glad to have that hour with it this morning.

I don't know if tonight's "West Wing" is meant to demonstrate the failure of politics, or just the failure of a television drama. Either way, it was disappointing.

I did get a rush of excitement just before it began, thinking this could be exciting TV. But it started so awkwardly, with a contrived throwing-out of debate rules which regular viewers should have presumed was part of the Vinick-Santos handshake in last week's episode. (If they spent the necessary time to hammer out those complicated rules, there wouldn't have been any time left for debate prep.) For a moment there, I thought I would rather vote for Ellen DeGeneres.

And not long into the debate itself, I was hoping someone at FactCheck.org has enough of a sense of humor to issue a factual analysis of these fictional candidates' policy stands. Because as they wallowed in talk about CAFTA, it felt like one of something left over from an Al Gore position paper — the sort of talk where you spent so much time proving you were the smarter guy, that you also came off as the most boring (or annoying guy).

Of course, that's where I thought the show was saying that politicians just can't help themselves, that they can be just as unenlightening in a no-holds-barred situation as they are in the formally structured "debates" that real-life politicians negotiate.

The complexities of the two candidates all but disappeared, with Vinick in particular reduced to Republican talking points when along the episodic trail he had seemed much more complicated. (The debate left Alan Alda sounding a lot like the presidential contender played by James Brolin earlier in the "West Wing's" run.) And I felt the same frustration I have felt at real debates when it seems that the guys aren't getting to the important stuff — that a big issue like the economy isn't really being addressed (I guess things are better in Westwingworld), and that some things have just been dropped. A week ago, both sides were on a collision course over abortion and attack ads; what happened to that topic?

There was also the frustration with the moderator, real-life newsman Forrest Sawyer, who seemed to let these guys off the hook — as real-life debate moderators have sometimes done. I would have cheered if only he had listened to Santos's bullet-regulating proposal and said, "Gee, it sounds as if you're making policy based on a Chris Rock monologue."

But I ended up feeling that this show was "The West Wing's" failure, not politics. Let politics take the rap for its own failings. Here we had a show that was once famous for taking big, complicated issues and turning them into human drama; in its big, November-sweeps dramatic gesture, it threw out humanity in favor of big, complicated noise.

Moreover, because it was live, it reminded us that in some ways politicians are better actors than people who get paid to act without holding elective office. No two presidential contenders, face to face on live TV, would hesitate and stumble as often as these guys did. Top pols are trained almost from birth that you always charge ahead. We see that all the time in the chatter on cable news; forget what point is being made, forget the challenge from the interviewer (if said challenge does occur), just keep charging. When I watched "West Wing," I didn't see much of that kind of charge, and so wasn't very charged up.