Letters to the Editor
-
The West Wing
If a network strongly believes it must doom a program by its own hand, it puts it in the Sunday night line up. After watching every episode live for six years, all the 7th season episodes are recorded and never watched. Maybe NBC should have incorporated the entire cast of Friends in TWW.
-
Never really liked it.
As much as I wanted to, I never got into the west wing. I always found its writing to be more condescending than it was intelligent. I couldn't stand watching the characters flaunt their contrived wit and rub their perfection in everyone's face. I felt the same way about Sorkin's other show, Sports Night.
A lot of people that I love and respect were really into this show. Now they all know how I felt when HBO cancelled Carnivale.
-
No good without Sorkin
I bailed soon after Aaron Sorkin left. Before he left it was written without apology - if you didn't get all the political jargon and references, so be it. Now it stops to explain everything, in a manner that makes the high-powered politicos sound like simpletons. Looking forward to Aaron's new show this fall.
-
Ideals, Not Reality
I loved the West Wing in its first seasons, when the characters were unabashedly idealistic and liberal. The petty, trivial political squabbles were always secondary to "doing the right thing". I knew it was unrealistic, but so what? Most TV shows and movies are unrealistic in one way or another. It's entertainment.
Then the show got bogged down in politics, beginning with Bartlett's re-election campaign. It was more like the real Washington - the characters spent all their time worrying about numbers, "one-upping" the other guy and scoring political points. The producers brought in more Republicans for "balance". Why would I want to watch a show about the reality of Washington politics? I see that depressing reality on the news every day.
I've heard that the show improved in later seasons, but I've never gone back to it. I'd turn it on for a few minutes and it just wasn't the same. If I need a "West Wing" fix, I'd rather watch "In Excelsis Deo" from season one than anything from the later seasons.
-
Will I miss the West Wing? Nah.
I agree with Farhad Manjoo's assessment that this show has jumped the shark many, many times. The MS, the assassination attempt, and the kidnapping are the top three for me. All of which combined turned me off as a viewer years ago. I tried to get back on board with the new election, but to me the show has run out of gas. My only consolation is that I'll be able to catch my favorite episodes via the DVR and the BRAVO! network for years to come.
-
ultimate cop porn
There's a phrase that my friends have for the endless variations on cop dramas that tv is currently cranking out: cop porn. Miami cop porn, New York cop porn, FBI cop porn, pentagon military cop porn. and? of course? "The West Wing" is presidential cop porn.
Martin Sheen is the ultimate cop and his viewers love to watch him strut around and act benevolently. It's really creepy. I guess we just want to see SOMEONE act like they know what they're doing.
-
Will I miss "The West Wing?"
What Cary Tennis said.
-
This has been a good season...
I will miss "West Wing" very much. I think this year was a real comeback season for WW especially with the focus on the behind the scenes workings of the two competing campaigns. And, they can still put together a hell of a show with the "current administration" on the nuclear leak like the one Sunday night. Compared to much of the schlock on TV today, WW is still one of the best dramas on with terrific acting and interesting story lines. The move to Sunday night was fatal for them in many ways. But I can look forward to going back to the older seasons on DVD as we really did not start watching WW until a few years ago. Losing WW and "Six Feet Under" in one year is tough. So long, West Wing...
-
Farewell to the Only Network TV Show I Still Watch
Will I miss The West Wing (TWW)? You bet! Although post Sorkin episodes have been sometimes spotty, TWW is still the best show on network television. The show packs into a one hour commercial TV show a film-level script involving several interweaving politically relevant story lines and dialogue that is crisp and assumes a level of intelligence and political sophistication on the part of the viewer way above anything else on TV. Yes, you do have to pay attention instead of gabbing during the show so you don't miss something important to the plot. TWW has created a cast of such real characters that they seem to have taken on a life of their own. Indeed, the eerie similarities between John Spencer's own life and recent death and that of his character Leo McGarry underline the compelling sense of drama. The actors on that show are superb -- Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford, Janel Maloney, Rob Lowe.... too many to even name. Everything about the show was high quality -- the sets, the filming, the writers...
And after the election of Bush and the demise of almost everything I consider sacred to American freedom & democracy, TWW took on the added advantage of letting me forget the depressing REAL world (e.g., Bush & Co.), and let me pretend, for just one hour, that everything was okay in the country and there are politicians who actually want to do the right, moral and honorable thing for the American people. There is nothing on right now that can replace TWW's weekly dose of intelligent fantasy drama in its best sense. Reality shows -- are you kidding me? Desperate Housewives? Geena Davis making "nice" as the light-weight female President who does it all? I am just grateful that I will have seven seasons of this excellent show on DVD to carry me through until we take back Congress & the White House and wrest democracy away from the right wing fundies who have it chained, gagged and blindfolded in some secret CIA prison.
-
I came to the West Wing late. . .
and have been watching it regularly only for the last two seasons, but I've caught up on most of it through Bravo. It may be a weaker, watered-down version of the first few seasons, but it's still about 20 times smarter than the average network fare, one of the few programs not aimed at idiots.
Even now, it's still a liberal intellectual's wet dream--politicians who aren't afraid to talk smart instead of pretending to be (or like our current president actually being) simpletons to appeal to the masses. How many times have you wanted to see a Democrat say that he or she will proudly embrace the label "liberal" as Jimmy Smit's character did in the debate? Or, hear a presidential candidate say he won't create one new job, as Alan Alda's character did? Who wouldn't want two presidential candidates who aren't embarassments?
I'm going to miss it. And you can damn well bet I'll be buying all seven seasons on DVD off of ebay.