Letters to the Editor
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The first step is admitting you have a problem...
When The West Wing first aired 7 years ago, I was 12. Which is to say, The West Wing is what I watched when 90210 was a rerun. And then Dawson's Creek. But over the years as the teenagers grew up and got cancelled, The West Wing stayed true. Maybe I didn't always know what country the crisis was in or care what the hell Martin Sheen was blathering on about, but the characters were reliably smart, funny, watchable. And I grew up, and real-life politics became unwatchable, and a couple summers ago I found myself watching those daylong marathons on Bravo, trying to fill in all the episodes I had missed from seasons past, and it started to dawn on my that this was a really great show. And I had actually missed out on a lot of great plotlines. (It helped to see 10 episodes in a row.) I mean, I didn't even know who in the hell Mandy was until I started watching Bravo. And marathon by marathon, as I'm beginning to fill in the missing seasons and really come to appreciate the wit, the banter, the exposition that makes you feel smarter for having watched TV, I started to become hooked. and then there was that fateful day when I saw the comercial that showed Donna getting blown up, only I didn't know when it had happened. Was that from season 4? Season 5? How long had it been since I'd watched the show, anyway? So I went online and found West Wing Spoilers. And then I found the fandom. and the shippers. and the fan fiction. and Televison without Pity. Adding melodrama and implied romance to intelligent and funny was a fictional cocktail I couldn't resist. And I've been a slave to this TV show ever since. When I go on vacation I make sure not to travel on Wednesday (and now Sunday) nights. When I was out of town last year and couldn't get to a television, my Dad had to tape the show and Fedex it to me every week, because even going 24 hours not knowing what had happened was torture. I spend hours reading comments analyzing the psychological motivations of fictional people. and then I read fictional stories about the fictional people, in the sense that they happen outside of the original fictional universe. So you ask me if I will miss The West Wing? I think I'll be too busy having my life back to notice.
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ANOTHER ONE OF MY WARM, COMFORTING FRIENDS. NOT JUST A SHOW.
It's pretty simple, West Wing was one of my favorite shows. And, judging by what I see in commercials of what the 'new' shows are, apparently I am very picky of what I watch- most of that stuff is simple incomprehensible. (sorry reality tv fans- no offense).
When someone wrote about that fact that she couldn't talk during even one second of the show lest her boyfriend miss an important tid-bit: that's how it SHOULD be. It's pretty easy to have people falling on their faces and making fools of themselves- all you need to do is look at Japanese television (which is hilarious). Even at that, to tell you the truth, some of the dialogue throughout this series made me laugh even harder, and longer. Of coarse, it's not completely life-like. I mean, all important decisions that are made in the White House include more than just five or six people. But, the show was close enough that alot of the cinical humor almost always can be applied in life.
This show is on the "Bravo" channel almost everyday. I catch it once in a while, and the difference with this show and other is that after you have seen a certain episode, you don't mind watching it again. There is so much content in almost every show, watching it again just give you a chance to find something missed, or enjoy the episode even more.
The show just had something that no one can explain. It's that someting that makes the whole greater that the sum of it's parts. I know everyone writes about the Rob Lowe aspect, but that wasn't just a fluke. Take for instance the couple of episodes including Matthew Perry, This show took 'Chandler Bing' himself and made him look like the most serious, honest, and warm guy. Thats just how the show is/was. And then, to top that, if you start with people like John Spencer and Allison Janning, who seem like such wholesome people to begin with, and put them in this show, I dont see why everyone didnt fall in love with the show.
I think my brother summed it up best for all of the people who didn't follow this great series when he sat down and watched an episode with me. He said "wow, this show is exellent." I agreed and asked if he is now in the w.w. fan club, and he just said "oh, heck no, my brain hurts after watching just that one episode." Well I'm not going to be all 'high-and-mighty' and act like I understand absolutely everything going on in the show, and that is exactly what I like about it.
Well, I will miss you West Wing, but just like "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld" you will not be forgotten anytime soon. It might actually be a comfort to move on.
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Will miss the idealism fix
I loved the West Wing, not only for the interesting plots and (mostly) wonderful writing, nor just for the respite it provided this
disillusioned Democrat; I will miss it most for the idealism it offered, regardless of party affiliation. This seasons episodes seemed to stress that candidates could be, as a whole, principled, regardless of which side of the aisle they came from.
I was also late in finding this show, but quickly caught up via DVD, so I may have missed the great disappointment that others felt in Sorkin's departure. In viewing the earlier episodes I can see the difference in the scripts, but I still found the latter episodes compelling.
My wish throughout the series run was that actual politicians could take some of the attributes I saw in the fictional characters and make life imitate art. As yet, I've not seen any indication, and with the demise of the show, I'm still left dreaming....