Television Series

The West Wing

The West Wing

Last updated 28 May, 2006

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Premise: Follows the workings of a Democratic President (Jed Bartlet) and his staff through two terms in office.

Current status: Now in Season 5. Wednesdays at 9:00 on NBC and Global.

Commentary

Season 1 (1999–2000)
Season 3 (mid-point) (2001)
Season 3 (end) (2002)
Season 4 (mid-point) (2002)
Season 4 (end) (2003)
Season 5 (mid-point) (2003)

Season 1

3rd favourite show

Just bracing to watch--the only TV show that makes you feel like you're growing instead of losing brain cells while you watch. It's only flaw is the occasional tendency to lapse into excessive American patriotism.

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Season 3 (mid-point)

3rd favourite show: A

Strengths

As always, the snappy, smart dialogue.
CJ Cregg's character strength this year.
Josh gets a girlfriend—and it's not Donna!
It's not all about the MS.
The President admits he was wrong. Publicly. Wouldn't it be amazing if a real politician did that?

Weaknesses

Sometimes tries to be so smart, it's just muddy.
Doesn't have a real dramatic thrust that leaves me wondering what will happen next.

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Season 3 (end)

5th favourite show: B+

Overall, it's been a somewhat disappointing West Wing season. While, as always, many interesting ideas have picked up, unfortunately few have been carried through. It's made the season seem a bit choppy. The season finale is a perfect example: The scene between Bartlett and the Republican candidate — clearly modelled on Bush — was excellent. The killing of CJ Cregg's love interest was a cliché, and a waste of what looked to become a promising storyline. And who the heck was her stalker, anyway?

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Season 4 (mid-point)

Most Lost Potential

I don't even know why, exactly, but The West Wing just isn't doing it for me anymore. I want to love it. I try to love it. But I'm just not loving it. In fact, if it were on the rich TV nights of Tuesday or Sunday, I'm not sure I would be watching it at all. It's being saved by its time slot.

Some TV critics have said that the show's new focus on foreign affairs, particularly on the fictional country of Kumar, have been to the show's detriment, especially since most of the characters aren't privy to all of that confidential information. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe it's also the election shows, which lacked drama due to their foregone conclusions, and certainly, for me, the loss of the Sam Seaborn character is an issue. The new scriptwriter seems decent enough, and Christian Slater is, indeed, another good-looking guy, but neither has the stunning idealism that I really loved about Sam.

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Season 4 (end)

Most Improved

Most of the improvement came at the very end, with a really rivetting storyline centered around Zoe's kidnapping. For the first time in a while, I'm really looking forward to the next episode.

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Season 5 (mid-point)

There are certain things about this Sorkin-less West Wing that I really don't like, such as turning Leo into a complete asshole for no particular reason, creating the weird conflict between Will and Toby (for the purpose of conflict, I guess?), the too-simple resolution to Cloe's kidnapping and the just plain depressing arc that followed (President not doing his job, Josh losing job, all in chaos...).

On the plus side, some of the plots and moments have been pretty interesting: Josh and Amy's kiss (but where's the follow-up?), the President's fight over the budget, the introduction of Josh's new intern... but overall, if I didn't watch The O.C. on Monday, I'd probably be dropping The West Wing to watch The O.C.

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Cast

Stars Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet

Co-stars Stockard Channing as Abigail Bartlet, Dule Hill as Charlie Young, Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg, Joshua Malina as Will Bailey (S4), Janel Moloney as Donna Moss, Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler, John Spencer as Leo McGarry, Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman, and Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn (S1–S4).

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Links

The West Wing official site

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