The West Wing

It's boring

Totally sedate compared to the REALITY of politics in this country since 2016 and President Whackjob

R2 Maybe, but the writing and acting is usually pretty good, even the extra characters.

It's fabulous and shows a reality that expresses the best of us in leadership. I always watch it around Thanksgiving. I used to watch history channel documentaries about our nation but lost my taste for jerking off the real America around 2016. Now, I choose to make the fantasy land of The West Wing into my Pre-Thanksgiving tradition. It's witty, it's smart, it has heart, and remained solid until the final season. Even that works because it really gave that melancholy that befalls an administration, and TV show, on its way out. The energy and power of the Bartlet White House is like a candle at the end of it's wick.

I graduated high school around 2008. My Civics teacher was 2 years away from retirement, Civics was for seniors so he used 50% of the class time to show The West Wing. I feel in love with the show and we would have great discussions. By picking certain episodes to help cover topics. It was a great way to teach. My brother gifted me the complete DVD box set for Christmas.

It had a good list of guest stars. From Hal Hoolbrooks to Roger Rees to David Ogden Stiers to Glenn Close

R4 He didn't splurge for the Blu Ray?

One of my favorite shows. Martin Sheen was perfect as President Bartlett and the rest of the cast was top notch as well.

One of the great entrances of all time—- President Bartlett’s first entrance in episode 1. That and CJ Cregg’s pratfalls —-@episode 1 where she falls off a treadmill and, during a flashback, when she falls into a pool. Among my favorite moments in a great show.

Tobey - "AJ, I swear if you say woot cwanal one more time....."

Best Christmas episode ever, "In Excelsis Deo":

I also love this show, although I don’t watch the Jimmy Smits scenes. I never understood his appeal on this or any show. The West Wing made me and many others go to work for the federal government. We had hope for our presidency. Oh well, at least I have a great pension to look forward to.

Mrs. Landingham on her boys, "In Excelsis Deo"

My favorite exchange:

Larry : [reading from Ron Burkhalt's best selling sensational book] Bartlet was playing a round of golf with Toby Ziegler, the prickly, mumbling communications director whose inner bitter darkness spelled the break-up of the one marriage we know about.

C.J. Cregg : It was miniature golf, wasn't it?

Toby Ziegler : Yeah.

The trailers made it look like well-produced but schmaltzy, "heart-warming", feel-good crap...and now I find out I missed out on Gary Cole and Tim Matheson!

R14 Without giving any spoilers, Gary Cole replaced Tim Matheson. They are very important recurring characters.

R15 Well, not so much important as mildly amusing.

The show went from idealistic and educational in its early seasons (Rob Lowe's ludicrous little tirades were common) to a juicy show about minor conflicts writ large (the show was taken over by the guy who turned ER into a weekly drama/blood fest). And by the seventh season, we were ready to let it go.

I for one think they should've kept it going under a new president - the candidate played by Alan Alda, not Jimmy Smits - and showed a whole new administration that was totally different from the last one. That's what happens in real life, and there's a story there.

There are several series I try to watch completely every half decade or so, this among them . . . Also worth repeat, the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Murder One, the Closer, Inspector Morse, Boston Legal and Downton Abbey . . . Likely there are others that don't immediately come to mind, but it is now, for me, early morning and I’m only on my second cup of coffee.

I enjoyed it. When I watch it feel like I'm on drugs and in my opinion you can tell it was written on drugs. I watched the first 3-4 seasons.

Sorkin's tired old tradition of the "Indignant White Male on a Rant" gets old after a few seasons. As does his ludicrous tendency to mansplain through his characters. The one with the answers is always a man, and the women in the room (even though they might work in the White House) are portrayed as utterly ignorant, clumsy, and pathetic.

It's predictable. It's boring.

What is terrible about the show is that if people watch it and think “this is how the presidency works” they have no idea.

Could you imagine Allison Janney wearing a gas mask in a bunker while Alan Alda’s supporters stormed the capital?

That Martin Sheen would call a a deadly virus a “political hoax” and do nothing while millions of Americans die.

That Janel Moloney’s character would call the Secretary of State of Georgia and be on tape saying, “Find me the votes”

I too used a few episodes of this show to make specific points in my American Government class. I used to jokingly tell my students that if they watched the entire series and looked up everything they didn't understand, they wouldn't have to take an American Government class.

I attached one of my favorite clips from the show that makes me cry even now, where Bartlett is trying to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement at Camp David and the Jewish sabbath prayers are juxtaposed with the Muslims praying on their prayer rugs.

For all its faults, idealism, and sappiness, it was still a hell of a show.

Rewatching again!!