So I'm just now getting into this show. Late to the party, I realize, but it was my GF's favorite, and she thought I would enjoy it.
She was right. It's been great. We're about midway through Season 4, so I still have a ways to go. But I've been amazed at how it manages to stay interesting despite the supposedly dry source material they often work with.
Yeah West Wing remains a classic- what amazes me is that for its first four seasons, I only ever felt there was one filler episode (the one where CJ goes to see her father). Everything else felt relevant- they really did have that many stories to tell, which is unusual in full length seasons (most decent US tv goes for half seasons or less, which generally works well). Even after it slips a bit post series 4, it's some of the best stuff around.
It was also very even handed, particularly after the first season. Aaron Sorkin is the left-wing sort but he gives right-wing views and people a fair shake, both humanising them and giving decent reasons for them to hold their views away from "All Republicans are evil". In fact, he has a bit of a thing for moderate Republicans- The Newsroom carries that on.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Sorkin gets bad-mouthed a lot, so I was surprised to see exactly this: a lot of even-handed portrayals.
My fear early on was that the same 5-6 actors in the same 5-6 rooms would get boring. Seriously, a LOT of the action takes place off-camera. Meanwhile, instead of, say, seeing an important conflict, we're staring at solemn faces in the Situation Room. By the 5th time they do that, will it still be watchable? That was the fear, at least. But it works.
I want to be Sam Seaborn. Not the good looks - I already have those - but I want his job. And it took me longer on some than others - I initially disliked Sam, for example - but they really make everyone human and likeable in some way, even Tobey, who Richard Schiff plays to be eminently unlikeable.
I know I'm about to get to the worse seasons. And I know some mild spoilers about departures and storylines. But I'm invested enough that I'm not too concerned about losing interest.
Alan Alda is probably the best thing about the later series (the final campaign trail becomes better than the actual West Wing bits later). Although technically on the 'other side', he became so sympathetic that it can cause you to question who you are meant to be backing.
As for the likeable characters- well indeed, and they are so sharp and intellectual and quippy and dedicated and idealistic (even Schiff) and yet somehow it all appears to be realistic, even though you know in your heart that real life West Wing conversation is almost certainly waaaay more dull than this.
Btw Schiff's season 7 plotline is an absolute disaster- the actor himself disowned it. Probably their biggest mis-step.
Other than various details of American partisan politics- particularly from the Republican point of view- the biggest thing I learned from the West Wing was the importance of the mostly unnoticed chief of staff (remember this was pre-9/11; the president's entourage these days has a bit more visibility once people started talking about Bush's inner circle etc, but to this day I can;t name Clinton's chief of staff off the top of my head). In fact, when they started the series, the President was going to be a background figure (he was barely in the pilot, you may notice) because they wanted to focus on how important (and surprisingly powerful) these people are. But then Martin Sheen was too damn good to keep off-screen...
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Nov 1st, 2014 at 09:32 AM
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Feb 14th, 2007 01:03 PM
