My wife and I have been catching up on TiVo’ed West Wings and the pattern seems obvious: The ones on the campaign trail are good while the ones inside the White House suck. The cause seems just as obvious: Without the natural drama of a campaign, the writers are at a loss.

AdamAaron Sorkin’s genius was his ability to create compelling scripts out of two elements that traditionally are drama-free: a group of people who like one another and political issues/ideas. The new writers have fragmented the group and are relying on ridiculous plot twists: CJ’s elevation to chief of staff was totally arbitrary, and the national security advisor is now being given a cloak and dagger backstory that shows the producers think we viewers can’t appreciate a well-drawn character unless she’s killed someone.

I hope West Wing continues with Santos as president and with a whole new cast, except for maybe Josh and Charlie. If within a year they can’t figure out how to make the west wing of the White House interesting, then I’m switching to Joey. [Technorati tag: WestWing]

Categories: Uncategorized dw