West Wing Better?
Good discussion this morning on NPR’s Weekend Edition about whether The West Wing has improved this season after the departure of creator and genius Adam Sorkin.
I think it has. I thought the conclusion of the opening episodes featuring the fabulous John Goodman was strong when it turned out [SPOILER AHEAD] that Josh’s fears about Republican abuses were in fact just projections of his own overly-political worldview. The inklings of a legitimate opposition strengthen the show.
On the other hand, the melodramatic split between the president and the first lady seems pretty contrived to me. And there was one moment that Sorkin would never ever have allowed in: Josh stopping a cab so he can yell to the Capitol dome: “You wanna piece of me?” Just plain embarrassing.
I enjoyed the the hypothetical Oval Office exchange about dirt.
I was nervous with all the compromising and reality of ruling is difficult stuff. I don’t watch t.v. to understand the mire american politics is in. I watch to see someone’s imagination about what it could be. [spoiler] So when Bartlett decided to stand up to the republican’s 3% I was happy. I am excited for the next episode.
The one thing that’s not contrived to me about the relationship between the President and First Lady is this tension. I can’t imagine how having a job like his wouldn’t lead to incredible alienation from one’s spouse if that spouse was committed to the kinds of things that the First Lady is. This was the thing that bugged me about the Clintons.
I think West Wing has “jumped the shark,” as they say in TV land. It is barely worth watching as far as I’m concerned, and I was a rabid fan of Sorkin’s show.
I am disturbed by many things, but mainly by the damage done to the characters. Every last one of them has acted out of character, doing and saying things that, as of last year, he or she would never do.
Can you imagine last year’s idealistic Toby Ziegler making excuses to give in on a $270 million military boondogle?
Can you imagine last year’s CJ losing control at a press conference, or last year’s Leo McGary sufficiently enraged to threaten to fire her?
Can you imagine last year’s Josh Lyman so stupidly misjudging the political inclinations of a Senator about to defect from the party?
Can you imagine last year’s Will Bailey ready to give up the job he treasured and work for a Vice President with the intellect of a wet noodle? (And by the way, the producers missed a great chance to cast William Devane as VP instead of the weak Gary Cole, and set up a great dynamic and perhaps rivalry between Bartlett and his VP.)
Can you imagine last year’s Jed Bartlett ignoring his Washington responsibilities to spend 36 or 48 hours or whatever it was comforting tornado victims and then later pathetically claiming that they “needed” him?
Can you imagine the people in last year’s West Wing distrusting, even disliking each other?
Well, I can’t imagine any of this. I don’t know who these people are any more, and I want to know why they’re talking and acting dumber now than they once did (I do know, of course, and it makes me sick.)
What the writers have done is to turn an exceptional show into an ordinary one, a character-driven show into a plot-driven show, like almost everything else on TV.
John Goodman was ok, although the scenario that brought him to the White House was extremely difficult to believe. Likewise, Zoey’s rescue, which the producers gave all of about 5 minutes, after spending three full shows setting it up.
I guess you get the idea. I am so pissed at NBC that I tried to write the producers, but of course the site did not give me their email addresses.
Funny how we use tv entertainment for different reasons. I’ve always like West Wing when it is more realistic.
It’s a fact that one’s idealism gets grinded down in politics, sometimes for good reasons, and often for bad ones. But nobody in a democracy gets everything they want, sometimes hardly anything they want.
Presidents enter office with a clock ticking. For each second that passes, they pick up more resistance to their ideas on how to change Washington and the government. Often their worst enemies are their own egos, and sometimes it is the egos of folk in Congress that you would think would be their best friends, those members from their own party.
I always appreciate WW more when it shows us the human side of doing the government’s business.
As far as yelling at the Capitol dome, it is prominent in downtown DC, illuminated and hovering up above the rest of downtown. Pennsylvania Avenue north of the White House is angled toward it. And when you cross the Mall on one of the numbered streets, you will also see it. When the Congress is in session, out on the floor debating or passing legislation, the lantern atop the dome is lit.
It’s not hard to imagine personalizing the place when you are driving on one of the cross streets across the Mall and look up to see that light on, particularly when you know they are doing things that you are against.
Re: “…Josh Lyman so stupidly misjudging the political inclinations of a Senator about to defect from the party?” – and yelling at the Capitol dome.
I think they are trying to show Josh with a somewhat short fuse at times, because of the post traumatic stress from when he was shot. PTS would cause him to get angry and do not quite the right thing at times. Maybe I am giving the writers too much credit.
I agree the yelling was embarrassing. Hard to watch.
I didn’t think it was too bad that Zoey’s return was done in the last few minutes. Sometimes life is like that. The finale of big things end up to be anti-climatic & a bit of a let down.
What did you want? A lightsabre duel, lava & RPG rockets firing from every FBI vehicle?
I think that the west wing losing Sorkin was a huge blow and they are trying to get back on the horse with loud, soap opera based drama and now politics. I know there are plenty of people who want this because they felt the show was too political anyway. And by the way, what happened with the main title sequence tonight?
Does anyone know what movie Leo was watching as he was resting on his couch in last week’s episode?