I watch a LOT of television, or to be more accurate, I watch an awful lot of television series but I watch them mostly on dvd so I don't catch any of those pesky advert things. Generally I watch the American stuff although I've recently picked up a few more UK series which seem to be adopting the similar production values. I'll watch pretty much anything that doesn't involve members of the public or celebrities, although I tend not to watch sitcoms either at the moment.

The West Wing

So I'm about 4 years behind the crowd, but I've finally found this series and acknowledge it's greatness. I was a bit tentative of not understanding the politics but it either doesn't matter or they've taught me it without me really noticing. The writing is absolutely superb, hits every single beat - comedy, drama, angst, characters, novelty, educating. The show is fast, in most episodes there's several storylines to follow from world wide politics down to character problems, everything is perfectly paced and blended. I just cannot recommend this series highly enough. (NB - if you're buying the dvds I'd recommend the Region 1 versions as they have many many more special features Then could you lend them to me?)

The West Wing: Season 1

Starting in the 2nd year of Bartlet's presidency the series starts with the President falling off his bike (particularly hilarious following Bush's tumble recently) and most of the rest of the staff suffering various personal and political mishaps. The season continues through various political events, but focusses on the west wing, the president and the staff and their lives, not the life of the government. It's about how they get things done, not so much what the things actually are. This is what really makes the show addictive - you care about these people, even when they're being idiots and they bring life to politics. An average episode will probably have me laughing out loud a dozen times, close to tears a couple, inspired and distressed in equal measure, but most importantly unable to stop watching until there's no more episodes to watch. The end of season cliffhanger drove me to distraction and I only had to wait about 18 hours to see the conclussion!

Special Features: Pretty scant. There's about 8 interviews with the principle cast Aaron Sorkin (creator, writer, producer) and a director. But thery're pretty bland, taped just a few episodes into the 1st season. Nothing very exciting. There's a making of documentary which is interesting but brief, and a few tv spot things that aren't anything more than padding. A real shame they didn't make more effort, some commentarires would be great.

The West Wing: Season 2

Season 2 opens just seconds after the cliffhanger, the resolution to this only really lasts one episodes but by merging it with flashbacks to the original campaign and how the familiar faces came to the team it's extended to 2 episodes. It's a great start to the season, showing us where the characters and administration are and where they've come from. The season continues along much the same lines as the first, but there seem to be more defeats than victories with various things coming to light and the President having to decide on whether to stand for re-election. No cliffhanger this time, but still the overwhelming desire to see more. I watched seasons 1 and 2 in 8 days. It is simply superb.

Special Features: Absolutely no special features. (I don't care what they say "interactive menus and scene selection" are not special features!)

The West Wing: Season 3

The superlatives just keep going. The campaign for re-election kicks off, the staff are investigated over the President's condition and whether he deceived the voters and foreign tensions continue to develop. Previous seasons deal heavily with the balance between what the staff want to do, and what they can get through congress and senate, this season adds on the price of re-election making everything even more delicate. The guest cast is superb as ever with some familiar faces returning and new one's being added in to form new and interesting relationships. Everything that was great about the first two seasons is still there and still great. Many people online seem to indicate this is where the series started going downhill, but personally I don't see it... I even kinda like Amy!

Special Features: Absolutely no special features at all, made even more offensive by the fact that the booklet is for the Region 1 release so you get told all about the commentaries, making ofs and gag reel. Grr. The 6 dvds come in an epic fold out thingy, which is fine until you're trying to open it up while balancing a laptop. The change in style means that the box set looks more grown-up (no more red white and blue) but doesn't match on the shelf. Petty, but irritating.

The West Wing: Season 4

What is there that can possibly be said that I haven't said about the last 3 seasons? I was worried during the first (two part) episodes as I really didn't think they were particularly strong, but from then on I don't think there was a moment I wasn't engrossed in. The regular cast shuffles a bit with the addition of Stockard Channing to the main cast (although she really doesn't appear any more often sadly) and Rob Lowe's departure (or rather gradually disappearance). Joshua Malina joins the cast as Sam's replacement Will Bailey and brings some much needed fresh air to the Wing. Past guest appearances contiinue with Amy, Admiral Fitz, Nancy, Andy Wyatt, Ed, Larry, Mike Casper and even Danny popping up bringin confusion, hilarity, chaos and strength, often at the same time. I think one of the most outstanding things about this season is that nothing lingers too long, whereas I found myself getting a little tired by the MS scandal and various other storylines I thought season 4 kept moving really well even through the re-election, never getting bogged down in something that the audience already knows the answer too (wow, i wonder if they'll win the election?)
Now I have to wait forever for season 5, it's a good job I read spoilers and am not waiting for the cliffhanger to resolve!

Special Features: Absolutely none whatsoever. One day when i'm rich I'll invest in the region 1 dvds :O(

The West Wing: Season 5

Oh. I knew that with the departure of Aaron Sorkin many said that The West Wing had just died, with some dispondant fans going so far as to start Don't Save Our Show but I hoped on. having watched the season through I understand where they're coming from. It's lost a great deal of what made the earlier seasons great, much of which I couldn't even begin to describe. However, even West Wing at it's worst, without the Sorkin shine, is still a great deal better than most of the other stuff on tv.

My primary criticisms would be that the new show-runner John Wells (he who kept causing issues with helicopters on ER) lost track of the fact that people watched and loved TWW despite there not being something to fuss about every week. We don't need to have social security saved, or the government being shut down, or gimicky mock-documentary episodes. Those sorts of spectacles were limited to ends of season while regular episodes comprised of nothing more exciting than filibusters, broken space probes or discussion of a census. And we *were* excited, and enthralled, and uplifted. Add to that the fact that some of the characters appear to wander off the plot and it's just..not the same. I miss the proper West Wing, but I'll take what I can get.

The West Wing: Season 6

I think this season marks the low point of The West Wing, both in terms of plot and in terms of quality. There are an increasing number of 'jump the shark' candidate moments and it's frustrating to see a series that previously had such sense and consistency degenerate so far, so fast.
Plot wise there are a number of elements that concerned me. The dramatic shifts in Leo and the president's relationship, CJ becoming chief of staff, peace in the middle east, war with Canada, resolving Cuba... all moderately ridiculous. Continuity also starts to go out the window, failing to remember events and connections several seasons past and even backtracking on more recent episodes.
On a larger scale the season also suffers from a lack of cohesion. The regular team is broken up and now rather than just telling the story of the white house we're also trying to keep up with at least 2 campaigns. Whole episodes will go by without seeing some of the characters we are accustomed to seeing every few scenes and while the characters/actors can carry episodes, they are always better playing off each other. The good news is that Jimmy Smits brings a wonderful new character to the show, a smart and worth successor to the now ailing and somewhat sad President Bartlet.
Season 6 is very much filler between Bartlet's presidency and the final race to the election for the new president. It's not a proper handover because there's so little interaction, but it's a necessary stepping stone. I just with the writers hadn't lost faith in the audience - we don't need huge stories about peace in the middle east, it's the dialogue and interactions that we watch for.

The West Wing: Season 7

I haven't enjoyed a season of The West Wing this much since Sorkin left. Whether the season (particularly the 2nd half) would have been as good if they hadn't been given a free hand by the cancelation no one will ever really be able to say. While I think it's moderately idiotic to cancel a show just as it's about to re-invent itself I am at least glad that NBC gave it a chance to finish, rather than just stop, and gave it the budget to go out in style.

Season 6 tried to cover both the White House and the campaign with an equal hand and consequently felt rather patchy to me. Season 7 however is all about the campaign with the White House definately taking a back seat. Bartlett's White House is gradually dying, having lost Josh and Leo in Season 6, they now also lose Toby and all that's left are the Bartletts, CJ and the 'fill-ins' of Will (mini-Sam) and Kate (Nancy McNally-lite), who I honestly don't really care about. There are a couple of episodes in the season focusing on CJ and they are beautifully scripted and acted to show her trying to hold it all together and denying that the end is coming. I was left a bit cold by the whole Toby story, it all made sense, but it seemed a rather sad, yet inevitable end to the character's story.

ife on the campaign trail shows us an entirely new side to American politics and the lengthy focus on a moderate Republican is new for The West Wing too. The casting was inspired - the hugely charismatic Alan Alda, paired with the sympathetic Patricia Richardson and the familiar Ron Silver as Bruno Gianelli made for an intriguing and engaging trio. It was never likely that the Republicans would win the election, but they still managed to make the race interesting and exciting. In many ways Arnie Vinick is a lot more like Jed Bartlett than Matt Santos is, he's more academic, he's the statesman and the experienced hand, all things being equal he probably would have won, the nuclear thing seemed a bit of an act-of-god intervention.

The Democrat campaign meanwhile is largely the Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford show for the first 1/3 of the season and that makes pretty good tv in my book. Santos is the epitome of words like youthful and energetic, he seems to have no respect for the way things 'should' be done and this drives Josh nuts, and Josh is always most entertaining when he's nuts. Josh seems to flounder a bit this season, he seems to be continually fighting his candidate, without the support of his old friends at the White House and without Donna he loses confidence and becomes isolated. However eventually the writers decide to change gears - suddenly the supporting characters in the campaign develop personalities, Donna returns and it's a whole new ballgame. While the Republican campaign is full of 'grown-ups' the Democratic campaign is youthful and energetic and fun! Janeane Garofalo is brilliant taking no crap from the candidate or Josh and keeping things on track, it takes a while for the other minions to distinguish themselves but during the election and the transition they find their niches and claim them, bringing back some idealism and naivity to the otherwise somewhat jaded cast. Teri Polo and Janel Moloney both play it perfectly as the "other-halves" of the two powerful men, not taking any crap and being amazing characters in their own rights, the two pairings are written and played absolutely perfectly never forgetting the long histories involved.

No matter the rest of the season the highpoint was always going to be the election and following the death of John Spencer the writers decided to combine the high with the horrible low of Leo's death. The two part episode was absolutely amazing, hitting so many emotional notes that my housemates must have thought I was insane as I laughed and wept at the screen throughout the whole thing. Kristin Chenoweth breaking the news to Josh was just heartbreaking and if there was an emmy for most amazing 5 seconds acting she would be the winner in a very tight race with Allison Janney and Martin Sheen for their scenes in this episode. These two episodes were just about the most perfect thing I've ever seen on tv.

The final episode on the other hand was far from perfect television, there wasn't really anything spectacular about it, some nice acting and some beautiful locations, but nothing outstanding. Unless you're a West Wing fan, then it was cram packed full of perfect moments and brilliant references. I cried through the whole thing, my flatmates must have thought I was insane. Bringing back so many of the old characters, even if just for a moment was brilliant - I bounced in my seat when Ed and Larry appeared, I squealed as Ginger delivered a line for the first time in years, I cheered at Ron Butterfield and Steve the reporter, I did a double take when Aaron Sorkin was lingered upon at the inaugeration and laughed when Bartlett told Nancy (played by Martin Sheen's daughter) that he was looking forward to seeing her mother again. And Mallory's gift to the president? That required even more tissues. It was so sweet to see everyone where they should be - Sam in the white house at Josh's side, Donna in a big shiny office and with Josh, CJ off to California with Danny, even Toby - pardoned but not forgiven was exactly where the character should end up. It was pure sap and I loved every minute of it.

Season 7 may not be the best season of the West Wing, it really is a completely different structure and idea to the early seasons making it hard to compare. It is however a very good example of how to close down a show in a satisfying way. I think it would have made a good springboard for a spin-off/sequel series in the Santos White House, but we'll never know.

Television Series