THE WEST WING REVIEW
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COLUMN by Matthew Toffolo
Column about the THE WEST WING REVIEW - CLICK below and see the top 100 West Wing Scenes
Created and published on September 6 2011
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I was a big fan of this show. In fact, right after I watched the entire series in a 6 week span, I waited six months and watched the series again from scratch. And I still find myself from time to time popping in a random episode because this show gives me a lot of things I'm interested in.
#1 - Great storytelling that's about something big. And there's nothing bigger than governing the most powerful country in the world. So the stakes are always high.
#2 - All the characters - and I mean ALL the characters, are highly intelligent people working in highly competitive and conflict driven situations. So with that, they become smarter than they are episode by episode, year by year. And they are all workaholics, something I am too and can relate with. They work a lot because they feel there is a lot of deep meaning to go with their job. It's what they are here for and having a personal life, or any other life in general, takes a backseat. These are my people. People that I don't know very well in my own world. So in a way, Bartlett, Lyman and CJ are my pals. We live to work, not work to live.
Growing up I was told that family, friends, hobbies and relaxation are the most important things in life. And work is something you do for only 40 hours a week so you can do the more important things. I never got that theory as it never made sense to me. So watching The West Wing when I was a teenager inspired me. Too bad the show come too late for me to actually motivate me to get good grades.
#3 - It's a show about politics. And the main characters are on the left side of things. So they got me just because of that because I'm always interested in knowing as much as I can about politicians, governing and how the system really works. Of course the main criticism of The West Wing is that it is definitely an idealised version of how Washington works, but so what, it's not like a lot of their storylines weren't true real life. It's just a heightened reality of the situations that have existed, and what they did most of the times is changed the results and gave it a better ending (or a leftist ending). And the main trouble they got into in the later years by the critics was that the left thought they went too central because of their decent or nice portrayals of the republican party, while the right thought their liberal ideals of governing were true fiction. So they were Obama in 2011 - slammed by both sides because they were trying to please both sides.
A lot of people will say that there were two West Wings - pre-Aaron Sorkin and post-Aaron Sorkin.
The creator of the show, Mr. multiple Oscar and Emmy winner Sorkin, left after season 4 due to a contract dispute. And many of his fans left with him and thought the later shows were pretty stinky. I'll admit that the first 10 or so episodes of season 5 weren't the greatest as the new team took awhile to ground themselves into the new era. Sorkin wrote 90% of the episodes the first 4 years and his writing style is so unique, whenever someone tries to copy him, it's like someone trying to copy Mozart. Sorkin is the David Mamet of television as there really is no one in his category. So the new team was in an impossible situation.But from about the 5th episode in season 6 to the end of the series, The West Wing was a fantastic show. Gone were Sorkin's idealistic conversations and do-right presidential moves. In were the guts, tumbles, frustations and many pains of running for office and governing a country. The later West Wing was a show about people compromising battles in order to win the bigger fights. And how campaigning is all about a chess game between 1000 or so people, as constant manipulations are used in order to gain a point in the polls.
The campaigning episodes between Congressman Matt Santos and Senator Arnold Vinick, who are running for president to end the series are some of the best in the entire series. The creative team changed their entire directorial structure on how to showcase the show during these episodes. They put us right into the heart of these two guys and their team. And the great thing that they did was show the good, bad and ugly of one of the future presidents of the United States. And right until the end, we had no idea who was going to win. Both the democrat and the conversative had their pros and cons of being the best president for their country.
In the end, The West Wing showed a pure fantasy of the President of the United States. But it seemed like a way better way to govern a country than what Bush was doing during the time it was on. And I'm sure President Josiah Bartlett had a lot better approval rating than George W. Bush did when the series ended.
I loved this show. And I'll continue to love it as the years go by.
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