The West Wing

Scott Hardie | April 26, 2014
In keeping with my hobby of watching TV shows years after they have faded from cultural relevance, Kelly and I have just finished watching The West Wing over the last six months or so. I know that it has fans here on TC, so here's sharing my thoughts about it and hoping for some feedback. Spoilers lie ahead.

General Impression: Terrific series, as good as its reputation. The writing, acting, and directing are all superb. There is not a single bad episode in the entire seven-year series, and there are few mediocre episodes. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good, and deserved its many Emmys.

Sorkin vs. Post-Sorkin: Public opinion holds that there was a sharp dropoff in quality after Aaron Sorkin was fired from writing his own series after season 4 ended. While I agree that the later years were less consistent in quality from week to week, and less focused on specific political issues (to the show's detriment), they feature some outstanding writing all the same. Some of the best episodes and storylines of the series came in the later years, like "An Khe" and "In God We Trust." The decrease in quality was minor, and many viewers unfamiliar with the backstage changes probably didn't notice.

Liberal Fantasy: The show is probably better for giving up on any notion of realism and political compromise, and running away with its thoroughly liberal fantasy, portraying a president and staff who are hugely partisan but still win most of their battles. I think that's what "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" from season 1 was about; that plot shift was an attempt to justify this fantasy occurring within the narrative. The decision makes for a more entertaining show, even if it must be a turnoff to conservatives. Still, Bartlet being super-president got fairly ridiculous in the later years: I thought his solving of the massive Social Security mess was a whopper, until he willed Israel and Palestine to sign a two-state peace treaty! A few weeks later, when an asteroid threatened Earth, I thought he was going to fly into space in his wheelchair and punch the rock into a million pieces.

Favorite Episode: There are so many good candidates for this, but I think my favorite is "Draught Conditions," which plumbed the depths of Toby's despair. The subplots were more dopey than usual, but the raw angst and emotion in Toby's main storyline more than made up for it, and the reveal in the final scene is a genuine surprise. Richard Schiff is a hell of an actor, and Toby is the show's wounded soul. This episode is his best.

Most Important Episode: I don't know whether any episode changed public dialogue on an issue (I'd like to know), but I have a feeling that "What Kind of Day Has It Been" at the end of season 1 was the most important in shaping the series, outside of the pilot. This is where several storylines coalesced together and the show went in exciting new directions based on what had happened before. The series had previously had some serialized subplots, from Jorja Fox's Secret Service agent to Edward James Olmos's Supreme Court nominee, but this was the first time that serialization took over the series for a few episodes, something that would happen more and more often until the biggest serialized plot of all (Santos's campaign) nearly took over the whole show for the final two years.

Favorite Character: I like Leo McGarry for his chiseled world-weariness and reliable, reassuring loyalty, but my favorite character has to be Toby Ziegler, whose complexity astounds me as a writer myself. The guy is unlikable on the surface, so gruff and miserable, but he has so many layers within him that gradually reveal themselves and more than justify his prickly personality, endearing him in spite of himself. He is redeemed by his unerring morality and devotion to justice. He's the salt in the stew; the show would be so bland without him.

Least Favorite Character: Josh Lyman, who is both a raging loudmouth and a constant screw-up. Why would anyone employ this assclown? He does well at electioneering, but otherwise he seems to blunder along from one huge error to another, needlessly making enemies along the way with his massive ego. I suspect that NBC expected audience sympathies to align naturally with Josh and Sam, the young handsome white males on the show, so the network deliberately roughened their edges while adding redeeming qualities to the rest of the cast, and they overdid it.

The Show's Favorite Character: Is it me, or did the writers really love C.J. Cregg? They loved most of the main characters, but C.J. was given some of the very best material (she's the only one who got a solo episode about her home life, in Dayton with her father) and consistently projected competence despite some humiliations that I'll list in a moment. She's the only character to be given a proper promotion in the series and the only non-president to receive a standing ovation. I have no problem with the show gushing over her, because I really liked her too, but the writers showing her this kind of preference seemed a little bit like a parent having a favorite child, and I wonder if I'm the only one who noticed.

The Show's Weirdest Hang-Up: What is it with this show humiliating women? Ainsley Hayes danced drunkenly in her bathrobe in front of the president. Annabeth Schott passed out drooling on a flight after taking valium and wine. Amy Gardner was pranked by coworkers who knocked down her photos and doors. But CJ Cregg got the worst of it: She tripped into a swimming pool, had turkeys roost in her office, appeared on a talk show pantsless, fell backwards while firing a pistol, went to a staff meeting with coffee stains on her shirt, was kissed by Santa Claus during a press briefing, and endured countless other humiliations. Even her very first appearance, in the pilot episode, showed her falling face-first on a treadmill while trying to impress a man. This show's bizarre obsession with making fools out of its women was mostly Sorkin's thing, as it rarely happened in the later years. (There's also the creepy paternalism in the final scene of "The Crackpots and These Women," where the show's men stand around at a party thinking they're admiring the hard-working women, practically patting them on the head for being all gosh-darned good at men's work.)

Biggest Missed Opportunity: Kate Harper. She's such an underutilized character that if I had just said Kate, it wouldn't have been clear who I meant. She had potential for a rich backstory with her spy career, and she could have been the kind of authoritative and competent female presence that the show needed more of, and Mary McCormack has done fine work elsewhere. Instead, the writers wasted Kate on dumb romantic pairings and mostly forgot about her. Charlie Young was also too minor of a presence on the show, but unlike Kate, he didn't have much narrative potential to begin with. Another missed opportunity: John Goodman should have been president for another couple of episodes at the start of season 5. The show went to such trouble over many weeks to lay the groundwork for that storyline, and then barely used it for a pair of episodes before too briskly returning everything to normal.

Best Monologue: Tough call! There were so many good ones. One that comes to mind is from "Noel," when Leo tells Josh what friendship means to him:

This guy's walkin' down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you! Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole; can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey, Joe, it's me. Can ya help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are ya stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out."