West Wing S1
Oct. 2nd, 2003 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentI finished watching the first season of The West Wing the other night and it occurs to me that this is a show that by rights should not work.
If you watch a lot of episodes back to back, the narrative flow can be really weird - plot points can get mentioned one episode, disappear for half a season and then reappear, complete, as a fait accompli, or get dropped altogether. Not only that, but there's almost zero dramatic tension. No world-changing events can ever really happen and no political crisis can be too damaging, to the point where in almost every single case resolution is anticlimactic.
And yet, it works. Not only that, but it works very well.
I think a big part of the why is down to the humour and the characters, and the fact that you can watch the show just for those things. Almost without exception the characters are charming, and intelligent, and (as a general rule) incredibly good people. That last point can be hard to swallow to start with (it certainly was for me), but it's really the crux of the show. The West Wing is about aspiration; We admire these people. We want to be these people (*cough*Sam*cough*) because they're better than ourselves, and because they live in a world that is better than our own. Even when they make mistakes, these characters are never going to lose their shine; as a viewer you have to accept that, and once you do, it's a joy.
For me, though, the most important thing about The West Wing - and the thing that makes it almost unique in current television - is that when you get down to it, it's about ideas. It's not really about the characters, and I've already said that it's sure as hell not about the plots - but the ideas are front and centre. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
immortalradical once pointed out, the characters are basically personifications of ideology. They exist so that they can debate with each other.
Aaron Sorkin, the series creator who's written at least as many episodes of The West Wing as J Michael Straczynski wrote of Babylon 5 (but with significantly better dialogue) left the show at the end of season four. This means that not only have I now seen all the Sorkin-penned West Wing in existence, but I've seen all that there will be. It's hard not to think that with the departure of that single strong authorial voice, the series is going to suffer.
I hope it doesn't. I hope it goes on, just as before, for a good few years yet. But even if things do fall to pieces, those first four seasons are still a remarkable body of work. Everyone should watch them.
If you watch a lot of episodes back to back, the narrative flow can be really weird - plot points can get mentioned one episode, disappear for half a season and then reappear, complete, as a fait accompli, or get dropped altogether. Not only that, but there's almost zero dramatic tension. No world-changing events can ever really happen and no political crisis can be too damaging, to the point where in almost every single case resolution is anticlimactic.
And yet, it works. Not only that, but it works very well.
I think a big part of the why is down to the humour and the characters, and the fact that you can watch the show just for those things. Almost without exception the characters are charming, and intelligent, and (as a general rule) incredibly good people. That last point can be hard to swallow to start with (it certainly was for me), but it's really the crux of the show. The West Wing is about aspiration; We admire these people. We want to be these people (*cough*Sam*cough*) because they're better than ourselves, and because they live in a world that is better than our own. Even when they make mistakes, these characters are never going to lose their shine; as a viewer you have to accept that, and once you do, it's a joy.
For me, though, the most important thing about The West Wing - and the thing that makes it almost unique in current television - is that when you get down to it, it's about ideas. It's not really about the characters, and I've already said that it's sure as hell not about the plots - but the ideas are front and centre. As
immortalradical once pointed out, the characters are basically personifications of ideology. They exist so that they can debate with each other.Aaron Sorkin, the series creator who's written at least as many episodes of The West Wing as J Michael Straczynski wrote of Babylon 5 (but with significantly better dialogue) left the show at the end of season four. This means that not only have I now seen all the Sorkin-penned West Wing in existence, but I've seen all that there will be. It's hard not to think that with the departure of that single strong authorial voice, the series is going to suffer.
I hope it doesn't. I hope it goes on, just as before, for a good few years yet. But even if things do fall to pieces, those first four seasons are still a remarkable body of work. Everyone should watch them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 12:31 pm (UTC)I just got an email comment from you from the other day again. Weird.
All references to the size of your badger have been removed from this post.