The West Wing

The West Wing. This is a clever political centered show that was first introduced in 1999. The show had a total of 7 Seasons with a total of 156 episodes. Each episode is about 42 minutes long. The show centers around the Democratic Presidency of Josiah Bartlet who is played by the amazing Martin Sheen. Who unfortunately is the father of well known drug-crazed and most likely schizophrenic Charlie Sheen. Most of the screen time is of the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House. This area is used for political meetings, speech writing, press conferences and a whole lot of yelling. The real main character I would say is the Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman played by Bradley Whitford. Most episodes involve a problem in which generally only he can "fix". Which almost always ends up with him yelling "Donna!" and sending her off to do the actual work. The show was originally created by Aaron Sorkin. Who is currently working on another politically based show call Newsroom. Which by the way is also very clever and extremely funny at times.

The show has mild language, very little violence, no gore that i can remember, a fantastic group of actors and dialog, all kinds of political views which may not be understood by a younger individual. Very little to no nudity.

The show has a pretty standard format for the first 4 seasons. Problem, failed attempt to fix it, moral/ethical dilemma, and often ends in some sort of solution and then a speech or a press conference to tell the media how awesome they did. The show has the occasional 2-part episodes and often leaves the end of seasons with cliffhangers. The show often deals with intense and often emotional moments which tend to center around yelling and stress. It also discusses various viewpoints on some major world-wide concerns such as nuclear powers, oil distribution and control, weaponized diseases, genocide, and even at one point what would happen if the entire US Government stopped. 

The show started to change in Season 5 and on through Season 7. Characters left the White House and new characters joined, a multitude of actors came and went as time rolled on. The show started showing less of President Bartlet, as well as less of some of our favorite characters. There were full episodes where we never saw some of them. By the time Season 6 came around the show changed completely. Josh Lyman left the White House and started into the Presidential Campaign trail again. He found the next president as he would say. This created a lot of strain between characters, many of whom felt betrayed and forgotten. Pretty much all of Season 6 is about trying to get Santos to head the democratic party in the upcoming election. Meanwhile Bartlet is trying to find and create his "legacy". Then we come to season 7. The least viewed season of the entire series. Now that Santos won the Democratic Ballet, he now had the road to beating the Republican Candidate Vinick who is played by the extremely talented Alan Alda. Who as i am sure you know is best known for his bravery and skill in his surgical work in the Korean War. This season to tell the truth was pretty bad. All except one absolutely amazing episode The Debate. This episode was of a true and realistic debate between Santos and Vinick. Except the debate is how debates in the real world should be. No time limits, and more specifically no fillabustering to get out of answering a question. With both sides being able to actually talk and truly debate the issues. This episode was not only spectacular in the acting and the believably of the actors, but also in the fact that the episode WAS FILMED LIVE. These two actors Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits were performing this legendary hour long episode on live television in 2005. Its one thing for an actor to be passionate and believable in a show, but to carry that character flawlessly live is stunning. This singular episode became my instant favorite. If i was to rate just this episode, my scale would break. Additionally during the production of season 7 one of the actors John Spencer unfortunately died. And as a tribute to him and his amazing work they created a special episode which still worked with the story line of most of his final filmed moments and scenes. Many of which were going to be spread over quite a few other episodes.

All in all this was an enjoyable show with many hmmm moments. Definitely a show that makes you think and is still quite applicable to today's government. While the show did start to go downhill in the later seasons it still stayed pretty true to its standards and commitment. All in all i would have to rate the entire series of The West Wing as an 8 out of 11.