Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off... relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman makes up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The second series of The West Wing takes up where the first one left off and, a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism apart, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs [show more]
There isn't enough that can said about The West Wing. With the tv series well beyond the 5th series in the UK, it is well worth having them to watch over and over again. With a cast of such talent, direction of genius proportions and a script as complex, inspiring and gripping as that of the West Wing, it is not a surprise that series after series have resulted in numerous awards.
Series 1, in the grand scheme of things, sets the scene, and introduces the audience to the characters. The beauty of the West Wing is the relationships that these characters have with each other and the way they run the American Government. Episodes range from personal moral dilemmas to international crisis'. Martin Sheen is not only believable as President of the United States, but he almost makes you wish that President Bartlett was indeed the most powerful man in the world. His co-actors, and leadership staff are not only brilliant at bringing alive the seriousness of running a country, but are outstanding at presenting their humanity through humour, romance and a real sense of trying to do what is right for the country.
Every episode combines all of these, and never fails to inspire me in some way - many have left me with a tear in my eye and that is even on a fifth or sixth viewing! An excellent series, an excellent buy to watch again and again, and still find new things going on
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