The West Wing

20 years old, and yet at the same time from a thousand years ago, the first season has a quip-quip-quip aspect that makes some scenes feel like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (same era), and there are komedy moments that a Doctor Who DVD extra would be embarrassed by. Martin Sheen has the skill to sell the komedy in a way that most of the other regulars can't - Rob Lowe makes me cringe when he tries, Bradley Whitford is on another level of smug, and Allison Janney isn't nearly as funny as the show wants us to think she is. There's also a level of sentimentality that makes a lot of it feel very... soap opera-y... and the music (including the Hoff Bless America title sequence) only adds to this.

But when it's at its best the political drama is exceptional, and this makes the series highly watchable. If anyone knows of a British series that's as good as this, I'd like to know about it - House of Cards wasn't long enough, and other than that I think you have to look at comedies Yes Minister and The Thick of It to see our political system dramatised half as well.

The second season is a step up from the first in terms of quality, especially the run of six-or-seven at the end of the season with the 'arc' plotline of the President's illness gradually being revealed to the other regulars and then to the public, and is up there with some of the best TV drama evar.
Oliver Platt makes several guest appearances in which he steals every scene he's in, but it is Martin Sheen who absolutely nails the season finale - the season cliffhanger is him doing his best Avon impression as he faces scandal and imminent impeachment... and he smiles. Purr.

Then, by season three, we're past the sea-change in the world that was the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, and you can sense this series move from the old world order to the new, as the terrorist threats to the President and our all-American heroes shift from the right-wing gun-nut racist survivalist types who want to kill Charlie for being black, to the Islamic fundamentalists who want to kill every American because they... well, they just hate freedom and democracy over there, what other reasons could they possibly have? Mew.

From a distance of over 15 years (and from a much worse reality than the series exists in) the writing of the show reveals a lot about the American mindset of the era - "America First" is hardly something new, as all the main characters treat the lives of Americans as simply being worth more than those of anyone from another country. Where would the rest of the world be if it weren't for the Good Old USA coming to sort everything out for them? Never mind the attitudes towards the Chinese, the Arabs, the Koreans or the Russians, the French get mocked for being cowards to the extent that it is practically a running gag. And this is by the ultra-liberal (by USA standards) good guys! The only regular British character is a stereotypical drunken, womanising lord, and there aren't any cats!

There remains some excellent dramatic episodes of television, though the highs of the tail end of season two seem gone for good throughout seasons three through five. But at least most of the cast seem better at the komedy bits now - Rob Lowe gets sidelined before leaving the cast altogether during season four, and the exception is Allison Janney who is badly in need of more dramatic plots (which she would finally get in season six) to play to her strengths.

The guest cast also continues to be impressive - John Goodman is in a few episodes as the Acting-President who steps in during a crisis, though it is his doggy who steals the scenes. Gary Cole is good as the replacement Vice President, walking the line between smarter-than-he-seems and just aware of his limitations. Matthew Perry (one of the overhyped "Friends") even puts in a good, and completely straight, turn as a White House lawyer.

The producers seem unafraid of shaking up the core cast from time to time - Rob Lowe's departure was the first of these. It's not exactly The Sandbaggers, but it helps give the series a bit of an edge beyond plot-of-the-week. Then as the show moves into its sixth season, there's an earthquake in the cast dynamic, as well as the introduction of new characters, making things fresh again just when it was needed.

Season six also brings us the Israel-Palestine-peace plot, which may very well be hopelessly naive and wishy-washy, but makes for some very good hours of TV drama. Seeing President Bartlet (or President Barkbork as the doggys have taken to calling him) go against the demands of the military, both political parties, 80% of the American public (so we're told) and most of his own staff in order to do what he knows is right... it's uplifting stuff. The world of The West Wing may not be an intrinsically better one than ours, but there are better people in charge of it. (Americans, obviously.)

The latter part of the season gets into topical territory as the parties choose their candidates for the next presidential election. Alan "Hawkeye" Alda is introduced as the moderate Republican who gets their nomination - this makes peace in the Middle-East look realistic by comparison - and becomes the sort-of 'end boss' for the series by being a credible threat to the Democrats.

Facing him is the Obamaesque Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits, with Whitford's Josh Lyman leaving the White House to help him get elected. Whitford gets just a bit less smug with each passing season, but never quite escapes it completely. His role changing is just one of several, with almost every main character having to adjust to the new dynamic set off by Leo's heart attack and the President's increasing physical frailty - shots in the arm the series very much needed and almost a return to the highest highs of season two.

The final season is overshadowed by the real-world death of actor John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry. I don't know how much this changed their plans for the season, but it seems to me that Leo's death was an essential component of the story and would probably have happened anyway - though not in exactly the same way. This is because the main arc of the season is the presidential election, eventually won by good-guy Matt Santos with his campaign having been run by main character Josh Lyman. In winning the election for the Democrats, Josh finally steps out from the shadow of his long-term mentor and father-figure Leo (who was to President Barkbork what Josh is now to Santos). Leo's death at the very hour of triumph is thus symbolic of the old giving way to the new, and a far more powerful symbol in a TV drama than the final episode where Barkbork surrenders the reins of power to President Santos.

The choice of Alan Alda's character Senator Arnold Vinick is inspired as the Republican presidential candidate, as in the world of The West Wing only a moderate Republican can be a suitable final opponent for our Democrat heroes - we had already seen them soundly defeat a more traditional (George W Bush-inspired) Republican in the previous election back in season four. The return of Bruno Gianelli (Ron Silver, a magnetic presence on screen) to run Vinick's campaign against Santos, when we had already seen how effective an operator he is - he was instrumental in helping Barkbork win his landslide victory when on 'our' side - only raised Vinick's credibility as a threat even further.

If seasons six and seven are a great introduction to Santos and 'the Santos administration' that the show could, had they wanted, have run with for further seasons, it is much less so as a farewell to the outgoing Barkbork administration - you know, the one that contains most of the main characters we've been following for the past seven years (their time, and only our time if watching at broadcast speed). The main arc for the final season is the one about the leaking of the secret military space shuttle, and it is poor for two reasons. First is that it is thematically little more than a re-run of the President's MS-disclosure and investigation from season three, basically going over old ground. We got an encore from Oliver Platt, so at least some good came of that.

Second is that they seem to have changed their minds about who did it between seasons six and seven - at first it is made clear to us that C.J. is the leaker - the episode in question closes on a slow pan around her as she is alone in a room wrestling with emotions - a clear televisual signalling of her guilt. Then in season seven Toby confesses to the crime, and seems ready to accept several years in prison for something he didn't do in order to stop the investigation from reaching the other characters and potentially damaging the presidential campaign. But by the end of the season it seems as though he is supposed to actually have done it - why else would the President be so hesitant about pardoning him? Barkbork is a clever manny - if Toby was covering for someone else, Barkbork should have figured that out sooner or later. I can only conclude that either it was to try to inject some small amount of peril into what is otherwise a bittersweet tea-and-medals final episode, or else Richard Schiff (who played Toby) must have at some point annoyed the writers.

The West Wing is often criticised for being overly optimistic and naive about politics. While that is to some extent justified, it is no more so than a typical TV detective series where each and every episode concludes with the case being solved and the right manny being arrested for the crime. There are, of course, a lot of TV detective series, running the gamut in terms of realism from Columbo to Taggart. That doesn't mean Columbo is bad.

But there are few TV series that are purely political dramas, so it feels unfair to criticise The West Wing when there isn't the same spectrum. In the UK we tend to go in for political comedies rather than dramas, so we have no equivalent to The West Wing (Number Ten?) and so must look to something like this to give us a flavour of what it is like, however rose-tinted the view is.