A Son of the Rock

2004

The first episode is a one-off – a September 11^th memorial special dealing with terrorism. The intro at the beginning, where all our favourite characters give a little spiel in support of a September 11^th charity, may have been fine at the time but now seems a bit mawkish.

During the special itself Sam Seaborne asserts that terrorism never works. I’m loth to mention this as I don’t want to gave encouragement to any mad, murdering so-and-sos out there; but in fact it has. Israel was established in the late 1940s following a campaign of bombings/shootings etc by the Stern Gang and the Irgun. I suspect this fact would not have suited the mind set of those writing the episode, though, as Israel was put forward as the exemplar of a society/country daily threatened by terrorism. In saying this I do not for a moment argue with the main thrust of this special – that terrorism is barbaric and pluralism is worth defending. In a later episode Toby Ziegler says, with regard to the Arab world, “They’ll like us when we win.” Notwithstanding my earlier sentence, I beg leave to doubt that.

The thrust of this series is on the ramifications of President Bartlet’s MS having been made public, the subsequent congressional hearings and the (re)election primaries. Our tame Republican from season 2 makes only token appearances; some new characters belong to a firm of spin doctors/campaign directors. As the series goes on, Rob Lowe, the actor playing Sam Seaborne, increasingly wears an air of perpetual puzzlement, like a faithful, trusting dog suddenly betrayed.

The caricature of an aristocrat they have as the UK ambassador to Washington refers to the country he represents as England. I would have thought no one in his position would make such a gaffe. Moreover even such a stereotype upper class Englishman would surely know that the malt whisky – and the island where it is produced – is not pronounced Iss-lay but rather Isle-a. (That may have been a double bluff if the writers knew but didn’t think their viewers would – or they could have been suggesting the ambasador thought the person he was speaking to was ignorant.) The US military chief (Fitz) also refers to the “British” and French armies at Agincourt – three hundred years too early for the word in quotes, I’m afraid – and says in a comment on international law and the presence or absence of war that those who laid down their arms in those times were well treated. Henry V ordered prisoners killed at that very battle! Okay it shocked his contemporaries and those on his side who were looking forward to the ransoms; but it did happen.

The series is clearly only an entertainment. I get no sense that this is anything like a real West Wing, whether Bush’s or Clinton’s (or Obama’s.) Everybody’s motives are too pure.