A Son of the Rock

2008

While the series is dramatic and at times makes very good TV the producers could probably be sued under the Trades Descriptions Act. In large part, the West Wing this is not, as it deals mostly with the campaign to elect Bartlet’s successor as President and the transition period which follows the election. However, what this strategy does do is avoid staleness. Any hint of claustrophobia, that we are too restricted to the White House, is thereby nullified.

While the programme is as always an ensemble piece there are two wonderful performances from Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits as the Presidential candidates in the episode featuring the television debate. On a sadder note the death of perennial cast member John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, casts a long shadow over this final series.

The writers undoubtedly nail that self-righteousness that a lot of Republicans seem to ooze, an inner certainty that cannot be brooked. In this regard their making the Republican candidate not a God-botherer and a more or less freedom of conscience man is strange. It’s not so much USians puffing themselves up as showing how they might be if they could only access the better angels of their nature.

Looking at the run of the West Wing as a whole, characters appear, disappear and reappear seemingly without logic but probably in a reflection of the availability of the actors concerned.

But it is of course first and foremost entertainment – albeit tinged with the US penchant for sentimentality. And it illustrates the old adage that all political careers end in failure.