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.

2007

As the seasons roll by The West Wing becomes all too obviously a fiction with not much regard for verisimilitude. The scriptwriters appear to be ticking all the boxes one by one. Even attempts at a rapprochement with Cuba!

The Gaza cliffhanger thing from season 5 is resolved quickly with Pres Bartlet solving the Israel/Palestine problem (if only) and Donna, of course, being OK. At one point we hear Josh Lyman saying, “wanker.” Do they know what it means? C J replacing Leo McGarry as Chief of Staff after his heart attack seemed unlikely. We also get an episode where magicians Penn and Teller “burn” a US flag in the White House and all hell breaks loose. [What is with this lot and their flag? They treat it like a sacred relic. It’s a symbol, nothing more. Certainly not an object worthy of veneration. It’s as if we were to reverence Buckingham Palace or something.]

On a trip to a summit in China the President’s multiple sclerosis rears its head as, for dramatic necessity, it had to at some time. He, of course, overcomes it all but the gradual degradation of his abilities is played on for the rest of the series.

The setting begins to shift to who is going to succeed him. Each second episode breaks off from the West Wing to focus on the election Primaries, both Democrat and Republican.

There was one episode where that irritating, and totally unconvincing, British ambassador appeared again in which the dynamic of US-UK relations was completely misrepresented. The rather touching idea was expressed that Britain would actually take military action somewhere (the RAF might bomb Iran no less!!!) without the say-so (or even acquiescence) of the US. It was as if they believed a UK government’s response to a “provocation” would go beyond words; that its resort of choice would be (as is theirs apparently) to force. In reality we wouldn’t let a soldier blow his nose without their approval. [And for the record, we didn’t send tanks on to the streets of Dublin after the IRA (by the way mostly US funded – where was the war on terror then?) carried out bombings in mainland Britain.]

As the seasons roll on The West Wing becomes more and more a case of USians reassuring themselves that, for all their problems, they are good and true. Even the Republican nominee for President (excellently played by Alan Alda) is a reasonable man and not an extreme right wing lunatic, though his “shines-his-own shoes” down-homeness was a bit overdone.

No cliffhanger as such this time except for some lingering stuff about a secret military space shuttle.

2006

The cliffhanger of President Bartlet’s daughter’s kidnapping which ended series 4 is swiftly resolved (in a highly unlikely fashion it has to be said, though it did conform to the conventions of narrative.) Then it’s back to business as usual with more unveiling of the intricacies of the US political system.

In an episode called Shutdown failure to agree a budget “on the hill” leads to governmental operations ceasing. (Why can’t they just carry on using a repeat of last year’s budget? Very odd.) There was a blatant filler episode called Access, a supposed fly-on-the-wall documentary about life in the West Wing under the Bartlet administration. We didn’t need this: we are/were flies on the wall already.

Notable by her absence in this series was Josh’s girlfriend, she of the undiscernible dialogue (who had been working for the First Lady in series 4.) This unexplained disappearance was peculiar. She was only the most egregious example of one of the irritants with The West Wing; either the sound is appalling or the actors too often are mumbling.

We have another cliffhanger series ending – this time to do with events in Gaza and Donna Moss facing a life threatening operation.

It’s still superior entertainment, though, and helps to pass the time on those nights when the fare on offer on British television is unappealing. (Which is to say, nearly every night.)

2005

This season covers the build up to and aftermath of Pres Bartlet’s re-election. In the course of it, as a result of a freak result in a congressional district where a candidate died during the campaign, Sam Seaborn is detached from the West Wing to stand in his place and is replaced as speech writer by Will Bailey. We also get a substitution of the pet republican by a new one – whose first day is eventful as he uncovers Vice-President John Hoynes’s love affair. This episode started with the revelation of Hoynes’s resignation and then flashed back to the circumstances which brought it about. The tension that could have been built up by this scenario was dissipated by the fact that we knew what was going to happen from the outset.

In this season the writers seem to have made a conscious decision to try to inject humour. Bailey’s appointment is followed by a mass resignation of subsidiary speech writers and so he has to make do with the help of interns whom he finds indistinguishable from each other. There is also some by-play with the glass window between his office and Toby Ziegler’s and with a pigeon that pecks at Donna Moss’s window.

The running theme is that Bartlet has ordered the assassination of a foreign leader and the ramifications of this (both domestic and foreign) are worked through – especially as the reporter Danny Concannon has sniffed out the story.

I wonder whether the writers felt they had to have Bartlet doing something underhand/constitutionally illegal – as opposed to his earlier concealment of his MS – in order to assuage criticism about him being too well intentioned to be true.

We have a cliff hanger at the end when the President’s daughter Zoey is abducted. He stands down temporarily to avoid a conflict of interest and, there being no Vice-President due to Hoynes’s resignation, the Speaker of the House (played by John Goodman) is sworn in as President. In a further illustration of the bizarreries of the US constitution he has to resign as Speaker first though. (Logically doesn’t that then render him no longer next in line?)

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.

2003

In a double episode at the beginning of this series the writers use the shooting at the end of series 1 as an opportunity to lever in the various characters’ back-story (though to be fair one of the incidents is referred to again later on.) Quite why President Bartlet’s aides were nearly all portrayed as failures before joining his campaign is a touch strange. The device, however, also enables the prolongation of tension (one of our heroes is in critical condition) during these two episodes where not much actually happens.

One of the principal characters from season 1, the youngish woman with the middle aged woman’s hairdo – played by Martha Kelly? – has disappeared without mention. A new one, a rabid Republican, has been introduced to show how nice and inclusive we all are. The President’s chief lawyer seems to be replaced during this series but we’re only told this after it’s happened and the new one has been advising him for half an episode.

The story arc of season 2 is mostly concerned with the ramifications of Pres Bartlet’s multiple sclerosis being hidden from the public who elected him; a long build up to the cliff hanger at the end of episode 22 where we have to wait for next season to find out if he’s decided to run again. Not really any suspense when you’re watching the box set as there are obviously more series to come.

I suppose this storyline is by analogy with Bill Clinton’s troubles; both with Ms Lewinski and Whitewater – a Grand Jury apparently awaits Bartlet.

There is still a lot of info dumping going on – too often with characters telling others things they should already know – but I’m certainly entertained by the minor arcana of the US constitution. (At least theirs is written down.)

One final thought. There are Gilbert and Sullivan buffs in the US? Who’d have thought it?

2002-2003.

This wasn’t a Christmas present but a loan from our not-quite-daughter-in-law. (It seems a bit ridiculous to call her our son’s girlfriend as they’ve been together for years and she’s now a grown woman rather than a teenager. Plus she feels like part of the family.)

The West Wing is slick and fast moving entertainment, well acted and engaging. However, watching the episodes in close succession probably shows up the flaws more than its designed weekly exposure would.

From a story telling perspective I noted the ever more inventive stratagems for dumping information on the viewer, most of which in written fiction would be regarded as clumsy.

[The British equivalent, Yes, Minister, got round this problem by assuming the Minister was ignorant – which is not unwarranted; Her Majesty’s Secretaries of States’ average time in post is measured in months rather than years; leaving them just enough time to muck things up before moving on to a new Department, where again they have to learn the ropes from scratch. US presidents – we shall ignore here Reagan, the second Bush and Calvin Coolidge – and their staffs are generally thought to be more rounded, however.]

In The West Wing, though, characters claim lack of knowledge so that they (and we) can be lectured. Strange enthusiasms are adumbrated. At a Town Hall meeting events inside the West Wing are related. (Don’t they have an Official Secrets Act?) We also have people acting in ways they surely would not, or having relationships that are unlikely solely for the purposes of story (arc.)

The series is, of course, revealing of the political system in the US – which undoubtedly has its strangenesses. At one point a husband seemed to have inherited his deceased wife’s place in Congress – at least until an impending election. In a close situation his was the crucial vote! If that’s what does happen when a Congressperson dies it’s a bizarre arrangement.

The programme is above all, though, an exercise in allowing Americans to feel good about themselves, which can be a bit off-putting. (There may be better angels in their nature but they quite often keep them hidden.)

The cliff hanger ending to the first series was a blow.

It means I’ll have to watch series 2, now.

Though I would have anyway.