Every so often, I start the DVD player that's in this laptop, and I play one of the episodes of The West Wing. The disc set that I have here is Season One, and the set that's downstairs is Season Two; I don't think any of the second season jumped the shark, and I know that none of these did. I watch because I am fascinated by the eloquence of the scripts. They aren't realistic, but they're what I want the political process to be.
The episode I'm watching at the moment has to do with the nomination of a Supreme Court justice. Unlike the present president (and, to be fair, possibly many others), the president in TWW is not primarily concerned with the political reliability of his potential nominee. Instead, he's interested in the nominee's beliefs regarding the right to privacy; upon finding that the nominee does not feel that there is a guarantee regarding privacy, because such is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, he is disturbed. There are a series of short segments in the episode where serious people discuss whether such a belief is a bar to membership on that Court.
I know that the show is fiction, aimed at people with my political bent. But it's fiction that I really, really like.
4 comments:
We're on a West wing marathon! We're on Season 5, so far. :-)
I'd say we watch 3 or 4 episodes a day: it became a bit of an issue when we were getting close to the end of Season 3, and didn't have 4, 5 or 6. Fortunately, Barnes & Noble had a "buy 2, get 1 free" thing going, so we got those three. Now we're concerned about Season 7...
The writing is excellent - and it is, apparently, quite an accurate depiction of life in the West Wing! Yes, it's got the dramatic license (something has to happen, every episode), but according to some articles I read, it is very much like that in the White House. The current one excepting, of course.
We won't know what to do when we reach the end. Maybe turn on the telly? :-)
Carolyn Ann
I started getting tired of it when silly stuff would happen -- such as the feud between CJ and Charlie. Perhaps that could happen, but I'd like not to think so. But in the first couple of seasons, the writing's still tight and crisp. That means a lot to me. And it really is a classroom -- I did learn things about the structure and functioning of government. For example, you've got to always have a perky intern around. Who knew? Outside of Clinton 1, that is..(g)
For Christmas I bought myself the complete West Wing DVD set. I love, love, love this show!!!
We're on season 3 now, and I know the ep you're referring to.
There's no way I could pick a favorite of the regular episodes, but I have to say that the one they did after 9-11 was incredibly brilliant!
C
You know, I'm glad to hear you say that. Some people sneered at that particular one. Maybe it was not the routine walkin/talkin kind of show, but I liked it. And I needed something like that...
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