The West Wing: Reflections

Last Thursday, Dave and I watched the final episode of The West Wing. It was quite a fitting way to spend a patriotic fourth of July evening. The show was on air from 1999 to 2006, but I (Emily) started watching the show in January upon the recommendation of my friend Sara. It turned out that a few other friends were also fans of the show and the local library had the full series. Josiah was nursing at the time and I was eager to find something good to watch while feeding him around the clock. This was such a winner! Here are some of my favorite things about The West Wing:

1. I learned a whole lot about politics. The show spans the two terms of President Bartlett, including the campaign of the next president and flashbacks to the Barlett campaign. They have done an episode on almost everything- there are peace talks at Camp David, an attempted assassination, a transfer of power, news cycles, war, Christmas, etc.

2. I now better understand the news. One of the neatest things has been seeing what I see on The West Wing in real life. I have two particular examples. (1) The evening after I watched an episode on the state of the union the real state of the union took place. I never fathomed that they polled paragraphs of the speech for content and delivery, that they have people use a dial to rate their response to the speech in real time, or that they spends so many months designing the speech/agenda. I listened to that year's state of the union so differently knowing that every words was intentional and fully vetted by hundreds of offices. (2) Recently there has been a lot of buzz in the news about a young man who leaked classified information. The night that story broke we watched Nightly News on NBC and I really thought I was watching the Toby Ziegler leak. Everything Brian Williams said about subpoenas and which departments were investigating sounded like verbatim West Wing. 

3. It is fairly clean. Since it is a story about politicians, they don't do much outside the moral right. And when they do they don't get away with it. They lose their job. They go to jail. They get what's coming without any waiting around. It is primarily set in an office, as well, so there isn't really any immodest dress or actions. A show like that is hard to find!

4. There is character development. There are seven seasons, which makes it feel like reading a good book. All but one regular is still a regular in the last episode. In addition, they find a way to use many of the same characters throughout the seasons for little roles that are in and out of the plot. You get to know and love these people and care about how their lives are unfolding. On this note, the series has a very satisfying conclusion. :)

5. It is fast and humorous. I always enjoyed the fast pace and wit of Gilmore Girls, and The West Wing is definitely on par. At first it might leave your head spinning, but once you get the lingo down and get to know the characters it is super fun. And they have such a keen sense of humor. President Barlett can get away with one liners like none other!

6. Dave would watch it with me. I like that it was a show we could/would watch together. That is a unique thing!