West Winging It

In my ongoing effort to stay awake during the wee small hours of the morning when there's nothing to do but make sure that sleeping teenagers are sleeping, I've started re-watching The West Wing, thanks in no small part to it being one of the few series that the library has a complete set of.

Like Sports Night before it, I just love listening to these people talk--I could watch this show every moment I'm awake and be perfectly content (particularly the early seasons).

There are, however, a few problems with the show, and as I go through the DVD's I'll mention a few of them here. Not talking necc. about internal problems (tho they are there) but thinking of it's effect on the culture as a whole.

First and foremost, The West Wing was very, very good at selling it's "The Government is our Savior" message. See, for example, the State of the Union episodes in Season 1 where Toby rebels against the idea of saying that the end of Big Government is here. No, what we need is a bigger government!

Even worse, actually, is how smart, convicted and passionate all the characters are. Too many viewers think that it reflects reality, the show feels real, people in Washington must be like that, too. Sorkin characters are always smart and passionate people of conviction. Not everyone in the government is that smart, convicted and passionate. Period. Just impossible. No human being can maintain that level of passion for that long. Nor are there that many people of conviction in Washington--for long, anyway. As for smart? No human is as smart as an Aaron Sorkin character--Sorkin isn't as smart as one of his characters (no way would Leo, Toby, Sam, Josh, Donna, Will, Danny [Rydell, Concannon or Tripp], Casey, Jeremy, Dana, or Natalie would come up with a show about a comedy series that didn't feature...funny things).