Ramblememe January 20: what do you like about the West Wing?

Jan 20, 2014 20:39

A fine question from lost_spook, spoiled only by the fact that 'what don't you like' would be much shorter ( Read more... )

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Comments 11

comlodge January 20 2014, 21:31:27 UTC
Damn, you make me almost sorry I've never watched the show. Sounds like it is a good one.

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brutti_ma_buoni January 20 2014, 21:59:27 UTC
It totally is! Well worth picking up and getting absorbed, sometime when you've got about a year of free TV time...

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comlodge January 21 2014, 11:34:38 UTC
Lol. I don't actually watch tv but I'll put it on my list for future series to look out for.

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beer_good_foamy January 20 2014, 21:47:59 UTC
Yeah, basically all of this.

And yes to how they removed her from the series [I'm still trying not to spoil people for this, good grief], because it's not fair. But sometimes it happens.

Still probably the greatest season finale in TV history.

Will. Just for a few episodes, he's the greatest introduced character ever.

"What else can you do?!"
"I didn't know I could do that..."

... Kate. Because my god, she's gorgeous and gets no props for it, but is allowed to be brilliant and scary instead.

KATE: [to the Canadian Ambassador] Ambassador, listen carefully. An hour ago, I reviewed the United States contingency plan to invade your country.
WILL BAILEY: There's a contingency plan...?
KATE: 1789, amended in 1815. The calligraphy is beautiful. And if one more deal is floated in this room, I'm gonna ask DoD to reactive it.

Such a great show. Damn, I miss it. The Newsroom just doesn't come anywhere near.

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brutti_ma_buoni January 20 2014, 22:03:25 UTC
It's Charlie, with me, trying to tell the President. "No... she's dead." That simple. (And I love the actress who played her in flashback, making her hella sexy and formidable, so you could see why Bartlet loved her. Which he absolutely did.)

Will's first eps in California, for the dead candidate ("there are worse things than being dead"), and then that double ep with the interns, I was *so* excited about him. And I also enjoy him with Russell, giving credibility to incompetence, and wondering why. But it's not cracklingly perfect like his first eps.

Oh Kate. That Canada ep is priceless, but I also buy her as someone with a very dark past. Which is quite something considering how little she often has to work with.

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cassiopeia7 January 20 2014, 22:10:41 UTC
Hee. I -- and, I suspect a lot of other Americans -- learned a lot about laws, politics and big issues from that show.

... and, obviously, Josh. Because he's a dick. But we can still sympathise with him. And yet we really do know he's a dick.

Indeed. It took me nearly FOUR SEASONS to stop despising Josh. Yup, he can be sympathized with, but . . . dick. Grade-A variety.

Leo was a double hurt, if you know what I mean.

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brutti_ma_buoni January 20 2014, 22:36:39 UTC
Oh, I loved Josh in the pilot. But he is also a dick, in so many ways. Takes a hell of a series to choose such a protagonist.

Oh, Leo. :-( Real life just too close to the story. They did magnificently to close out any kind of arc after that.

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slaymesoftly January 20 2014, 23:26:13 UTC
West Wing has to make anyone's list of the best TV shows of all time, for all the reasons you listed. And of course Aaron Sorkin's dialogue which allows people to be brilliant on a regular basis. And that intelligent, passionate people are interesting and fun to be around.

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lokifan January 21 2014, 14:08:51 UTC
Ah yes, TWW! CJ!!! Kate! Mrs Landingham! And I learnt a lot about the US too. I first heard of it when my teacher told us to watch it for the UK/US comparison module we were doing as part of our Government & Politics A Level.

And yes, I adore Amy - such a nightmare and so incredibly fabulous. And Abbey! And Charlie! *flails over everyone* Oh, and Leo... yes, I love your description of him. And yeah, I love that they lose a lot and things go wrong and have unintended consequences, and that they thought they'd own the place and then found it didn't work like that. For all the swelling music they did well with realism on the whole, I think.

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