West Wing (1999 - 2006) Deserved 26 Emmys overall, 4 Best Drama Series Emmys, and 9 Season One Emmys!The show is about the leadership of the USA government, and the immediate staff supporting the USA President. Capable, heroic, tough people every one.They have to be.The almost impossible job of leading and supervising the USA Federal Government is given to one man or woman every 4 years. That person must do his/ her job carefully and make no major mistakes.The story of his immediate helpers is what West Wing (1999 - 2006) is all about.Who are they? What are their problems? What is their background? What drives them? How to they relate to each other? When problems and disagreements regarding philosophy, policy, politics, interpersonal relations, morality, and self-interest occur, how are these problems/ disagreements resolved, how do they play out?Big questions all, and the West Wing (1999 - 2006/ 115 episodes) takes 'em all on at high speed and with almost superhuman energy. The portrait of the USA Federal Government leadership and high level leadership staff shown in West Wing is worth seeing, all 115 episodes of it.Cost (in 2017) for a used Complete Set from Amazon.Com is roughly $70. A bargain price considering the quality and information benefits the show supplies, all done in a manner which is visually attractive and well done dramatically.The USA Presidency has been centerstage in USA media at least since the USA Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the biggest soap opera in the history of USA show business, which the USA Presidency has always emphatically been.But its a soap opera important for all USA citizens to keep up with.Get it, watch it, forgive its sortcomings. It takes on a problem of describing accurately the mysterious USA leadership system, democratic leadership which replaced aristocratic leadership in the 18th century for the first time in world history.The USA government and leadership system is the longest continually operating democracy ("leadership and political decisions by nose count") in world history.It continues into current (2017) times, and is in perpetual crisis. The West Wing (1999 - 2006/ 115 episodes) TV series gives an interesting and palatable, even optimistic examination of this crisis. No TV show or feature movie to date has done a better job with the important subject of how USA Federal Government leadership works, or what it faces. --------------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG actor and movie historian. More about Tex Allen on IMDb.Com. 118 IMDb.Com movie reviews written to date (December 25, 2017). -----------------------------------

I can understand that viewers would enjoy a well written, entertaining show. It's usually a bit suspenseful. A great cast. But what's galling is the preoccupation with abject jingoist sentiments and imperialist revisionist history in nearly every other scene. But then, that's also completely predictable for U.S. television, I suppose. With each military crisis or conflict, the entirety of U.S. history and complicity in anything ever is completely ignored. It might have been more M*A*S*H like in legacy if the writing had gone deeper, beyond refraining jingoist and imperialist lie after lie after myth after myth. For example in season three the Israel/ Palestine conflict is addressed with the same old tired b.s. as IF the IDF weren't regularly massacring Palestinians (to this day as well), as if the house demolitions weren't occurring (and ongoing to this day). When if any of the reality of the now 50+ years of illegal, brutal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, if any of the actually occurring apartheid and ethnic cleansing had been addressed, this series would have seemed more real. That's one example but you get the picture, same w/ crises on this show involving Mexico, Haiti, etc. anywhere the U.S. has undermined local economies to destroy the society and make other places mere colonies of U.S. empire....is painted in this series as "evil," etc.... quite shallow and very disappointing in this regard. In comparison (and I suppose I compare it to M*A*S*H because the cast is great and the writing is good, etc. and it has to do w/ U.S. government/ military in a kind of dramatic way)....in comparison M*A*S*H (t.v. show; not the movie) although more of a "comedy," allowed for more reality to enter in. For example, addressing the jingoism of "Colonel Flag" and "Major Frank Burns," and addressing the hardships suffered by the local population as a result of U.S. military actions, even giving the "enemy" soldiers a very human face, addressing McCarthyism, etc. The legacy of this series could have been more important. But now, it's on the historical shelves alongside pro-imperialist "rah-rah! USA!" type shows. Disappointing. For example season 3 episode 19 is so full of self-congratulatory jingoism that it strains credulity. In addition to reoccurring racist appropriation and anti-African sentiments within the script. In fact, this show is racist af in many instances including C.J. getting "upset" over Affirmative Action (which by the way benefits we white women moreso than anyone else) and literally says her father was "passed over" b/c "less qualified Black women" got the jobs he was hoping to get. Just wow. How did someone actually think that was appropriate? Other examples of thinly veiled racism and anti-African sentiment occur throughout the series, but such things are fairly ubiquitous in U.S. television for the most part, so this series is no exception. And I can't tell if the show about "crazy Zionists get upset that map from the 18th century didn't include the non-extant Israel" was satire or for real. Just amazing; literally an historical map is "banned" b/c it "doesn't recognize Israel" which didn't exist at that time. This show is really good at one thing: showing w/ accuracy how insidiously heinous liberals are, and how full of nonsense our notions about so- called "freedom" and "democracy" (i.e. killing innocents the globe over for centuries) are; and how this is sadly taught to each new generation.Season 5, episode 21, "Gaza." The unapologetic Zionism and anti- Palestinian sentiment; forever painting the oppressed Palestinians as "terrorists" while abjectly ignoring the never-ending aerial bombardments upon the imprisoned people of Gaza, the illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank by Israel, the home demolitions, destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, fuel stations, water supply inflicted upon the Palestinian population by Israel and IDF. One character says flippantly: "Displaced? Palestinians moved what~ 15, 20 miles?" wow, yeah; and some to the sea and their death; and not "moved;" forcibly displaced, just wow re: the Nakba. And the other character says: "You know after 50 years, one option might be to 'get over it." Just effing wow, what the hell? Just "get over" the forcible displacement of an entire people from their homes; and the ongoing terror launched against them by IDF w/ U.S. funding? It's still going on; that's why you don't "get over it." And this episode centers its plot around the a white whitehouse aid who is injured, possibly killed in a car bombing; but devotes not one second to the massive and indiscriminate, deadly violence unleashed upon Gaza and the West bank decade, after decade, after decade, continuing during the airing of this show and up to the present day. This is just one example of the gross jingoism and white nationalism woven into each episode of this show. Again, I know, not surprising but it might have aimed higher, ala M*A*S*H.

I finally watched my fist episode of The West Wing a full decade after the last episodes aired. AS I look over the reviews here on IMDb it is heartening to see how this show was generally well thought of by many, many people and for good reason. When you compare it to anything on TV back in that era, especially on the big networks, it is infinitely superior. I can't think of any program that was or is more intelligent. Sorkin evolved and made even better TV with The Newsroom which is slicker and funnier than The West Wing but it doesn't top his earlier effort in intelligence.I have to chime in on a few things. First of all, the show is, at least at times, mercilessly corny. Some of Martin Sheen's down-homesy speeches were tough to watch but there were moments of brilliance in the show's sermonizing. Some of the women actors are dreadful in my opinion and the romances were childish and seemed positively pre-pubescent. And would it have been asking to much to kill off the daughter early on? She is just so awful.A friend of mine practically begged me to watch TWW during the nadir of the Bush administration. He said it's about the only thing that kept him sane, a fictitious account of a better America than the one we were inhabiting at the time. I somehow think that the Obama administration made the people on this enlightened program look average in comparison and an actual documentary of the Obama years would make great TV. Of course, as I write this we move into the surreal world of a Trump presidency and I shudder to think about the trolls that will fill his White House (or Trump Tower).To all those who complain of the liberal slant to TWW: get over it. You guys do talk radio with blowhards like Rush and others while liberal make entertaining and intelligent TV programs like this one.

The West Wing is the best politically based TV show to ever air. It triumphs over the award winning House of Cards in every way imaginable. The show centers around a base of political characters with few changes. We get to see the rise and maturity of characters right there, episode to episode. With outstanding performances from Martin Sheen and Bradley Whitford as Jed Bartlet and Josh Lymann the void left in season 7 by the untimely passing of John Spencer really carried the show over the finish line. The West Wing sets out to document two full presidential terms and does so with class and ease. Overcoming on screen and off screen trials and tribulation you're with the cast the whole way. If it's Jed Barlets MS or the very real passing of John Spencer you're there with the cast. You rise with them and you fall with them, the making of any good show is just that. The West Wing is a real masterclass. Despite the rise and fall of Aaron Sorkins personal life throughout the West Wing it never lost its charm, its class or its wit. It is one of the few consistently good TV shows with arguably no bad season.Sure, we would of all liked to see the next 8 years, the trials and tribulations of Josh Lymann, Donna Moss and President Santos but it ended perfectly. It was a happy ending for the characters, one that we were never sure was going to come.